Jack London, Love of Life

Alexandre Fachard (University of Geneva)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 3.2.3: American (US) Writing and Culture: The Early Twentieth-century , 1900-1945.
Vol. editors: J. Michael Duvall (College of Charleston), Emory Elliott (University of California, Riverside), Dale Enggass (University of Utah), Matthew Hofer (University of New Mexico), Stephen E. Meats (Pittsburg State University), Tony Papanikolas (San Jose State University), Justin Parks (UiT - The Arctic University of Norway), Nick Selby (University of East Anglia)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1907

Places

United States (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Story Collection

Resources

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To pay for the building of his sailboat

Snark

, in which he intended to sail round the world, the thirty-year-old Jack London published as many as six books in 1906-7. Among them was

Love of Life and Other Stories

(1907), an octet of tales mostly set in the Northland (present-day Alaska and Northern Canada). In this inhospitable land, intrusive white men and some women test themselves through hardship and engage in cross-cultural encounters with Native Americans. Survival depends on adaptation, resilience, and cunning, qualities dramatized throughout the collection and most memorably in “Love of Life”, one of literature’s most gripping short stories.

“Love of Life” begins in medias res with two “weak and tired”, heavily burdened prospectors limping “painfully” down the

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2608 words

Citation: Fachard, Alexandre. "Love of Life". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 03 June 2017 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=3847, accessed 27 April 2024.]

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