Jack London, Moon-Face and Other Stories

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 1902

Places

United States (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Story Collection

Resources

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The thirty-year-old, internationally acclaimed Jack London cobbled together

Moon-Face and Other Stories

in 1906 to meet his mounting expenses, especially the building of his – unseaworthy – sailboat

Snark

. The only gem in this uneven short-story collection is “All Gold Canyon”, an environment-minded tale of prospecting that contains some of his “best lyrical description and dramatic narrative” (Labor, “Introduction”, xvii). Alongside it are seven potboilers noteworthy only for their autobiographical traces and superficial treatment of issues of lifelong interest to London, such as the evils of capitalism, Darwinian evolutionary theory, or writing for the newspapers.

“All Gold Canyon” opens with the description of an Edenic Sierra canyon pervaded by a “spirit of the

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2647 words

Citation: Fachard, Alexandre. "Moon-Face and Other Stories". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 03 June 2017 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=35827, accessed 26 April 2024.]

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