Erwin Magnus Books

The semiautobiographical Martin Eden is the most vital and original character Jack London ever created. Set in San Francisco, this is the story of Martin Eden, an impoverished seaman who pursues, obsessively and aggressively, dreams of education and literary fame. London, dissatisfied with the rewards of his own success, intended Martin Eden as an attack on individualism and a criticism of ambition; however, much of its status as a classic has been conferred by admirers of its ambitious protagonist. Andrew Sinclair's wide-ranging introduction discusses the conflict between London's support of socialism and his powerful self-will. Sinclair also explores the parallels and divergences between the life of Martin Eden and that of his creator, focusing on London's mental depressions and how they affected his depiction of Eden. (back cover)

Jack London (1876-1916), was an American author and a pioneer in the then-burgeoning world of commercial magazine fiction. He was one of the first Americans to make a lucrative career exclusively from writing. London was self-educated. He taught himself in the public library, mainly just by reading books. In 1898, he began struggling seriously to break into print, a struggle memorably described in his novel, Martin Eden (1909). Jack London was fortunate in the timing of his writing career. He started just as new printing technologies enabled lower-cost production of magazines. This resulted in a boom in popular magazines aimed at a wide public, and a strong market for short fiction. In 1900, he made $2,500 in writing, the equivalent of about $75,000 today. His career was well under way. Among his famous works are: Children of the Frost (1902), The Call of the Wild (1903), The Sea Wolf (1904), The Game (1905), White Fang (1906), The Road (1907), Before Adam (1907), Adventure (1911), and The Scarlet Plague (1912).

This Elibron Classics title is a reprint of the original edition published by Bernhard Tauchnitz in Leipzig, 1911.

Retells the adventures in the northern wilderness of a dog who is part wolf and how he comes to make his peace with man.

"The danger lay in the heavy fog which blanketed the bay, and of which, as a landsman, I had little apprehension." This is the first line that the listener hears in this tale of a man uprooted and thrust into the unfamiliar and dangerous world of the sealing sailor. Humphrey Van Weyden, a San Francisco sophisticate and an intellectual finds himself the captive voyager aboard the Ghost, captained by the brutal and barbaric Wolf Larsen. The desperate character of Van Weyden's voyage is defined by the fact that he is out of his element, in unimaginable peril, and the slave of this cynical and wild soul, Larsen. The rights of man vanish as the coast of California vanishes over the horizon.Almost immediately, the slave plots his freedom - and must confront the weakness in his soul, mind and body.Generations have been spellbound by this harrowing story of danger on the sea, psychological confrontation, and the dual nature of humankind.