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Jack London: San Francisco Stories Kindle Edition

by Jack London (Author), Matthew Asprey (Editor), Rodger Jacobs (Preface) Format: Kindle Edition
4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 33 ratings
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From one of America's great writers, this delightful collection - the first of its kind - contains twenty-three adventurous tales set in the San Francisco Bay Area. If San Francisco has captured the world's imagination through the hardboiled stories of Dashiell Hammett, the prose and poetry of Jack Kerouac and his fellow Beats, through Orson Welles' Lady From Shanghai and Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo, it is as a romantic city of vast suspension bridges and foggy back alleys, not as the wild west of Jack London's day. Pre-quake San Francisco was a tough town, and Jack London - hobo, sailor, oyster pirate, hard drinker - was pretty tough, too. Although famous for his stories of the Klondike and the Pacific, London wrote extensively about his home base. This collection contains such classic stories as 'The Apostate' and 'South of the Slot' as well as extracts from John Barleycorn and The Sea-Wolf. The overlooked 1905 story cycle Tales of the Fish Patrol is included in its entirety. London's vivid eyewitness report of the Great 1906 Earthquake and Fire - which destroyed forever the old city - stands as a fitting epilogue. Discover a vanished San Francisco in these wonderful stories of Jack London.
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  1. Print length
    380 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  4. Publication date
    June 4, 2014
  5. File size
    5378 KB
  6. Page Flip
    Enabled
  7. Word Wise
    Enabled
  8. Enhanced typesetting
    Enabled
  9. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Although born in 1876 near Third and Brannan Streets in San Francisco, Jack London lived much of his childhood eight miles across the bay in Oakland. From 1868 the city's Long Wharf was the last stop of the Transcontinental and Central Pacific Railroads. Oakland was a rough and vital place. As a child, London fed his tremendous appetite for reading at the Oakland Public Library. His early teens were spent at gruelling labour in a cannery. In his memoir of alcoholism, John Barleycorn (1913), London tells how he escaped that servitude to became an oyster pirate on San Francisco Bay with his own sloop, the Razzle Dazzle. Later he switched sides and became a member of the California Fish Patrol, which inspired the cycle of short stories collected in 1905. In 1893 London signed on to the schooner Sophie Sutherland and voyaged across the Pacific. The next year he was on the road as a hobo with Kelly's Army. It was only in 1895 that he was able to attend Oakland High School. After graduation and a brief stint at the University of California in nearby Berkeley, London sailed north to the Yukon for the Klondike Gold Rush. His experiences in the Northlands would lead to the creation of such classic works as The Call of the Wild (1903), White Fang (1906), and 'To Build A Fire' (1908). London would soon become one of the world's most popular writers. Never losing his love of travel and adventure, Jack London always returned to California. He eventually bought a ranch north of San Pablo Bay in Sonoma County. He died there at the age of forty on November 22, 1916. He had published over forty volumes - novels, short stories, non-fiction, and essays.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00KS9CFCE
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Sydney Samizdat Press (June 4, 2014)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ June 4, 2014
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 5378 KB
  • Simultaneous device usage ‏ : ‎ Unlimited
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 380 pages
  • Page numbers source ISBN ‏ : ‎ 1453840508
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 33 ratings

Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars
4.6 out of 5
33 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Melody Corey
5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful Stories about the San Francisco Bay Area
Reviewed in the United States on January 13, 2016
Verified Purchase
Jack London could write. I love these stories because they are set in the San Francisco Bay Area which I know well, and I enjoy the descriptions of places I know well.
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Dr. Kelly Nicholson
5.0 out of 5 stars essential reading for young males
Reviewed in the United States on October 26, 2016
Verified Purchase
Stories by the inimitable Jack London, set in the era of the late American frontier, that express his familiar themes of toughness, humor, and survival.
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Bill
4.0 out of 5 stars Some local history and literary history
Reviewed in the United States on November 7, 2017
Verified Purchase
This was a sentimental and nostalgic read and discussion for our SF-based book club. It received an average grade of just a B, in a range of B- to B+, but several of us noted that we liked it as a book club pick more than necessarily reading it ("enjoyed each story, but nothing compelling to keep reading to the next story"). Its selection was partly for some local history and some literary history. It was reasonably satisfying for both. Most striking was Jack's call to report on the 1906 earthquake and fire -- which was read by some of us during the Sonoma fires. We liked that other stories took us farther afield around the Bay Area, including the upper Delta.

Much of the discussion was around where Jack London fits as a writer. He was financially very successful and continues to be well known, but his work is not literary or innovative in the way of, say, Hemingway. The nostalgia related to his memorable works that we read in middle school, but the connection was "like the Hardy Boys." Interesting that the Millennials in the group had read less or none of London's work, and that the short story To Build a Fire seems to have outlasted White Fang and Call of the Wild in middle school academics.

This book suffers from being "more a composite, without a flow" than an intentional book of short stories. Still we were glad we read it and enjoyed the discussion (the local venue certainly may have helped!).
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Top reviews from other countries

D. J.
5.0 out of 5 stars Great stories from one of Americas great writers
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 26, 2014
Verified Purchase
Great stories from one of Americas great writers, all based, as the title suggests around the San Francisco/Oakland Bay Area where Jack London grew up and knew so well, many centre around his love of sailing and boats with sections from his two longer novels "John Barleycorn and The Sea Wolf".
A must for any London fan and those who have not yet discovered him, a really nice volume and welcome addition.
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