Burning Daylight
Jan 2015 · Mondial
Ebook
220
Pages
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About this ebook
To read any of London's work is to be in the presence of his own biography; few authors have drawn so freely upon their own experiences for literary material. All his characters, including Burning Daylight, are Jack London in masquerade or Jack London as he dreamed of himself. "Burning Daylight" might be called "Miscellaneous Adventures in the Life of a Superman" - his way of celebrating his birthday, his record trip with the Yukon Mail, his fight with starvation, his discovery of Klondike gold, his adventure with the stock market, his sensational hold up of the New York brokers etc. All of London's leading characters are of this type supermen, superwomen, dreams of their creator, half real, half mythical. All of them are blonds even to the golden degree. They have blue or gray eyes and bodies that are perfect. His men have muscles that creep and knot like living things and skins like silk. Burning Daylight has that super-strength "that is the dower of but one human in millions". (Fred Lewis Pattee)
About the author
One of the pioneers of 20th century American literature, Jack London specialized in tales of adventure inspired by his own experiences. London was born in San Francisco in 1876. At 14, he quit school and became an "oyster pirate," robbing oyster beds to sell his booty to the bars and restaurants in Oakland. Later, he turned on his pirate associates and joined the local Fish Patrol, resulting in some hair-raising waterfront battles. Other youthful activities included sailing on a seal-hunting ship, traveling the United States as a railroad tramp, a jail term for vagrancy and a hazardous winter in the Klondike during the 1897 gold rush. Those experiences converted him to socialism, as he educated himself through prolific reading and began to write fiction. After a struggling apprenticeship, London hit literary paydirt by combining memories of his adventures with Darwinian and Spencerian evolutionary theory, the Nietzchean concept of the "superman" and a Kipling-influenced narrative style. "The Son of the Wolf"(1900) was his first popular success, followed by 'The Call of the Wild" (1903), "The Sea-Wolf" (1904) and "White Fang" (1906). He also wrote nonfiction, including reportage of the Russo-Japanese War and Mexican revolution, as well as "The Cruise of the Snark" (1911), an account of an eventful South Pacific sea voyage with his wife, Charmian, and a rather motley crew. London's body broke down prematurely from his rugged lifestyle and hard drinking, and he died of uremic poisoning - possibly helped along by a morphine overdose - at his California ranch in 1916. Though his massive output is uneven, his best works - particularly "The Call of the Wild" and "White Fang" - have endured because of their rich subject matter and vigorous prose.
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