This unique book combines long excerpts of Jack London's literature with a copious amount of his photographs. It beautifully juxtaposes his worldwide famous literature with his incredible photographs, creating a dialogue between the visual and literary arts and building towards a complete understanding of the eclectic and versatile artist London. The texts collected in the book are excerpts of some of the author's books: The People of the Abyss (1903); The Russo-Japanese War (1904), with two articles from the San Francisco Examiner; The San Francisco Earthquake (1906); and The Cruise of the Snark. Sixty-nine black and white photographs of his adventures join the texts creating the artistic connection between visual and literary art that lies at the roots of London's art. Alessia Tagliaventi is a scholar of photographic history and editor of Contrasto. She has curated several photography books and catalogs. She is the author of several critical essays for numerous publications, among those My brother's keeper: Documentary Photographers and Human Rights, Master Photographers, Shadows of War, and Photoshow. She also teaches courses in the history of photography. Davide Sapienza is an Italian writer, translator, and journalist. He's a contributor in the Corriere della Sera. Since 2000, he has been dedicating himself to narrative forms strictly bound to the themes of the journey, the path of progress, and the Earth. Among his most famous works are Camminando (2014) La musica della neve (2011), Scrivere la natura (2012), I Diari di Rubha Hunish (2014), and La valle di Ognidove (2013).
Author
John Griffith Chaney (1876-1916), better known as Jack London, was an American novelist, journalist, and social activist. A pioneer of commercial fiction and American magazines, he was one of the first American authors to become an international celebrity and earn a large fortune from writing. He was also an innovator in the genre that would later become known as science fiction. His most famous works include The Call of the Wild and White Fang, both set in the Klondike Gold Rush, as well as the short stories, "To Build a Fire", "An Odyssey of the North", and "Love of Life". He also wrote about the South Pacific in stories such as "The Pearls of Parlay", and "The Heathen". London was part of the radical literary group, "The Crowd," in San Francisco and a passionate advocate of unionization, workers' rights, and socialism. He wrote several works dealing with these topics, such as his dystopian novel, The Iron Heel, his non-fiction exposé The People of the Abyss, War of the Classes, and Before Adam. London died November 22, 1916, in a sleeping porch in a cottage on his ranch. London's ashes were buried on his property, not far from the Wolf House. The grave is marked by a mossy boulder. The buildings and property were later preserved as Jack London State Historic Park, in Glen Ellen, California.
