Inspired by the examples of his heroes Herman Melville, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Joshua Slocum, Jack London determined to sail around the world. In April 1907 he sailed from San Francisco in the forty-five-foot ketch Snark, with his wife, Charmian, a skeleton crew, and his writing to keep him company. Beset by seasickness and tropical disease, London wrote incessantly—not only his major autobiographical novel Martin Eden and numerous short stories, but also a series of sketches recording the voyage itself. These entertaining pieces, collected together into the book he called The Cruise of the Snark, reveal London's indefatigable spirit and love of adventure at sea and among the Pacific islands. This edition also includes London's delightful sea pieces "That Dead Men Rise Up Never" and "The Joy of Small-Boat Sailing."For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than... Views: 7
Jack London has been a best-selling author for more than one hundred years. In his short life (1876–1916) he wrote twenty-five novels and dozens of short stories, plays, and essays. Today he is recognized as a forerunner of such literary giants as Ernest Hemingway, John Steinbeck, and Jack Kerouac. Author of a number of well-known and well-loved stories in our literature (including White Fang, The Call of the Wild, and The Sea Wolf), London also worked as a day laborer, Alaskan gold rusher, and seaman. He was also an adventurer, journalist, celebrity, polemicist, and drunk.An Autobiography of Jack London is a revealing portrait of the man who was Jack London—in his own words—and is largely composed of excerpts from his memoirs: The Road, John Barleycorn, and The Cruise of the Snark. Rather than a mere biographical summary of a man's life, An Autobiography of Jack London aims to give the reader real insight into the character and personality of this... Views: 7
