The Complete Short Stories of Jack London ed. by Earle Labor, Robert C. Leitz III, I. Milo Shepard

Abstract

real or imagined entity, permutations ofthe captivity narrative and the captivity psychology will no doubt continue to evolve.” MARK SCHLENZ University ofCalifornia, Santa Barbara Reviews 181 The CompleteShortStoriesofJackLondon. Edited byEarle Labor, Robert C. Leitz III and I. Milo Shepard. (Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 1993. 2557 pages, three volumes, $180.00.) For decades Jack London was derided as that “California writer of dog stories for boys.”Well, this superb collection ofall his short stories should dispel that derision for all time, and give London his rightful place among foremost short story authors. Arranged chronologically, with more than adequate indexes and notes, these volumes show the full scope ofLondon’sdevelopment as a storyteller, and the wide range of his interests and skills. Only a handful of these stories may be properly labeled “dog stories.” This collection shows the depth and range of London’s interests, with stories on aging, alcoholism, boxing, bull-fighting, child labor, ecology, extra-terrestrial fantasy, gambling, gold mining, love, mental retardation, myth, political corruption, psychology, racial and sexual exploitation, revolution, scientific experimentation, seafaring, slum life, sui­ cide, war, wildlife, and the writing game—and this list is not complete. How timely some of these themes seem! Of the 197 stories included in this three-volume edition, 161 were included in the twenty volumes of London’s published short stories. These 161 stories appeared in collections overseen by London himself or by Charmian London and George Brent. Texts for the remaining stories appeared only in printed serial form, and nine were available from extant manuscripts. It is true that some of these stories have appeared in collected editions published in recent years—as, for example, the six Oakland High School AEGIS stories that were collected in a book published in 1980. In a similar manner, other stories have appeared in collected form in recent years. Some of London’s stories are difficult to classify as short stories. For instance ‘The Game,” even though it was published in book form as a novel, actually contains fewer words than such long stories as “Planchette”and “Won­ der of Woman.” Although this collection professes to reflect all of London’s extant short fiction, no mention is made of the last story London was working on at the time of his death. “The Eyes of Asia”was intended to be a novel, it remained unfinished at his death, and was actually published as a short story in the September 1924 issue of Cosmopolitan Magazine. Some mention should have been made of this last work of London’s. 182 WesternAmerican Literature The three volumes make a handsome set in their colorful dust jackets. Together with the three-volume Letters ofJack London published earlier by the same press, and with the same three editors, they make an impressive and detailed collection of much of London’s work and life. Volume Three has a useful appendix giving the publication history of all the stories taken from London’s own notebooks, and there isa useful alphabetical index ofthe titles of all the stories. Hidden in the center of each of the three volumes (not men­ tioned in the Table of Contents) is a nice cache of illustrations, some of the author and some of his manuscripts, and illustrations from his books and stories. This collection is a valuable contribution to London scholarship. With the earlier Letters. .. volumes, London’s place in the canon of American literature seems at last secure. Now if we could just have the definitive biography of London—sayin two handsome volumes—the London shelfwould be complete. GEORGE H. TWENEY Seattle, Washington ComingtoGripswithHuckleberry Finn:Essayson aBook, aBoy, and aMan. ByTom Quirk. (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1993. 167 pages, $24.95.) Collecting six of his essays, Tom Quirk explores the composition ofTwain’s masterpiece and issues such as its realism, its “heirs,” and its political correct­ ness. The essays, separately insightful and even brilliant in places, prove repeti­ tive as a collection. The first three essays, which draw heavily on Walter Blair’s book Mark Twain and HuckFinn, all deal with the writing of the novel because of Quirk’s interest in “the acts of the imagination.”As Quirk warns us in the...