Bibliography of Literary Scholarship on Jack London


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Literary Criticism

Biographical Information

Compilations and Anthologies

Periodicals and Journals

London on Film

London on the Stage

Foreign Translations and Criticism


Literary Criticism

Auerbach, Johnathan. Male Call: Becoming Jack London. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1996.

Barltrop, Robert. Jack London: the Man, the Writer, the Rebel. London: Pluto Press, 1976.

Boone, Joseph A. "Male Independence and the American Quest Genre: Hidden Sexual Politics in the All-Male Worlds of Melville, Twain, and London." Gender Studies: New Directions in Feminist Criticism, Judith Spector, ed. Bowling Green, 1986. Pp. 187-217. (Looks at The Sea-Wolf.)

Brown, Joe. "The cruising dreams of Jack London." Cruising World, June 1995 v21 n6 p34(5) (includes excerpt from London's 'Cruise of the Snark') Abstract: Noted writer Jack London of 'The Call of the Wild' and 'The Sea Wolf' fame was an adventurer and seafarer. Some of his best writings are derived from his sea adventures and continue to enthrall many readers, 80 years after his death.

Cain, William E. "Socialism, Power, and the Fate of Style: Jack London in his Letters." American Literary History 3 [1991]: 603-13.

Carter, Ron. "Jack London in Poland, 1909-1991; A Bibliographical Essay." ?

Cassuto, Leonard and Jeanne Campbell Reesman, eds. Rereading Jack London. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1996.

Crow, Charles S. "Homecoming in the California Visionary Romantic." Western American Literature 24 [1989]: 1-19. (On Valley of the Moon seeing California as a visionary place.)

Crowley, John W. The White Logic. 1994. (About John Barleycorn as "the drunk narrative".)

DeVille, Peter. "In or Out of the Camp Fire: Lawrence and Jack London’s Dogs." Notes and Queries 38 [1991]: 339-41. (About The Rainbow and White Fang.)

Doctorow, E.L. Jack London, Hemingway, and the Constitution: Selected Essays, 1977-1992. Random House, 1993.

Duncan, Charles. "Where Priggishness Flourishes: Contextualizing Strategies in Norris and London." Frank Norris Studies 14 [1992]: 1-6. (Mainly about Norris’s A Man’s Woman.)

Epstein, Mark. Complete Short Stories, 3 vols. (book reviews) Insight on the News, Dec 12, 1994 v10 n50 p26(1)

Feinberg, Lorne. A Cuckoo in the Nest of Culture: Changing Perspectives on the Businessman in the American Novel, 1865-1914. Garland, 1988. (Mainly about D.W. Howells, but London mentioned, among others.)

Foner, Philip Sheldon. Jack London - American Rebel. New York: Citadel Press, 1964.

Foot, Michael. "Jack London: A Life." New Statesman (1996), July 25, 1997 v126 n4344 p45(2) (book reviews)

Gair, Christopher. " ‘A Trade, Like Anything Else’: Martin Eden and the Literary Marketplace." Essays in Literature, Western Illinois University 19 [1992]: 246-59.

---. "Gender and Genre: Nature, Naturalism, and Authority in The Sea Wolf"." Studies in American Fiction 22 [1994]: 131-48.

---. "London Calling: The Importance of Jack London to Contemporary Cultural Studies." Works and Days: Essays in the Socio-Historical Dimensions of Literature and the Arts, ii [1993]: 27-43.

---. " ‘The Way Our People Came’: Citizenship, Capitalism and Racial Difference in The Valley of the Moon." Studies in the Novel, N. Texas State University 25 [1993]: 418-35.

Garst, Shannon. Jack London: Magnet for Adventure. New York: J. Messner, 1944.

Hamilton, David Mike. "The Tools of My Trade": The Annotated Books in Jack London’s Library. Washington, 1986. (Explores London’s use of books and pamphlets as source material for fiction.)

Harry, Kevin J. Dissertations on Jack London, 1936-1987: Evidence for Canonicity.

Hendricks, King. Jack London: Master Craftsman of the Short Story. Logan, UT: Utah State University Press, 1966.

Hensley, Dennis E. "With his eyes wide open." (writing technique suggested by Jack London's 'Martin Eden') Writer's Digest, Feb 1994 v74 n2 p80(2) Brief Summary: London discussed the vision of an author through his character Martin Eden. Good writers and poets have the ability to see and express details others miss. Such vision involves all the senses, turning a scene into an experience of depth and complexity.

"Jack London in 1900: Besting Norris in the Far North." Frank Norris Studies Frontiers 16 [1993]: 6-7. (Compares London’s and Norris’s treatments of the Arctic; reprint of April 1900 rave review in Town Topics.)

"Jack London’s New Woman: A Little Lady With a Big Stick." SAF 22 [1994]: 185-214. (About The Little Lady of the Big House.)

Johnson, Adam. "Book Critique of Jack London’s ‘The Sea Wolf’". http://www.port-aransas.k12. tx.us/HS/HIST/SeaWolf.html.

Johnston, Carolyn. Jack London - an American Radical? Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1984.

Kerner, David. "The Origins of Hemingway’s Anti-Metronomic Dialogue." Analytical and Enumerative Bibliography 2 [1988]: 12-28.. (Mainly about Hemingway; "scours O. Henry, Jack London, 1917-18 copy from the Kansas City Star, and current examples from New York Times" explain Hemingway’s use of end-quoted and newly indented dialogue from the same speaker.)

Labor, Earl and Jeanne Campbell Reesman. Jack London. New York: Twayne Publishers, 1st ed. 1974, 1994 (new edition).

Lachtman, Howard. "Criticism of Jack London: A Selected Checklist." Modern Fiction Studies 22 (Spring 1976): 107-125.

Lundquist, James. Jack London: Adventures, Ideas, and Fiction. Ungar’s Life and Literature series, 1987.

Martin, Stoddard. California Writers: Jack London, John Steinbeck, The Tough Guys. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1983.

McClintock, James I. "Edward Abbey’s ‘Antidotes to Despair’." Critique-Studies in Modern Fiction 31 [1989]: 41-54. (Places Abbey in Western tradition with London.)

---. Jack London’s Strong Truths: A Study of His Short Stories. East Lansing, MI: Michigan State University Press, 1975.

Nash, Charles. "ack London: A Life." (book reviews) Library Journal, Jan 1998 v123 n1 p100(1)

Nathan, Paul. "Two views of London." Publishers Weekly, July 29, 1996 v243 n31 p25(1) (Jack London; film rights deal for 'The Adventure Path'; miniseries deal for 'American Dreamers: Charmian and Jack London') .

Nuernberg, Susan M., "Jack London, Revised Edition." (book reviews) Studies in Short Fiction, Spring 1995 v32 n2 p278(2)

Nuernberg, Susan M., ed. The Critical Response to Jack London. Westwood, CT.: Greenwood Press, 1995.

Ownbey, Ray Wilson. Jack London: Essays in Criticism. Santa Barbara, Ca: Preregrine Smith, 1978.

Poole, Gordon. "The Drunken Scheherazade: Self-Reflection in Jack London’s The Road, Martin Eden and John Barleycorn." RSA Journal - Rivista de Studi Nord-Americani 1 [1990]: 69-80.

Portelli, Alessandro. "Jack London’s Missing Revolution: The Iron Heel." The Text and the the Voice [1994], 247-53.

Reesman, Jeanne C. "The Problem of Knowledge in Jack London’s ‘The Water-Baby’." Western American Literature 23 [1988]: 201-15. (How London’s reading of Jung affects the story.)

Reesman, Jeanne Campbell & Earle Labor, eds. Jack London. TUSAS - Twayne’s U.S. Author Series 230, 1994. (New edition.)

Robinson, Forrest G. Having It Both Ways, pp. 55-78. 1993. (About the character Maud in The Sea-Wolf.)

Schick, William J. The Ethos of Romance. 1994. ("A Thousand Deaths" as early political allegory.)

Shor, Francis. "The Iron Heel’s Marginal(ized) Utopia." Extrapolation 35: 211-29. 1994.

Tavernier-Courbin, Jacqueline, ed. Critical Essays on Jack London. Boston, MA: G.K.Hall, 1983.

Tavernier-Courbin, Jacqueline. "Social Myth as Parody in Jack London’s Northern Tales." Thalia 9, ii [1987]: 3-14. (Parodies myths by putting them in Klondike setting; feminist criticism.)

---. The Call of the Wild: A Naturalistic Romance. Twayne – Twayne Masterwork Series, 1994. (Reads novel as naturalist, archetypal, mythic, and romantic)

Vanderbeets, Richard. "Nietzsche of the North: Heredity and Race in London’s The Son of the Wolf." Western American Literature (Fall 1967).

Walker, Dale. The Alien Worlds of Jack London. Grand Rapids, MI: Wolf House Books, 1973.

Walter, Franklin, ed. Jack London and the Klondike. Huntington Library, 1994. (New edition.)

Ward, Susan. "Jack London and the Blue Pencil: London’s Correspondence With Popular Editors." American Literary Realism 1879-1900 (Spring, 1991).

---. "Jack London as a Children’s Writer." Children’s Litrature, 1976.

---. "Social Philosophy as a Best-Seller: Jack London’s The Sea Wolf." Western American Literature, 1983.

Watson, Charles N., Jr. The Novels of Jack London: A Reappraisal. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 1983.

Whittemore, Reed. "Rediscovering The People of the Abyss by Jack London." Georgia Review 47 [1993]: 733-39.

---. Six Literary Lives. Missouri, 1992. (Whittemore "detects a ‘shared impiety’ among Adams, London, Sinclair, Dos Passos, William Carlos Williams, and Allen Tate which acts as a precondition to modernism in the arts".)

Williams, James. "The Composition of Jack London’s Writings." American Literary Realism 1870-1910 23, ii [1991]: 64-86.

Williams, Tony. "The Mutiny of the Elsinore – A Re-evaluation." JLN 19 [1986]: 13-41. ("He wishes to persuade us that the racism and glorification of the ruling class conveyed in the novel are not expressions of London’s own beliefs.")

Woodward, Robert H. "Jack London’s Code of Primitivism." Folio (May 1953).

---. Jack London and the Amateur Press. Cedar Springs, Mich.: Wolf House Books, 1983.


Biographical Information

Beauchamp, Gorman. Jack London. Mercer islands, Wash.: Starmont House, 1984.

Claflin, Edward B. Wilderness Writer

Day, Arthur Grove. Jack London in the South Seas. New York: Four Winds Press, 1971.

Denko, Charles W. "Jack London: A Modern Analysis of His Mysterious Disease." Journal of Rheumatology 20 [1993]: 1760-63. (Diagnoses London’s illness as systematic lupus erythematosis, unknown in London’s day.)

Dillon, Laileewan. "Becky London: The Quiet Survivor Talks About Her Father." The Californians 9 [1992]: 34-39. (Based on two interviews with London’s younger daughter.)

Finnegan, Lora J. "London in Oakland." (attractions of Jack London's hometown in Oakland, California). Sunset, July 1995 v195 n1 p22(1). Abstract: Fans of Jack London can visit author's hometown in Oakland, CA. Attractions include the Jack London Museum, Heinnold's First and Last Chance Saloon and the log cabin where he lived during the 1897 Klondike Gold Rush.

Freund, Charles Paul. "Call of the whites: the skeleton in environmentalism's closet is nature." Reason, April 1997 v28 n11 p52(2). Abstract: The naming of a main street in the Yukon city of Whitehorse after Jack London has been cancelled after an Indian tribe accused him of racism. The Jack London Road would have been a tribute to the man who brought the Yukon to the limelight.

Frolich, Finn Hoakon; comp. and ed. By Margaret Giuford-Kardell. "Sea Dog and Sea Wolf at Play in the Valley of the Moon." The Californians 8 [1991]: 14-23. ("Sculptor’s fond account of his friendship with London.")

Hannah, George S. "My dad and Jack London." (correspondence)Saturday Evening Post, March-April 1995 v267 n2, p46(3) Brief Summary: Included are a series of letters exchanged by author Jack London and a young orphan named Stanford Hannah who began the correspondence hoping to get London's autograph. The letters reveal some of London's attitudes on matters like war and honor.

Holtz, Willliam. "Jack London’s First Biographer". Western American Literature 27 [1992]: 37-46 (About Lane vs. Charmian over bio of London.)

---. The Ghost in the Little House: A Life of Rose Wilder Lane. Missouri, 1993. (Lane was the first biographer of London, as well as Charlie Chaplin and Henry Ford.)

Imperato, Pascal James and Elanor M. Imperato. They Married Adventure: The Wandering Lives of Martin and Osa Johnson. Rutgers, 1992. (The Johnsons were filmmakers and explorers, and friends of London’s.)

Karman, James. Robinson Jeffers, Poet of California. to Chronicle, 1987. (Has section on his relationship with London.)

Kimball, Bobby Ellen, ed., assisted by William E. Grant. "London treated in biographical-critical essay in American Short-Story Writers, 1880-1910. DLB 78 – Dictionary of Literary Biography, 2nd volume. 1989.

Labor, Earle. A Literary History of the West, pp. 381-97: 1987. (A brief overview of London’s life and career with an emphasis on stories and books dealing with California.)

Labor, Earle and Robert C. Leitz III. "Jack London on Alexander Berkman: An Unpublished Introduction." American Literature 61 [1989]: 447-56. (On London’s unsympathetic remarks about anarchism and Emma Goldman.)

Labor, Earle, et al., eds. The Letters of Jack London. Stanford, 1988. (Three volumes; "… sure to become a standard source of biographical information.")

London, Joan. Jack London and His Daughters. Heyday, 1990. ("Dealing with the conflicting loyalties within the London family.")

London, Joan. Jack London and His Times: An Unconventional Biography by Joan London. New York: Book League of America, 1st ed. 1939, newer ed. 1968.

O’Connor, Richard. Jack London: A Biography. Boston: Little, Brown, 1964.

Pizer, Donald. "Jack London." The Reader's Companion to American History, Edition 1991 (2), p677.

Robillard, Douglas, ed. The Kempton-Wace Letters. New College and UP, 1990.

Shillingsburg, Miriam. "Jack London, Socialist in Sydney." Australian Literature Studies 13 [1987]: 233-36. (About his experience in Australia recuperating from Snark illnesses.)

Stasz, Clarice. Charmian and Jack London. St. Martin’s, 1988. (Centers on Charmian’s sacrifice of her own potential for achievement of Jack’s creativity; feminist.)

Williams, Tony. "Memories of Jack: An Interview with Becky London." JLN 19 [1986]: 1-10.

Zamen, Mark E. "London." JLN 18 [1985]: 36-46. (Describes London’s career as a lecturer.)

---. Standing Room Only: Jack London’s Controversial Career as a Public Speaker. Peter Lang, 1990.


Compilations and Anthologies

Etulian, Richard W., ed. Jack London on the Road: The Tramp Diary and Other Hobo Writings. First pub. 1979, reprinted 1987. (First complete printing of tramp diary, plus all fiction, essays, etc. about tramp experience except The Road.)

Kingman, Russ. A Collector’s Guide to Jack London’s Non-Fictional Works. Glen Ellen, CA: Jack London Research Center, n.d.

Kingman, Russ. A Collector’s Guide to Jack London First Appearances. Glen Ellen, CA: Jack London Research Center, n.d.

Labor, Earle, Robert C. Leitz III, & I. Milo Shepard, eds. Complete Short Stories of Jack London. Stanford, 1993. (3 vols.; 197 stories arranged chronologically; 5 never published before, 28 for the first time since their initial magazine publication; "The most important event in London scholarship this year.")

Labor, Earle, et al., eds. Short Stories of Jack London. Macmillan, 1990. (One-volume authorized edition of 50 short stories.)

Labor, Earle, ed. The Portable Jack London. New York: Viking Penguin, 1994.

Lee, Brian. American Fiction. 1987. (considers "Impossible Future and Impossible Pasts" in the work of London and others.)

Sharpe, Jo Ann. Jack London Newsletter index. Santa Barbara, CA (POB 61455, zip 93160): Sharpe, 1996.

Sherman, Joan. Jack London: A Reference Guide. Boston: G.K.Hall, 1977.

Sisson, James E. "Jack London’s Published Poems: A Chronological Bibliography." The London Collector 1 (July 1970): 20-21.

Sisson, James E. Jack London’s Plays: A Chronological Bibliography. Oakland, Calif.: Holmes Book Company, 1972.

Walker, Dale L., and James E. Sisson III. The Fiction of Jack London: A Chronological Bibliography. El Paso: Texas Western Press, 1972.

Woodbridge, Hensley C., John London, and George H. Tweney. Jack London: A Bibliography. Georgetown, Calif.: Talisman Press, 1st ed. 1966, 2nd ed. 1973.


Periodicals and Journals

American Literary Realism 1870-1910, special issue. "A Symposium on Jack London." 24, ii [1992]. ("Contains four substantial essays" by Sam S. Baskett, Earle Labor, Lawrence I. Bekove, and Jeanne Campbell Reesman.)

The Call: The Newsletter of the Jack London Society. San Antonio, TX: University of Texas in San Antonio.

Etulain, Richard, ed. Special issue of Western American Literature. Vol. XI, Summer Call 1976.

Jack London Echoes. Chester, S.C: D.M. Bates, 1981 -

Jack London Journal. Chicago, IL.: Skysail, Inc., 1994 -

Jack London Newsletter. Carbondale, IL.: H.C Woodbridge, 1967-88.

Labor, Earle, ed. Special issue of Modern Fiction Studies, Vol. 22, Spring 1976.

Pacific Historian. Vol. 21, Summer 1977.

Tavernier-Courbin, Jacqueline, introduction and ed. Thalia, special issue (12 [1992], i-ii) on London’s humor.

Williams, James, ed. "The new Jack London Journal, welcomes articles that reflect on ‘the connections and exchanges among the social, political, and psychological worlds in which London moved." 1993.


London on Film

Buchard, Robert S. "Jack London and the Movies." Film Review 1 [1987]: 15-38. (Narrates London’s business dealings in film around 1913.)

Williams, Tony. "Clarence E. Shurtleff Presents Jack London, 1919-1921." Wide Angle 15, iii [1993]: 56-72.

---. "From London’s The Unexpected to Kuleshov’s By the Law." JLN 19 [1986]: 55-68. (Kuleshov’s film reworks London’s book in Marxist ideology.)

---. "History and Interpretation in the 1941 Version of Jack London’s The Sea-Wolf." JLN 19 [1986]: 78-88. (Anti-fascist allegory made by leftist-liberal sympathizers.)

---. Jack London – The Movies: An Historical Survey. Rejl, 1992


London on the Stage

Newlin, Keith. "Portrait of a Professional: The Plays of Jack London." American Literary Realism, 1870-1910 20, ii [1988]: 65-84. (Which plays did he author; genesis of plays; conscious attempts at realistic drama, early.)


Foreign Translations and Criticism

Russian:

Bukov, Vyl

Isaeva, I. N., and V.A. Libman, comp. Amerikanskaya literatura v russkoi kritke. Bibliograficheskii ukazatel’ 1981-1985. [American Literature in Russian Criticism: a Bibliographical List, 1981-1985.] Moscow: Institut Nauchnoi Informatsii po Obshchestve-nym, 1989. (Contains 34 London publications.)

Lunina, I.E. "Nekotorye aspekty poznego mirovozzrenija Dzheka Londona I roman Malen’kaya khozyaika bol’shogo doma." ["Some aspects of the Late Worldview of Jack London and the Novel The Little Lady of the Big House."] Pisatel’ I obshchestvo, pp. 122-28. 1988.

Mikhailovich, Roman, ed. Zarubezhnaya Literatura [Foreign Literature]. First pub. 1979, second ed. 1987. Pp. 307-26. (London mentioned in essay first published in early 1960s, "Problema naturalizma v literature SSHA I razvitie amerikanskogo romana na rubezhe XIX-XX uekov" ["The Problem of Naturalism in U.S. Literature and the Development of the American Novel at the Turn of the 19th and 20th Centuries"].

Sossinsky, Sergei. "Missed by the railroad line." (town of Kologriv in Kostrama Province, Russia) Moscow News, April 17, 1997 p16(1) Abstract: The local museum is one of the main attractions of
the small town of Kologriv in Kostroma Province, Russia. The museum houses the works of two talented artists, namely, painter Gennady Ladyzhensky and sculptor Yefim Chestnyakov. Another interesting aspect of town culture is Vladimir Osipov who
was raised in Siberia. He is described as someone straight out
of a Jack London tale who often recites tales of his growing up years to interested listeners.

Zverev, A.M. Jack London: On the Centennial of His Birthday. Trans. Olga Orechwa. Carbondale, IL.: Jack London Newsletter, 1980.

Italian:

Maffi, Mario, ed. Racconti dello Yukon e dei Mari del Sud. Milan: Arnoldo Mondadori, 1989. (Two-volume collection which includes "The Dream of Debs.")

Mauro, Walter, introduction. La sfida e altre storie di boxe. Rome: Newton Compton, 1994. ( Italian edition of "The Game, the Mexican and a Piece of Steak.")

Pagetti, Carlo, ed. Il laboratorio dei sogni. Rome: Editori Ruiniti, 1988. (Collection of 19th/ early 20th century science-fiction; includes "The Dream of Debs.")

Placido, Beniamino, introduction. Racconti del Pacifico. Parma: Guanda, 1990. ("Another, partially overlapping Jack London volume . . . with an enthusiastic introduction.")

German:

Pache, Walter. "Jack London: ‘The Pearls of Parley’." Die englische und amerikanische Kurzgeschichte. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1991. P. 196-208.

Japanese:

Jack London Society, comp. Jack London: Essays on the Man and the Work. Sanyusha Shuppan, 1989. ("…a well-informed and comprehensive contribution to London scholarship here and abroad.")

Nakada, Sachiko. Fusotachi no Kamigami: Jack London, Upton Sinclair to Nihonjin. [Gods of our Fathers: Jack London and Upton Sinclair in Japan.] Tokyo: Kokusho Kankokai, 1991.


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