As a young man in the summer of 1897, Jack London joined the Klondike gold rush. From that seminal experience emerged these gripping, inimitable wilderness tales, which have endured as some of London’s best and most defining work. With remarkable insight and unflinching realism, London describes the punishing adversity that awaited men in the brutal, frozen expanses of the Yukon, and the extreme tactics these adventurers and travelers adopted to survive. As Van Wyck Brooks observed, “One felt that the stories had been somehow lived–that they were not merely observed–that the author was not telling tales but telling his life.”
Added by: Kahena | Karma: 11526.37 | Fiction literature | 10 November 2010
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The Son of the Wolf - Tales of the North
Although Jack London (1876-1916) wrote on a great variety of subjects, he gained his first and most lasting fame as the author of tales of the Klondike gold rush. At the age of twenty-one London himself had trekked to the Yukon in hope of easy riches. What he found instead was a wealth of extraordinary experience, which he turned to account in his first collection of stories, The Son of the Wolf: Tales of the Far North (1900). The book centres on the exploits of Malemute Kid, who dispenses crude but unerring justice through his canny understanding of the minds and hearts of the people of this raw frontier territory.
Added by: Kahena | Karma: 11526.37 | Fiction literature | 8 November 2010
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Iron Heel
Novel by Jack London, published in 1908, describing the fall of the United States to the cruel fascist dictatorship of the Iron Heel, a group of monopoly capitalists. Fearing the popularity of socialism, the plutocrats of the Iron Heel conspire to eliminate democracy and, with their secret police and military, terrorize the citizenry. They instigate a German attack on Hawaii on Dec. 4, 1912; as socialist revolutions topple capitalist governments around the world, the Iron Heel has 52 socialist members of the U.S. Congress imprisoned for treason. Elements of London's vision of fascism, civil war, and governmental oppression proved to be prophetic in the first half of the 20th century.
Reverend Charles Watts Whistler MRCS, LSA, (1856-1913) was a writer of historic fiction that plays between 600 and 1100 AD, usually based on early English/Saxon chronicles, Norse or Danish Sagas and archeological discoveries. He studied medicine at St Thomas's Hospital, London, and was a Member of the Royal College of Surgeons and a Licentiate of the Society of Apothecaries. The story takes place around ca. 935 AD.
Top 10 London (Eyewitness Top 10 Travel Guides) 2010
Drawing on the same standards of accuracy as the acclaimed Eyewitness Travel Guides, each book in Top 10 series uses evocative color photography, excellent cartography, and up-to-date travel content to create a reliable and useful pocket-sized travel guide. Dozens of Top 10 lists provide vital information on each destination, as well as insider tips, from uncovering a city's most memorable sights to finding the best restaurants and hotels in each neighborhood. And to save you time and money, there's even a Top 10 list of Things to Avoid.
