Call of the Atlantic: Jack London's Publishing Odyssey Overseas, 1902–1916
Joseph McAleer
Abstract
Jack London (1876–1916) wasn’t just lucky at what he called the “writing game”—he is, by many accounts, the most popular American author in the world today. Two novels, The Call of the Wild and White Fang, are literary classics and have never been out of print. His forty-four published books and hundreds of short stories and essays have been translated into more than a hundred languages and universally hailed by critics. London, moreover, was America’s first novelist to earn more than one million dollars a year from his writing (more than $20 million today). A vigorous self-promoter and the ki ... More
Jack London (1876–1916) wasn’t just lucky at what he called the “writing game”—he is, by many accounts, the most popular American author in the world today. Two novels, The Call of the Wild and White Fang, are literary classics and have never been out of print. His forty-four published books and hundreds of short stories and essays have been translated into more than a hundred languages and universally hailed by critics. London, moreover, was America’s first novelist to earn more than one million dollars a year from his writing (more than $20 million today). A vigorous self-promoter and the kind of media celebrity we would recognize today, London died unexpectedly at age forty, at the zenith of his career. His death shocked the world but sealed his reputation as one of the greats. This book seeks to look behind the public persona and reveal a side of the author’s life that has been overlooked by academics and critics, yet is essential to understanding the character, drive, and success of this extraordinary man. We shall ask how London achieved international fame, and what part he played in engineering his own success with his foreign publishers. At his death, London was a recognized “brand,” as readers around the world looked forward to “the next Jack London book.” London, moreover, is read and remembered today, unlike most of his contemporaries. The answers to how this happened take us to London’s namesake city on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean.
Keywords:
Jack London,
publishing,
literary agent,
bestseller,
advertising,
royalties,
serial,
export,
brand,
longevity
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2015 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780198747819 |
| Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: January 2016 |
DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198747819.001.0001 |
