No Mentor but Myself': Jack London on Writing and Writers, Second Edition

Jack London, one of the most read and recognized figures in American literature, produced an immense body of work, including 22 novels, 200 short stories, memoirs, newspaper articles, book reviews, essays, and poems. A significant and revealing feature of London's literary life lies in his introspective observations on the craft of writing, brought together in this collection of essays, reviews, letters, and autobiographical writings. London's public role as a daring, carefree man of action has obscured the shrewd, disciplined, and methodical writer whose practical reflections and meditations on his profession provide a vivid portrait of the literary industry in turn-of-the-century America. For this edition, a significant amount of new material has been added. Reviews of the First Edition "Dale Walker has rendered a valuable service in his painstaking collection of London's writings about writers. He has included 43 selections, 20 of which are previously uncollected: 13 essays, and excerpts from London's two autobiographical works. The result is a remarkably comprehensive view of London 'the writer's writer.'" ―American Literary Realism "An absorbing account of how hard the writer worked to learn his craft. . . . We find a master prose stylist concerned with problems of selectivity and concrete issues of tone, form, atmosphere, and point of view." ―Modern Philology "A remarkable collection. . . . This is a firsthand look at a writer's honest and forthright opinions on his craft." ―Los Angeles Times

‘No Mentor but Myself’: Jack London on Writing and Writers, Second Edition

Literature & Fiction

Reesman, Jeanne Campbell

United States

Stanford University Press

This study examines the works of this naturalist writer, best known for The Call of the Wild. Producer of nearly 200 short stories, his writing ranged in topic from the Gold Rush to science fiction.

Jack London: A Study in Short Fiction (Studies in Short Fiction Series)

History & Criticism

Twayne Publishers

Twaynes United States Authors Series presents concise critical introductions to great writers and their works.
Devoted to critical interpretation and discussion of an authors work, each study takes account of major literary trends and important scholarly contributions and provides new critical insights with an original point of view. An Authors Series volumeaddresses readers ranging from advanced high school students to university professors. The book suggests to the informed reader new ways of considering a writers work. A reader new to the work under examination will, after reading theAuthors Series, be compelled to turn to the originals, bringing to the reading a basic knowledge and fresh critical perspectives.
Each volume features: 
<ul>
<li> A critical, interpretive study and explication of the authors works </li>
<li> A brief biography of the author </li>
<li> An accessible chronology outlining the life, work, and relevant historical background of the author </li>
<li> Aids for further study -- complete notes and references, a selected annotated bibliography and an index </li>
<li> A readable style presented in a manageable length</li>
</ul>

Jack London, Rev. Ed. (United States Authors Series)

Labor, Earle

Teen & Young Adult

American Designs addresses three major literary critical issues: the hermeneutics of the novel genre; the intense importance of this genre for American literature; and the way James and Faulkner; by writing within hermeneutic traditions of the modern American novel, explore further than any other writers the particular functions of the novelistic designs they inherited and transformed.
Jeanne Campbell Reesman contends that in the late fiction of James and Faulkner the search for knowledge of the self and others is presented as a metafictive issue of power, authority, and freedom. While their own interests lead characters in the novels to enact designs on other characters, the novels themselves undermine the validity of any single, imposed design. American writers, Reesman argues, develop narrative structures that fail to close. Theirs is an open-ended search for American identity. Structures remain unfinished or unresolved or "disunified" in order to allow human beings a certain freedom from closed design, and they do this out of a dual reaction against both Old World tradition and New World Puritanism.
Reesman probes the relationship between narrative design and "the problem of knowledge" in American literature in her resonant readings the The Ambassadors, Absalom, Absalom!, The Golden Bowl, and Go Down, Moses. James and Faulkner, of course, never knew each other, but in this first book-length comparison of these major authors, Reesman convinces her reader that they would have had a great deal to say to each other.
American Designs will be of interest to scholars and students of American literature.

American Designs: The Late Novels of James and Faulkner (Anniversary Collection)

University of Pennsylvania Press Anniversary Collection

Jack London is an American original, a self-taught writer whose life was almost as interesting as his fiction. He is best known for his tales of adventure in the North, such as The Call of the Wild and White Fang, but his literary achievement encompasses much more, from the autobiographical masterpiece Martin Eden to short fiction set everywhere from the Arctic Circle to the South Seas. He is one of the few writers both beloved by students and admired by scholars.
Critical Companion to Jack London is a comprehensive reference to the life and works of this prolific author as well as some of the themes that can be found in his writing.
Coverage includes:
<ul>
<li>A concise but thorough biography of London</li>
<li>Entries on all of London's major works, including novels such as The Call of the Wild, White Fang, Martin Eden, The Iron Heel, and The Sea-Wolf; stories such as "To Build a Fire," "An Odyssey of the North," and "The Law of Life"; essays, travel books, and other works of nonfiction; and much more. Each entry on a fictional work contains subentries on the work's main characters</li>
<li>Entries on related people, places, and topics, such as Joseph Conrad, dystopian fiction, Manifest Destiny, wolves, and the Yukon Territory</li>
<li>Appendixes, including a chronology, a bibliography of London's works, and a secondary-source bibliography.</li>
</ul>

Critical Companion to Jack London: A Literary Reference to His Life and Work

Reference

FACTS ON FILE+

Jack London (1876–1916) remains one of the most widely read American writers, known for his naturalist fiction, socialist novels and essays, journalism, and the many adventures that he shared with the world. London was also an accomplished photographer, producing nearly twelve thousand photographs during his lifetime. Jack London, Photographer, the first book devoted to London’s photography, reveals a vital dimension of his artistry, barely known until now. London’s subjects included such peoples as the ragged homeless of London’s East End and the freezing refugees of the Russo-Japanese War, the latter photographed on assignment for the Hearst Syndicate. For Collier’s magazine, London wrote his eyewitness account of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire and returned two weeks later with his camera to document a city in ruins but slowly recovering. During his voyage aboard the Snark, London produced humane images of the South Seas islanders that contrasted dramatically with the period’s stereotypical portraits of indigenous peoples. In 1914 he documented the U.S. invasion of Veracruz during the Mexican Revolution. Although some of his images were used in newspaper and magazine stories and in his books The People of the Abyss and The Cruise of the Snark, the majority have remained unpublished until now. The volume’s more than two hundred photographs were printed from the original negatives in the California State Parks collection and from the original photographs in albums at the Huntington Library. They are reproduced here as duotones from silver gelatin prints. The general and chapter introductions place London’s photographs in the context of his writings and his times. London lived during the first true mass-media era, when the use of photographic images ushered in a new way of covering the news. With his discerning eye, London recorded historical moments through the faces and bodies of the people who lived them, creating memorable portraits of individuals whose cultural differences pale beside their common humanity.

Jack London, Photographer

Arts & Photography

Hodson, Sara S.

Adam, Philip

Individual Artists

University of Georgia Press

Jack London (1876-1916), known for his naturalistic and mythic tales, remains among the most popular and influential American writers in the world. Jack London's Racial Lives offers the first full study of the enormously important issue of race in London's life and diverse works, whether set in the Klondike, Hawaii, or the South Seas or during the Russo-Japanese War, the Jack Johnson world heavyweight bouts, or the Mexican Revolution. Jeanne Campbell Reesman explores his choices of genre by analyzing racial content and purpose and judges his literary artistry against a standard of racial tolerance. Although he promoted white superiority in novels and nonfiction, London sharply satirized racism and meaningfully portrayed racial others―most often as protagonists―in his short fiction.Why the disparity? For London, racial and class identity were intertwined: his formation as an artist began with the mixed "heritage" of his family. His mother taught him racism, but he learned something different from his African American foster mother, Virginia Prentiss. Childhood poverty, shifting racial allegiances, and a "psychology of want" helped construct the many "houses" of race and identity he imagined. Reesman also examines London's socialism, his study of Darwin and Jung, and the illnesses he suffered in the South Seas.With new readings of The Call of the Wild, Martin Eden, and many other works, such as the explosive Pacific stories, Reesman reveals that London employed many of the same literary tropes of race used by African American writers of his period: the slave narrative, double-consciousness, the tragic mulatto, and ethnic diaspora. Hawaii seemed to inspire his most memorable visions of a common humanity.

Jack London's Racial Lives: A Critical Biography

Biographies & Memoirs

Arts & Literature

A prolific and enduringly popular author--and an icon of American fiction--Jack London is a rewarding choice for inclusion in classrooms from middle school to graduate programs. London's biography and the role played by celebrity have garnered considerable attention, but the breadth of his personal experiences and political views and the many historical and cultural contexts that shaped his work are key to gaining a nuanced view of London's corpus of works, as this volume's wide-ranging perspectives and examples attest.The first section of this volume, "Materials," surveys the many resources available for teaching London, including editions of his works, sources for his photography, and audiovisual aids. In part 2, "Approaches," contributors recommend practices for teaching London's works through the lenses of socialism and class, race, gender, ecocriticism and animal studies, theories of evolution, legal theory, and regional history, both in frequently taught texts such as The Call of the Wild, "To Build a Fire," and Martin Eden and in his lesser-known works.

Approaches to Teaching the Works of Jack London (Approaches to Teaching World Literature)

Words, Language & Grammar

Modern Language Association of America

A prolific and enduringly popular author�and an icon of American fiction�Jack London is a rewarding choice for inclusion in classrooms from middle school to graduate programs. London�s biography and the role played by celebrity have garnered considerable attention, but the breadth of his personal experiences and political views and the many historical and cultural contexts that shaped his work are key to gaining a nuanced view of London�s corpus of works, as this volume�s wide-ranging perspectives and examples attest.
The first section of this volume, �Materials,� surveys the many resources available for teaching London, including editions of his works, sources for his photography, and audiovisual aids. In part 2, �Approaches,� contributors recommend practices for teaching London�s works through the lenses of socialism and class, race, gender, ecocriticism and animal studies, theories of evolution, legal theory, and regional history, both in frequently taught texts such as The Call of the Wild, �To Build a Fire,� and Martin Eden and in his lesser-known works.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Reesman, Jeanne Campbell. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Reesman, Jeanne Campbell

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Reesman, Jeanne Campbell. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

‘No Mentor but Myself’: Jack London on Writing and Writers, Second Edition

Jack London: A Study in Short Fiction (Studies in Short Fiction Series)

Jack London, Rev. Ed. (United States Authors Series)

American Designs: The Late Novels of James and Faulkner (Anniversary Collection)

Critical Companion to Jack London: A Literary Reference to His Life and Work

Jack London, Photographer

Jack London's Racial Lives: A Critical Biography

Approaches to Teaching the Works of Jack London (Approaches to Teaching World Literature)

Approaches to Teaching the Works of Jack London (Approaches to Teaching World Literature)