James E. Homans, editor

“ Jack London received his early education at the public schools of Oakland and helped to increase the family income by selling newspapers after school hours. Later he engaged in salmon-fishing, oyster-pirating, schooner-sailing, and other precarious and adventurous enterprises on San Francisco Bay. At the age of sixteen he shipped before the mast on a sailing-vessel, and in 1893 he made a voyage to Japan and went seal-hunting in the Behring Sea. In 1894 he tramped through the United States and Canada, leading the life of a “hobo” and gathering sociological data at first hand. ”

“ His published works are chiefly books of adventure, marked by a strength, freshness, and originality of both subject and style, which set them apart from any other literature of the kind which is now being produced in America. ”