The name Jack London immediately conjures visions of the Klondike: dogsleds, gold mines and men and women trapped in the Darwinian struggle to survive against the elements and each other. London will be read for centuries for these stories.
What some readers may not be aware of is that London was a magazine writer. And that means writing whatever editors are buying. In between tales of the Gold Rush London wrote other kinds of stories. “The Game” is a short novel about boxing. Tales of the Fish Patrol chronicled his adventures as a fish pirate and later working for the officers that protected the ocean from unscrupulous fishermen.
There is another small group of stories that is special to the fans of Science Fiction and Fantasy. These include about a dozen stories and four novels. If the legends are true Science Fiction saved Jack London’s life. Like most beginning writers he encountered many rejections by editors. Despondent, he decided suicide was the only way out. Then the check for his first sale “A Thousand Deaths”, arrived, saving his life. Ironically the plot is about death and suicide.
Jack London the Science Fiction writer will surprise those only familiar with the Klondike tales. London was both a racist and a Socialist. Both of these unpopular viewpoints can be seen throughout his Science Fiction. The novel The Iron Heel is about a world where Fascism exploits the workers cruelly. “The Minions of Midas”, “Goliah”, “The Strength of the Strong” and “The Dream of Debs” explore Socialist ideas. The novel “The Scarlet Plague” sums up London’s pessimistic views on social issues.
London’s racism is even stronger than his Socialist beliefs. Many Socialists preached equality under the Socialist ideal. London was not one of them. “The Unparalleled Invasion” sees China invading California, using bacterial weapons. His “lost race” tale “The Red One” lacks any romanticism in regards to the discovered tribe.
London’s belief in spiritualist ideas, popular at the turn of the century, show up in tales of racial memory possession, Ouiji boards, revenge from beyond the grave. “Planchette” is a dull tale of romance until the Ouiji board enters things. “The Man With the Gash” is a traditional ghost story set in London’s Klondike. Racial memory is a major device in The Star Rover (a book that influenced Robert E. Howard’s James Allison stories) and “When the World Was Young”. London truly believed that death was not the end of things.
Some other popular Science Fiction themes London takes a crack at include invisibility in “The Shadow and the Flash”, the prehistoric in “A Relic of the Pliocene” and Before Adam. London was not an innovator of Science Fiction like H. G. Wells. With the exception of Robert E. Howard, London’s SF and Fantasy had little effect upon the main current of the genre. Despite this, London brings his huge storytelling abilities to these stories and they are a fun ride for any reader.
The Magazine Era
“The Man With the Gash” (McClure’s, September 1900)
“A Relic of the Pliocene” (Collier’s Weekly, January 12, 1901)
“The Minions of Midas” (Pearson’s Magazine, May 1901)
“The Shadow and the Flash” (The Bookman, June 1903)
“The Unexpected” (McClure’s Magazine; August 1906)
“The Dream of Debs” (The International Socialist Review, January-February 1909)
“The Unparalleled Invasion” (McClure’s, July 1910)
“When the World Was Young” (The Saturday Evening Post, September 10, 1910)
“The Strength of the Strong” (Hampton’s Magazine, March 1911)
“The Eternity of Forms” (The Red Book Magazine, March 1911)
“The First Poet” (Century Magazine, June 1911)
“The Scarlet Plague” (The London Magazine, June 1912)
“The Scarlet Plague” (The San Francisco Examiner, June 8, 1913)
“The Princess” (Cosmopolitan, June, 1918)
“The Red One” (Cosmopolitan, October, 1918)
“In the Cave of the Dead” (Cosmopolitan, November 1918)
The Pulp Era
The Star Rover (Famous Fantastic Mysteries, February 1947)
“The Shadow and the Flash” (Famous Fantastic Mysteries, June 1948)
“The Scarlet Plague” (Famous Fantastic Mysteries, February 1949)
Conclusion
I hope readers today will stumble onto Jack London’s Science Fiction like I did. For me it was the Gregg Press edition of The Science Fiction of Jack London (1975). Reading his fantastic stories adds a dimension to London that his Klondike stories will not. I love his Northerns, so don’t get me wrong. But reading his SF shows how he was a short story writer of the 1910s in particular, looking for markets and filling them like the Pulpsters of twenty years later would do. Literary types tend to bracket him with his novels, The Sea Wolf and Call of the Wild. There is so much more going on in Jack London’s mind than just adventure and hard men. His Science Fiction and Fantasy is where to see that.
The other half of this is seeing the influence London had on writers like Robert E. Howard. Certainly REH was familiar with the sled dogs and gold panning tales but it is novels like The Star Rover that inspired him to create his own dream worlds. Howard’s fiction has the survivalism of London, his tales are always about winning over terrible odds and a hard world, where an alpha-male like Conan rises to the top. Through writers like REH, London’s story-telling legacy found its way into the Halls of Heroic Fantasy.
Many thanks for this overview! I’ve read The Iron Heel, but not much of Jack London’s other writing. FYI, George Orwell had perceptive comments on London, including the ideological contradictions in his views and writing–his genuine beliefs–existing side by side–in socialism, concern for the oppressed, etc., along with racism and social Darwinism. Orwell’s comments can be found in his essay Prophecies of Fascism, and his introduction to London’s collection “Love of Life and Other Stories.” (Both of these are in Orwell’s four-volume collected essays, letters and journalism.)
Thanks. I will check that out.