"I've never written a line that I'd be ashamed for my young daughters to
read, and I never shall write such a line!"
Thus Jack London, well along in his career. And thus almost any
collection of his adventure stories is acceptable to young readers as
well as to their elders. So, in sorting over the few manuscripts still
unpublished in book form, while most of them were written primarily for
boys and girls, I do not hesitate to include as appropriate a tale such
as "Whose Business Is to Live."
Number two of the present group, "Typhoon Off the Coast of Japan," is
the first story ever written by Jack London for publication. At the age
of seventeen he had returned from his deep-water voyage in the sealing
schooner _Sophie Sutherland_, and was working thirteen hours a day
for forty dollars a month in an Oakland, California, jute mill. The
_San Francisco Call_ offered a prize of twenty-five dollars for the
best written descriptive article. Jack's mother, Flora London,
remembering that I had excelled in his school "compositions," urged him
to enter the contest by recalling some happening of his travels. Grammar
school, years earlier, had been his sole disciplined education. But his
wide reading, worldly experience, and extraordinary powers of
observation and correlation, enabled him to command first prize. It is
notable that the second and third awards went to students at California
and Stanford universities.
Jack never took the trouble to hunt up that old _San Francisco
Call_ of November 12, 1893; but when I came to write his biography,
"The Book of Jack London," I unearthed the issue, and the tale appears
intact in my English edition, published in 1921. And now, gathering
material for what will be the final Jack London collections, I cannot
but think that his first printed story will have unusual interest for
his readers of all ages.
The boy Jack's unexpected success in that virgin venture naturally
spurred him to further effort. It was, for one thing, the pleasantest
way he had ever earned so much money, even if it lacked the element of
physical prowess and danger that had marked those purple days with the
oyster pirates, and, later, equally exciting passages with the Fish
Patrol. He only waited to catch up on sleep lost while hammering out
"Typhoon Off the Coast of Japan," before applying himself to new
fiction. That was what was the matter with it: it was sheer fiction in
place of the white-hot realism of the "true story" that had brought him
distinction. This second venture he afterward termed "gush." It was
promptly rejected by the editor of the _Call_. Lacking experience
in such matters, Jack could not know why. And it did not occur to him to
submit his manuscript elsewhere. His fire was dampened; he gave over
writing and continued with the jute mill and innocent social diversion
in company with Louis Shattuck and his friends, who had superseded
Jack's wilder comrades and hazards of bay- and sea-faring. This period,
following the publication of "Typhoon Off the Coast of Japan," is
touched upon in his book "John Barleycorn."
The next that one hears of attempts at writing is when, during his
tramping episode, he showed some stories to his aunt, Mrs. Everhard, in
St. Joseph, Michigan. And in the ensuing months of that year, 1894, she
received other romances mailed at his stopping places along the eastward
route, alone or with Kelly's Industrial Army. As yet it had not sunk
into his consciousness that his unyouthful knowledge of life in the raw
would be the means of success in literature; therefore he discoursed of
imaginary things and persons, lords and ladies, days of chivalry and
what not--anything but out of his priceless first-hand lore. At the same
time, however, he kept a small diary which, in the days when he had
found himself, helped in visualizing his tramp life, in "The Road."
The only out and out "juvenile" in the Jack London list prior to his
death is "The Cruise of the Dazzler," published in 1902. At that it is a
good and authentic maritime study of its kind, and not lacking in honest
thrills. "Tales of the Fish Patrol" comes next as a book for boys; but
the happenings told therein are perilous enough to interest many an
older reader.
I am often asked which of his books have made the strongest appeal to
youth. The impulse is to answer that it depends upon the particular type
of youth. As example, there lies before me a letter from a friend: "Ruth
(she is eleven) has been reading every book of your husband's that she
can get hold of. She is crazy over the stories. I have bought nearly all
of them, but cannot find 'The Son of the Wolf,' 'Moon Face,' and
'Michael Brother of Jerry.' Will you tell me where I can order these?" I
have not yet learned Ruth's favorites; but I smile to myself at thought
of the re-reading she may have to do when her mind has more fully
developed.
The youth of every country who read Jack London naturally turn to his
adventure stories--particularly "The Call of the Wild" and its companion
"White Fang," "The Sea Wolf," "The Cruise of the Snark," and my own
journal, "The Log of the Snark," and "Our Hawaii," "Smoke Bellew Tales,"
"Adventure," "The Mutiny of the Elsinore," as well as "Before Adam,"
"The Game," "The Abysmal Brute," "The Road," "Jerry of the Islands" and
its sequel "Michael Brother of Jerry." And because of the last named,
the youth of many lands are enrolling in the famous Jack London Club.
This was inspired by Dr. Francis H. Bowley, President of the
Massachusetts S.P.C.A. The Club expects no dues. Membership is automatic
through the mere promise to leave any playhouse during an animal
performance. The protest thereby registered is bound, in good time, to
do away with the abuses that attend animal training for show purposes.
"Michael Brother of Jerry" was written out of Jack London's heart of
love and head of understanding of animals, aided by a years'-long study
of the conditions of which he treats. Incidentally this book contains
one of the most charming bits of seafaring romance of the Southern Ocean
that he ever wrote.
During the Great War, the English speaking soldiers called freely for
the foregoing novels, dubbing them "The Jacklondons"; and there was also
lively demand for "Burning Daylight," "The Scarlet Plague," "The Star
Rover," "The Little Lady of the Big House," "The Valley of the Moon,"
and, because of its prophetic spirit, "The Iron Heel." There was
likewise a desire for the short-story collections, such as "The God of
His Fathers," "Children of the Frost," "The Faith of Men," "Love of
Life," "Lost Face," "When God Laughs," and later groups like "South Sea
Tales," "A Son of the Sun," "The Night Born," and "The House of Pride,"
and a long list beside.
But for the serious minded youth of America, Great Britain, and all
countries where Jack London's work has been translated--youth
considering life with a purpose--"Martin Eden" is the beacon. Passing
years only augment the number of messages that find their way to me from
near and far, attesting the worth to thoughtful boys and girls, young
men and women, of the author's own formative struggle in life and
letters as partially outlined in "Martin Eden."
The present sheaf of young folk's stories were written during the latter
part of that battle for recognition, and my gathering of them inside
book covers is pursuant of his own intention at the time of his death on
November 22, 1916.