National Endowment for the Arts READER'S GUIDE kf/A k. :; """ J m| ^wl m . »i^ rw /"" v - kji T^L^ t'^& i H /'M, i i ffik' nrjaj ^i 'W*l^ l\f Q *4mF& . .INSTITUTE o/ „ ., MuseurriandLibrary SERVICES JACK LONDON'S The Call of the Wild "No man ever became great who did not achieve the impossible. It is the secret of greatness.... But not only must he do the impossible, he must * continue to do it.... Brows are not laurelled for the asking, nor is the earth a heritage to any save to the sons of toil." -JACK LONDON from "The Question of a Name," 1900 s Preface Jack London's The Call of the Wild is a singular classic. It is a great novel that can be appreciated by readers of all ages, as well as a philosophical book that provides an action-packed adventure. Oddest of all, it is an experimental novel (half of the characters are canine, including the hero) that is a thrilling pleasure to read. No wonder this American novel has never lacked readers — both here and abroad. The Big Read is an initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts designed to revitalize the role of literary reading in American popular culture. Reading at Risk: A Survey of Literary Reading in America, a 2004 NEA report, identified a critical decline in reading for pleasure among American adults. The Big Read aims to address this issue directly by providing citizens with the opportunity to read and discuss a single book within their communities. A great book combines enlightenment with enchantment It awakens our imagination and enlarges our humanity. It can even offer harrowing insights that somehow console and comfort us. Whether you're a regular reader already or a nonreader making up for lost time, thank you for joining The Big Read. c^&uol Hfa*« Dana Gioia Chairman, National Endowment for the Arts Jack London, 1 925 11 Wild ^H^'^"*'" There is an ecstasy that marks the summit of life, and beyond which life cannot rise. And such is the paradox of living, this ecstasy comes when one is most alive, and it comes as a complete forgetfulness that one is alive. This ecstasy ... came to Buck, leading the pack, sounding the old wolf-cry, straining after the food that was alive and that fled swiftly before him through the moonlight." from The Call of the Wild I * u* i**f?" '^F Wf^R 2 THE BIG READ • National Endowment for the Arts Introduction to the Novel The hero of Jack London's The Call of the 1^/(1903) is Buck, a St. Bernard/Scotch Shepherd dog. Late one night in 1897, a poor farm-worker steals Buck from his comfortable Northern California home and sells him as a sled dog. Set mosdy during the Klondike Gold Rush of 1897-1898 in Canada's Yukon Territory and Alaska, the novel chronicles Buck's struggles and successes as he learns "the law of club and fang." Four years as a domesticated pet have not extinguished Buck's primordial instincts or imagination. He courageously survives brutal cruelty from humans and the wilderness, and he becomes the leader of his dogsled team. He endures hunger and fatigue, learns to scavenge for food, and fights with a rival dog. Despite all this hardship, Buck is "mastered by the sheer surging of life" for the first time. Ultimately, Buck struggles between his love for his last master, John Thornton, and his desire to answer the mysterious call of his ancestors. Drawing from Egerton R. Young's historical narrative My Dogs in the Northland (1902), Jack London wrote The Call of the Wild in only one month. It first appeared in summer 1903 as a serialized work in The Saturday Evening Post. Although London was paid only $2,750 for the novel, he won instant literary fame and wide popularity. London's artistic intentions were often misunderstood. After one particular critique from President Theodore Roosevelt and naturalist John Burroughs, London wrote a letter of explanation: "The writing of [The Call of the Wild and White Fang] . . . was in truth a protest against the 'humanizing' of animals Time and again . . . I wrote, speaking of my dog-heroes: 'He did not think these things; he merely did them'. . .. These dog- heroes of mine were not directed by abstract reasoning, but by instinct, sensation, and emotion, and by simple reasoning." For this, and for London's vivid description of the struggle for survival in a hostile environment, generations of children and adults have found The Call of the Wild an unforgettable adventure. National Endowment for the Arts • THE BIG READ 3 Major Characters in the Novel The Dogs Buck The narrator tells the story from Buck's point of view. Stolen from his California home to labor as a sled dog in the Klondike, Buck quickly learns to survive and triumph. In addition to his cunning, patience, and strength, Buck's greatest quality is his imagination, which allows him to fight by both instinct and reason. Spitz This well-traveled animal — a big white dog from Spitsbergen, Norway — is a practiced fighter who hates Buck. Despite his greater experience, Spitz meets his match when Buck challenges his leadership in a fight to the death. Dave The greatest desire of this gloomy, morose dog is to be left alone. Although he sleeps at every possible moment, he surprises Buck when they are first harnessed as a team: Dave loves his work and becomes a fair, wise teacher. Sol-leks His name means "the angry one," an apt description of his feelings whenever another dog approaches from his blind side. Like Dave, Sol-leks wants to be left alone, loves his work, and quickly teaches Buck the best ways to work as a team. ikU Dawson CityO • Lake LebargeO Dyea Beach p ■ ■ * SEATTLE 4 + • • SAN FRANCISCO O, Santa Clara ValleyO " Let us be very humble. We who are so very human are very animal." —JACK LONDON from the essay "The Other Animals," 1908 4 THE BIG READ • National Endowment for the Arts fc*\!V The Humans Judge Miller Buck and his father, Elmo, were the prized pets of this kind-hearted judge who owns a large ranch in northern California's Santa Clara Valley. Manuel This underpaid worker cannot support his wife and children. Motivated by easy money, he steals Buck one evening and sells him as a sled dog during the 1897 Klondike Gold Rush. The "man with the red sweater" Never named, this man becomes the embodiment of one of the most important lessons Buck ever learns: In the quest for survival, the "law of club and fang" reigns supreme. Perrault and Francois These intrepid French Canadian couriers bear important dispatches for the Canadian government, so they are happy to find a dog as strong as Buck. They are never cruel to their dogs, and Buck grows to respect their kind severity. Hal, Charles, and Mercedes A mixture of selfishness, greed, and incompetence distinguishes these middle-class Americans as some of literature's most memorable antagonists. Hal's ruthless beating of Buck is sure to awaken the reader's desire for justice. John Thornton Thornton rescues Buck, and this man's kindness and love heal more than the dog's physical wounds. Master and dog save each other repeatedly. National Endowment for the Arts • THE BIG READ 5 Jack London (1876-1916) The adventures told in Jack London's fiction haidly surpass those from his real life. On January 12, 1876, the man we know as Jack London was born John Griffith Chaney in San Francisco, California, to an unwed mother, Flora Wellman. When Flora refused to have an abortion, the probable father — William H. Chaney — deserted her. Her depression was so severe that she attempted suicide twice in two days. Eight months later, Flora married John London, a widower with two daughters. John London gave his adopted son his surname and his love, and Jack spent his young boyhood on California ranches. After the family moved to Oakland in London's ninth year, Flora London with his dog, Rollo, 1 885 expected her son to contribute to the family income. His formal education stopped after grammar school, and his career among the THE LIFE AND TIMES OF JACK LONDON Late 1870s The 1875 failure of the Bank of California leads to a financial crisis, draining San Francisco of capital for the rest of the decade. Jack London is bom illegitimate to Flora Wellman, January 12, 1876. Flora marries John London in September 1876. Mark Twain publishes The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, 1876. Unemployment abounds in San Francisco, leading to strikes and rallies attended by thousands, 1877. The 1880s From 1881 to 1885, the Canadian Pacific Railway completes a line between Ontario and the Pacific coast. The Londons buy a house in Oakland, California, where Jack immerses himself in books at the public library, 1886. 6 THE BIG READ " National Endowment for the Arts John Burroughs, American essayist and conservationist, publishes Signs and Seasons, 1886. Oakland Public Library, c. 1 895 r$M working-class poor began. During his teen years, some of his jobs included newspaper boy, factory worker, oyster pirate, seal hunter, coal stoker, and sailor in Japan. In 1894, while tramping across America and Canada, London was imprisoned for vagrancy in an appalling New York penitentiary — an experience that helped make him a Socialist. These events also ignited his desire for education, so the nineteen- year-old enrolled as a freshman at Oakland High School while working as a janitor there. After one year, he quit school and often studied fifteen hours a day on his own — with the help of librarians from the Oakland Public Library — to prepare for the entry exams to the University of California, Berkeley. He was ultimately accepted, but his family's poverty again proved too great a responsibility. He left Berkeley after one semester, tried to earn money by writing, and worked in a steam laundry. When his brother-in-law asked him to join the Klondike Gold Rush in 1897, Jack London quickly agreed. Though they never found gold, London found literary riches in 1899 by selling stories to magazines based on his experiences in Alaska and Canada. His breakthrough came in 1900 when Houghton Mifflin agreed to publish a collection of his Klondike tales, The Son of the Wolf. From 1900 to 1905, London married Bess Maddern, had two John Muir is elected first president of the Sierra Club, 1892. London is arrested for vagrancy near Niagara Falls and spends thirty days in a New York penitentiary, 1894. George Carmack, Skookum Jim Mason, and Tagish Charley Mason find gold in Canada, 1896. Thousands join the Klondike Gold Rush, including London, who journeys to Alaska in July 1897. He returns to Oakland one year later, suffering from scurvy. Steamer Excelsior leaves San Francisco for the Klondike on July 28, 1 897. The Treaty of Paris gives the U.S. Guam and Puerto Rico; America annexes Hawaii, 1898. The Spanish-American War begins, 1898. National Endowment for the Arts • THE BIG READ 7 daughters, wrote and published The Call of the Wild (1903) and The Sea- Wolf (1904), and traveled to Japan and Korea to report on the Russo- Japanese War. When he returned from Korea he divorced Bess, bought his beloved Sonoma Valley ranch in Glen Ellen, and married the woman he loved — Charmian Kittredge. A man of abounding energy and zeal for life, he wrote more than two hundred short stories, twenty novels, four hundred nonfiction works, and three plays in less than twenty years. Despite his worldwide travels and diverse interests, he maintained a disciplined, rigorous writing schedule: one thousand words (by hand) every morning. About writing he once said: "The three great things are: Good Health; Work; Soldiers inspect London's papers at the front of the Russo-Japanese War, Korea, 1904. and a Philosophy of Life. I may add, nay, must add, a fourth — Sincerity. Without this, the other three are without avail. With it you may cleave to greatness and sit among the giants." Despite his early death at age forty, Jack London remains seated deservedly among America's literary giants. THE LIFE AND TIMES OF JACK LONDON The 1900s An influenza and measles epidemic causes the death of a third of Alaska's population, 1900. After President William McKinley's death, Theodore Roosevelt becomes president, 1901. London publishes nineteen books, including The Call of the Wild 0903). London divorces his first wife, buys a California ranch, and marries Charmian Kittredge, 1905. San Francisco earthquake rocks the Bay Area in 1906, followed by serious aftershocks and fires. Jack and Charmian nearly go broke building their yacht, the Srartc, 1906-1907. The 1910s Congress designates Alaska a territory in 191 2, but it will not become the forty-ninth state until 1959. Woodrow Wilson becomes the twenty- eighth U.S. president, 1913, a year before World War I begins in Europe. Jack London dies at his home in the Sonoma Valley, November 22, 1916. The United States enters World War I, 1917. Armistice signed, November 11, 1918. * 'Having decided that I was a failure as a writer, I gave it up and left for the Klondike to prospect for gold.... It was in the Klondike that I found myself. There nobody talks. Everybody thinks. You get your true perspective. I got mine. ,, — JACK LONDON from the introduction to The Star Rover (1915) background: Gold seekers begin their climb of Chilkoot Pass, known as the Golden Staircase, to the Klondike gold fields beyond. inset: A street scene in Dawson City, one of the last outposts before the Canadian wilderness. An Interview with Sara S. Hodson On August 28, 2007, Adam Kampe of the National Endowment for the Arts interviewed Jack London scholar Sara S. Hodson, curator of literary manuscripts at the Huntington Library in San Marino, California. An excerpt from their conversation follows. Adam Kampe: How old was Jack London when he began writing? Sara Hodson: He started writing in his teens. He would send his stories to magazines and publishers, and every one would come back, rejected. He would impale every letter on a tall spindle that he had in his writing room next to his rented typewriter, and soon he had a four- foot-tall spindle of rejection letters. But he never gave up! London had a burning desire to fulfill his potential as a writer. He felt it was simply a matter of getting that first sale, of selling the first story. AKj London was a voracious reader. Is it true that he carried Paradise Lost and Origin of the Species with him to the Klondike? SH: That's right. The fact that he took Milton and Darwin tells you how much they meant to him, that those two books would carry him through the hardships and isolation. Each miner had to bring a thousand pounds of supplies — mostly food, of course — which was required by the Canadian government, so that they wouldn't have more dead bodies than would already be inevitable. Because he saw all the dead animals, London carried his own supplies in multiple trips up the Chilkoot Pass. He was there in the summertime, and it took him ten trips to get his equipment and supplies to the top of the pass. AK: What motivated him to leave California and head to the Yukon? SH: He needed money, and he heard about the reports of gold strikes in the Klondike. I think he was also motivated by a historic time of adventure and excitement. Actually, he didn't get any gold, but he really struck it rich with gold nuggets of stories that he heard from other Klondike miners. These were the kind of strong, stirring, adventurous tales that he was drawn to. He recognized that this is where the future of his writing lay. | THE BIG READ • National Endowment for the Arts AK: How much did that one year influence the writing of The Call of the Wild! SH: That one year was an enormous influence for The Call of the Wild. London saw dogsled teams in the Klondike. He saw the way they behaved. He saw the way they were treated by their owners and mistreated. He saw life at its most harsh, at its most elemental, where to make a very small mistake can mean the loss of your life. AK: Are there parallels between Jack London and his canine protagonist, Buck? SH: London was much like the dog Buck in that he was a scrapper. He fought for what he knew was his right, and he never setded for less. Buck started out in a sheltered environment and is then thrown suddenly, rudely, brutally into a world where he has to fight to survive every single day. If he doesn't learn Jack London at his writing desk, 1916 the laws, he's not going to survive. He learns which dogs he can trust. Jack London was like that when he arrived in the Klondike. He didn't know the life. He learned which men would show him what he needed to survive, the right way to behave toward other people and toward animals. John Thornton is also very much like Jack London. He's a man of compassion, who can deal fairly with both humans and animals. London had his own way of approaching people, which was always to be fair, generous, and caring. AK: Why is The Call of the Wild still considered a worldwide classic? SH: The Call of the Wild is a timeless book in that it's appropriate, useful, and enjoyable to read for anyone at any age at any time. It is a book about survival, and survival is an issue for everyone no matter whether we're surviving a day in the office, a hard day of manual labor, a bad relationship, or the Klondike without fire or food. A story of survival speaks to all of us, because it makes us look within. Would I have what it takes to survive in that kind of environment? What would happen to me? It lets you imagine yourself in that circumstance. National Endowment for the Arts • THE BIG READ | London and His Other Works Until Jack London blazed onto the literary scene with a collection of short stories, The Son of the Wolf (1900), the harsh landscape of Yukon Territory had not entered fiction. His voice was unique; his vision, unfamiliar. To London, the natural world is full of wonder and beauty but is also violent, unpredictable, and destructive. The hardships in nature force London's characters to be flexible and resourceful in order to survive — and sometimes they don't. London's early novels feature some of the most memorable characters in American literature. The heroine of his first novel, The Daughter of the Snows (1902), truly has no literary precedent. Frona Welse is an assertive, strong woman whose Alaskan childhood has taught her "the faith of food and blanket." Buck, the dog turned wolf (The Call of the Wild, 1903), and White Fang, the wolf turned dog (White Fang, 1904), remain popular today. Both animals suffer under the brutal club of unjust human masters, become leaders of their dogsled teams, and use their imaginations to survive. In The Sea-Wolf "(1904), Wolf Larsen — a dreaded seal-hunting captain and literature's most well- read pirate — captures Humphrey van Weyden and forces him to serve as sailor. These characters challenge readers to confront their limitations, to enter a world where survival of the fittest is a daily reality. This world often mirrored London's own biography. The abuses of power that he witnessed and experienced — especially while tramping around North America and living among the homeless in London's East | 2 THE BIG READ • National Endowment for the Arts §£ (VOojv iW "Who that ever knew him can forget him? . . . He was youth, adventure, romance. He was a poet and a social revolutionist. He had a genius for friendship. He loved greatly and was greatly loved." — ANNA STRUNSKY, 1917 London's cowriter of The Kempton-Wace Letters (1903) and lifelong friend End — became the basis for socially conscious works such as The People of the Abyss (1903) and The Road (1907). Jack London often said, "I am Martin Eden," the hero of his partly autobiographical 1909 novel, who fights to rise from working-class poverty to earn a living as a writer. John Barleycorn (191 3) — another provocative, semi-autobiographical work — chronicles a man's struggle with alcohol, what London called his "Long Sickness" and "White Logic." In addition to more than fifteen novels, London was a prolific letter and short-story writer, journalist, and essayist, especially about his travels to Asia, South and Central America, the South Pacific, and Hawai'i. His adventures aboard the yacht he built with his second wife, Charmian, are recorded in his The Cruise of the Snark (1911) and her The Log of the Snark (1915). After these globetrotting feats, his two great loves — Charmian and their 1,400-acre California ranch — inspired such later fiction as The Valley of the Moon (1913) and The Little Lady of the Big House (1916). By the time of his death in 1916, Jack London was one of America's highest-paid writers and enjoyed worldwide popularity. If you enjoyed The Call of the Wild, you might enjoy: Around the World in Bghty Days by Jules Verne (1873) East of Eden by John Steinbeck (1952) Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls (1961) Arctic Dreams by Barry Lopez (1 986) National Endowment for the Arts "THE BIG READ | 3 Discussion Questions When news of the Klondike Gold Rush reached San Francisco in 1897, thousands of men (and some women) left their homes and families to search for gold with no certainty that they would be successful. Would you have made a treacherous journey on such a hope? The Call of the Wild has an unnamed narrator, who tells the story entirely from the perspective of Buck — a St. Bernard/Scotch Shepherd dog. How effective is Jack London's ability to sustain the story from a dog's point of view? What other stories have been told from an animal's viewpoint? Describe "the law of club and fang" that Buck learns from the "man with the red sweater." Is this lesson relevant for the survival of humans today? 7. How does Buck respond when he is "suddenly jerked from the heart of civilization and flung into the heart of things primordial"? Why does the narrator believe his "imagination" is his greatest attribute? How does Buck's first theft prove he will survive his new, hostile environment? What happens to his "moral consideration" after this transforming experience? One of the novel's most important scenes is the fight between Buck and his rival, Spitz. Who initiates this fight? Does it have to end the way it does? Why or why not? Buck begins to hear a mysterious, mournful song only after he is removed from his life as a domesticated pet and taken to the harsh natural environment of the Klondike. Why couldn't he hear this "call" in California? | 4 THE BIG READ • National Endowment for the Arts 8. Are Hal, Charles, and Mercedes the novel's primary antagonists? What does London suggest by including humans who seek gold at the expense of their own well- being? 9. How does John Thornton differ from Buck's previous masters? Why does Buck respond to Thornton with such devotion? 10. Ultimately, John Thornton discovers gold "like yellow butter." How does Buck respond to this new lifestyle, compared to the other dogs? Why does the "strain of the primitive" remain "alive and active" in Buck? 1 1 . The Call of the Wild begins with the opening lines of "Atavism," a poem by John Myers O'Hara published in 1902. Although Jack London didn't know the full poem at the time, he felt these four lines perfecdy summarized his novel. Do you agree? Jack and Charmian London on the porch of Beauty Ranch, c. 1915 * 'Jove!' he muttered, doffing his cap gallantly. There is a womanl* And a sudden hunger seized him, and a yearning to see himself mirrored always in the grey eyes of Frona Welse. He was not analytical; he did not know why; but he knew that with her he could travel to the end of the earth." —VANCE CORLISS to Frona Welse from A Daughter of the Snows National Endowment for the Arts • THE BIG READ | 5 Additional Resources S?pri/ Selected Books by Jack London The Son of the Wolf 1900 A Daughter of the Snows, 1902 The Call of the Wild, 1903 The People of the Abyss, 1903 The Sea-Wolf 1904 White Fang, 1906 The Road, 1907 The Iron Heel, 1908 Martin Eckn, 1909 /fl/w Barleycorn, 1913 r/?/?