White Fang by Jack London

Curated by Kevin ShermanPhotographs by Hayley Battaglia

Jack London White FangMethuen and Company, London, 1907

Born under the name of John Griffith London in San Francisco, London would inevitably become one of the most widely published American authors of the 20th century. Many of his stories are drawn directly from his personal observations of the places he illuminates through his writing, and White Fang is no exception. The story, first serialized in Outing magazine, is considered to be the sequel to the famous The Call of the Wild. The story revolves around a wild wolf/dog in the Yukon Territory. The reader follows the dramatic shift between a youthful, playful, and innocent pup into a cunning, morose, and savage wolf. White Fang grows into a ruthless fighter able to survive any sort of encounter due his mystical ability to always retain his footing.

At the crux of the story, White Fang has become almost evil, knowing only to fight and kill whatever is placed in front of him due to the worse and worse treatment of his owners. However, after the only fight the wolf ever lost, a new owner sought to redeem him from his past behavior and to tame White Fang. The story evolves into a whirlwind of confused emotions and actions on the part of White Fang based on not intuition but pure instinct, sensation, and simple pattern recognition.

This splendid copy of Jack London’s White Fang is a first United Kingdom edition printed in London, England in 1907. Published and printed by Methuen and Company, who also published works from Robert Louis Stevenson, Oscar Wilde, T.S. Eliot, and others, this copy is of excellent workmanship. Charles Livingston Bull is the illustrator and he also designed the wolf vignette cover frontispiece. Bull is an American artist whom from a young age greatly enjoyed the drawing of animals. Greatly influenced by Japanese prints, as is evident with the designs found in White Fang, Bull was a member of the National Arts Club, the Architectural League, the Society of Mural Painters, the Animal Painters and Sculptors, the American Institute of Graphic Arts, the Illustrator's Club, and many others. His work is widely exhibited in many private collections and museums, and he has illustrated many of Jack London’s original works. Student Curator: Kevin Sherman

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