Books

Illustrated by Philip R. Goodwin and Charles Livingston Bull. Decorated by Charles Edward Hooper. First edition, first printing. Publisher's decorative olive green cloth designed by an unidentified designer with the monogram "CX" with three panel illustration of sled dogs and their masters in the Yukon to the front board in red, white, and black, illustration of a sled dog to the spine in red, white, and black, lettered in gilt, top edge gilt, blue pictorial endpapers and pictorial title page designed by Hooper; lacking the scarce original dust jacket. Very good, with light rubbing and light bubbling to cloth on spine, a touch of fraying to spine ends, clean and bright boards, small bump to bottom edge of front board, corners lightly bumped, contemporary ownership signature to half-title page, and discrete reinforcement to gutters between pp. 132 - 133 and 172 - 173. Overall, a vibrant copy of this powerful work. BAL 11876. Originally published serially in The Saturday Evening Post in 1903, The Call of the Wild is the story of a domesticated dog harnessing his wild instincts during the 1890s Klondike Gold Rush in the Yukon Territory. The novel is written from the point of view of the main character Buck, a St. Bernard-Scotch Collie, who is stolen from his happy home in California and, after being mistreated by a series of handlers along the way, is taken to the Klondike region of Canada to be trained to work as a sled dog. Although he struggles to adapt to pack life, Buck quickly proves himself, becomes pack leader, and eventually finds a new, benevolent owner, with whom he remains until the owner's death, at which point Buck goes completely "into the wild." In 1906, London published the companion novel White Fang, the thematic opposite of The Call of the Wild; while The Call of the Wild concerns a dog's natural wild instincts, White Fang is about an undomesticated creature's ability to be tamed.

Published in 1903, The Call of the Wild is a novel by Jack London. The story is set during the Klondike Gold Rush and follows a domesticated dog named Buck, who is stolen from his home and sold into the brutal life of an Alaskan sled dog.