Jack London stories

O

Oleg Volk

Staff Alumnus
London was among my favorite writers when I lived in Russia. In the States, I discovered that only his Klondike tales are popular but most of the South Pacific stories are unknown. Found them on-line...
http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/London/Writings/HousePride/koolau.html One man with a rifle fights for his freedom. This was one of my favorite tales.

For a Socialist, London writes pretty libertarian.

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Oleg "peacemonger" Volk

<A HREF="http://www.a-human-right.com
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"That's not a line in the sand. That's a range marker!"
 
thats one of my favorite stories.
i first read that when i was 12, and it was very moving for me.
its a wonderful story, for those of you with kids that are old enough read it to them or give it to them to read.

thanks for posting this, i had not forgotten about this, but it has been awhile sinc ei had thought about it.
 
I think he was a product of his times in that it wasn't evil to portray a person using firearms in a productive, legal manner. If he were a living author today, I don't think he'd get published due to a different societal viewpoint.
 
Many folks who espoused the Socialist cause in the 1920s and particularly the 1930s were primarily concerned with "the working man". It was less ideology than improvement in working conditions and wages.

Particularly during the depression, many very loyal Americans came to believe that Capitalism had failed. They were desperately seeking some alternative to get folks back to work and food/shelter much better assured.

Also remember that little credible information came out of the USSR of the horrors of the Lenin/Stalin era. What did come out was considered to horrible to believe; "People wouldn't *do* that
!"

Just a little perspective,

Art
 
With all the white-washing of the USSR, it is no surprise that about 30 thousand Americans moved to Russia in the 1930s. About a dozen survived the next decade.

Vlasov's people (Russians, Ukranians) knew what was up, so did the "London" Poles...but the US/UK shipped them back to Russia in 1945 anyway. All got killed by Uncle Joe's thugs immediately.

I think one of the reasons why I liked London's work was that his characters were in charge of their own fates inasmuch as that's possible. A real novel concept for the time and place where I was reading...
 
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