Jack London: A Writer's Fight for a Better America

by Cecelia Tichi

Overview

Jack London (1876-1916) found fame with his wolf-dog tales and sagas of the frozen North, but Cecelia Tichi challenges the long-standing view of London as merely a mass-market producer of potboilers. A onetime child laborer, London led a life of poverty in the Gilded Age before rising to worldwide acclaim for stories, novels, and essays designed to hasten the social, economic, and political advance of America. In this major reinterpretation of London's career, Tichi examines how the beloved writer leveraged his written words as a force for the future.

Tracing the arc of London's work from the late 1800s through the 1910s, Tichi profiles the writer's allies and adversaries in the cities, on the factory floor, inside prison walls, and in the farmlands. Thoroughly exploring London's importance as an artist and as a political and public figure, Tichi brings to life a man who merits recognition as one of America's foremost public intellectuals.

The enhanced e-book edition of Jack London features significant archival motion picture footage.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781469622675
Publisher:	The University of North Carolina Press
Publication date:	09/09/2015
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	304
File size:	98 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Cecelia Tichi is William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of English and professor of American studies at Vanderbilt University. She is author of Civic Passions, Exposes and Excess, and Embodiment of a Nation.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

This book is a brilliant integration of the age and its literatures, reaching deeply into London's significance as an artist and political and public figure of his era. Cecelia Tichi has created a stunning contribution to Jack London studies.—Jeanne Reesman, University of Texas at San Antonio



Cecelia Tichi reflects Jack London's astounding energy and emphasizes the importance of journalism to the essential drive that defines him. This is a valuable and rewarding work.—Joseph Flora, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Editorial Reviews

08/17/2015
In this persuasive reappraisal of Jack London, Tichi (Civic Passions) argues that the self-made man and bestselling author was also a dedicated social reformer. London was raised in poverty during America's Gilded Age—an era that Tichi describes in rich detail—and grew up sharply aware of the nation's gross inequities in wealth. He occasionally decried this situation publicly, but Tichi contends that his essays and fiction most effectively advocated change. She sometimes risks overinterpreting the extraliterary dimensions of London's fiction—are the overworked sled dogs in The Call of the Wild really "surrogates for mistreated industrial workers," and does the dictatorial captain of The Sea Wolf really stand in for "Gilded Age moguls who held the social order in their collective vise"?—but Tichi makes a compelling case for these books as having laid the foundation for London's more overtly political fiction: the Hawaian island stories, which criticized American imperialism; The Iron Heel, a futuristic dystopia about the rise of tyrannical oligarchy; and The Star Rover, an impassioned critique of the American penal system. Bolstering her analysis of London's writing with nuggets of progressive thinking mined from his correspondence, Tichi brings a fresh perspective to an author and thinker frequently dismissed as a mere writer of adventure fiction. 33 illus. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

[A] persuasive reappraisal of Jack London. . . . Brings a fresh perspective to an author and thinker frequently dismissed as a mere writer of adventure fiction.—Publishers Weekly



Strongly recommended for London devotees and for anyone with an interest in the evolution of social reforms in America.—Library Journal



An illuminating study of a literary figure long receded into stereotype. . . . A fruitful, well-written blend of cultural history, literary criticism, and biography.—Kirkus Reviews



London steps from Tichi's pages as a self-educated intellectual absorbed by the plight of the downtrodden and the oppressed.—Foreword Reviews



Tichi's reframing of London offers a significant rethinking of early twentieth-century America.—American Historical Review



Tichi paints a portrait of Jack London as a champion of progressive causes.—Chapter 16



A study of the world in a man and how he hoped to change it.—Jay Williams, Studies in American Naturalism

From the Publisher

08/01/2015
Tichi (English & American studies, Vanderbilt Univ.; Civic Passions) believes that Jack London's work as an American public intellectual whose passion for social change in his writings and speeches was ever constant has been passed over by previous critics. London (1876–1916) was one of the most popular U.S. writers, but hidden within his tales of adventure are critiques of Gilded Age America. His concerns for social progress for the poor and disadvantaged echo the cries for equality that are heard today. Fiction such as The Call of the Wild, The Sea-Wolf, and Martin Eden cloak his reproaches and warnings while offering thrilling entertainments. Especially revealing are the chapters devoted to the Hawaiian Islands, where the plantation workers were exploited by the land barons, and on the need for prison reforms such as the abolishment of torture and a more humane treatment of prisoners. The many illustrations interspersed throughout the text increase the pictorial value of this study. VERDICT Strongly recommended for London devotees and for anyone with an interest in the evolution of social reforms in America. The index and the ebook edition featuring motion picture footage were not seen by this reviewer.—Morris Hounion, New York City Coll. of Technology, Brooklyn

Library Journal

2015-06-28
Jack London—socialist agitator, rancher, and, oh yes, writer: an illuminating study of a literary figure long receded into stereotype. Tichi's (English and American Studies/Vanderbilt Univ.; Civic Passions: Seven Who Launched Progressive America (and What They Teach Us), 2009, etc.) resurrection of London and her elevation of him from writer of hoary Arctic tales for children to wizened philosopher of the barricades is certainly timely. He lived in the first Gilded Age, a time "undershot with stupendous wealth inequality, cycles of joblessness…and an imperial global presence that brought indigenous populations to heel while exploiting their natural resources." Though London was a marquee writer whose work elevated him from want to wealth, he remained true to his working-class roots and never surrendered his vision of an America reformed to allow for a greater share for all. He conveyed this vision in sometimes heavy-handed ways, as with his late novel The Iron Heel (1908), but Tichi credits him for displaying "a certain subtlety." London's message rings true in such books as White Fang (1906) but never at the expense of a walloping good story. Tichi traces the growth of London's activism as he moved from place to place, especially when he visited the South Pacific and saw predatory capitalism at work undisguised: "In boyhood he had seen the flags of distant nations flying from the masts along the Oakland waterfront….Many of those flags signified political, corporate, and military power, and the word for that nexus was ‘imperialism.' " Tichi also limns a London who was far more evolved than the square-jawed prizefighter and adventurer of legend, a sophisticated political thinker who brought immense learning to bear—not least on his work establishing what today we would call an organic farm not far from San Francisco, building a vast working knowledge of agriculture, construction, irrigation, and other fields. A fruitful, well-written blend of cultural history, literary criticism, and biography. Now the only question is, where's the Jack London of today?

Kirkus Reviews