From the Science Fiction Stories of Jack London, edited by James Bankes, Citadel Press, 1993, pages 1-34
I will note that there is discrepancy between the contents declared on the dust cover and what is actually listed in the contents.
James Bankes begins with a concise overview of London’s life, wherein he strikes directly to the character of the man rather than his better known acts or works. The chronology provided helps the reader chart London’s progress as an author and writing celebrity. It is worth noting that London was Hemingway before Hemingway was Hemingway. London wrote in a world that still harbored many mysteries, before the means of electronic communications we depend upon today. Writers like London, who lived real lives as sailors, hobos and adventurers, if only for a few years, and then travelled the world as they wrote for newspapers, magazines and book publishers, were a cross between a modern novelist, a national news caster, and a reality TV figure.
London died at the early age of 40, an age at which many authors just begin to hit their stride. Bankes notes that London had long referred to death as ‘solving the mystery,’ and then thoughtfully arranges his science-fiction in chronological order. London’s early fiction is all about mortality, longevity and rejuvenation, all on the dark science-fiction side of literature. He later became famous for straight adventure fiction. One wonders what he might have written in his 40s, 50s and 60s if he had enjoyed the longevity that seemed to haunt him in his early years. I think the answer is more and deeper science-fiction; the genre he began writing in, and finished writing in.
Who Believes in Ghosts!, the Oakland High School Aegis, 10/21/1895
This simple adolescent tale of 4 students investigating a supposedly haunted house is well-written and told mostly through dialogue. There is nothing special about it until London brings us to the chess game between the two boys assigned to spend the night within the house. They both become possessed by the ghosts of slain house occupants and the game unfolds with a dark intensity.
A Thousand Deaths, the Black Cat [Boston] in May 1899
This first-person narrative concerns the fate of an escaped sailor who drowns in San Francisco Bay, only to discover that a ship’s captain has had the men of his ship fish him from the water and revive him. The captain turns out to be the sailor’s eccentric father, who had long since disowned him, and was now embarked on a mission of scientific inquiry. The first experiment had been a success. The protagonist was brought back to life with a type of respirator. The sailor hires on for the voyage, but soon learns that he is to be kept on a South Seas island and killed over and over again in a dizzying variety of ways, to determine the range of his father’s life-restoring apparatus.
If you are writing steam punk or science-fiction set in the late 1800s there is a wealth of information here on what was being speculated about among doctors, scientists, and the more curious lay people of the day.
The Rejuvenation of Major Rathbone, Conkey’s Home Journal, November 1899
This may be the first superhero story. A man involved with a scientific project for rejuvenating older people in order to prolong life and the quality of life, relates the experience of he and his colleague with their first subject. London approached this tale dryly, very much as a question. This was my least favorite of the three tales that began Jack London’s writing career. He does, however, expose his story generation process through the protagonist, which will aid the reader who wonders about the inspiration and research behind his later work.
It is suggested by these three works that Jack London, as a youth, pondered seriously the question of human consciousness surviving physical death, and early on made the transition from ghost story to science-fiction as a medium for examining the possibilities.
James, I still revisit Londons stories, his works had a profound influence on my early youth. The two books Call of the Wild and White Fang are still unresolved in my mind, one animal going back to the wild, another accepted the yoke of civilization, I sometime think he was conflicted in the same way. You mentioned the modern miracle of antibiotics which saved both of our lives, pneumonia and blood poisoning, almost killed me. When I was in the ICU, I was not afraid of dying, when the meth head was going to bash out my brains, no fear there either. I probably follow the wolf to domestication, because I want to hang around to see how this purge I feel coming is going to turn out. We are the watchers, you have more of the shaman in your I believe, my fear is gone for the most part, but there is something waiting for both of us, we both live I belive for that moment. Your friend Ishmael.
The two times I was convinced I was going to die were moments of curiosity for me.
I will be reviewing more Jack London. The man wrote young and died young, and seemed somewhat old all along.
Take care out there. I'll be training with your stick today.