This little pocketbook published by Scholastic Book Services in 1965 is not an original title of Jack London‘s. Instead, the publishers selected 9 of London’s best Yukon-focused stories, compiling them into this theme-based collection that’s just perfect for a cold winter weekend.

I have plans to read more short stories this year and figured there’s no better way to begin than with one of my favorite short-story authors. I’ve had this collection on my shelf for years and felt that the beginning of the new year was a perfect time to try it—especially since it’s a delicious -2 degrees outside my window right now.

My process for reviewing short-story collections is to move through the book story by story. For this book, I will also reference the title of London’s original book in which each story was first published.

1. “The White Man’s Way” (originally published in Love of Life and Other Stories, 1907)

The collection begins with something almost humorous in this first story, as a white trapper stops over for the night in an Eskimo village up in the Yukon. He houses with two starving old Eskimos, and while sharing food with them, they discuss their different ways and cultures. The story becomes very proverbial, with the Eskimos’ constant refrain against the white man’s way: “It is foolishness, a great foolishness.” This phrase, in fact, reminded me of Solomon’s Ecclesiastes: “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity and striving after the wind.” Especially good in their discussions is the Eskimos’ misunderstanding of jail vs. the more reasonable corporal punishment. This isn’t a direct quote, but the old ones ponder: “Why is it that you white people reward an Eskimo for killing a white man? If he had killed another Eskimo, we Eskimos would kill him in response. But if he kills a white man, you take him to a city, put him up in a warm room with a roof over his head and three meals a day for several years. Then, when he comes out, he’s happier and fatter than he’s ever been in his life! It makes no sense!” How true it is! I also loved how these Eskimos couldn’t understand why white people spit out the best part of the tobacco leaves, instead of swallowing it like the Eskimos do. This story offered a unique insight into the Eskimos’ native culture and the oddities of my own white ancestors.

2. “The Story of Keesh” (originally published in Love of Life and Other Stories, 1907)

This was a great historical Eskimo tale, and I wonder if London learned it as a myth from the native peoples among whom he traveled. I wonder if it’s a true story, passed down by oral tradition and preserved by this one author’s pen. Keesh is just a young boy, but without a father, he must hunt like a man in order to preserve his family. His hunting abilities appear almost magical to his fellow villagers, though no one knows his secret. He’ll leave for days on end, yet always return with polar bears larger than any other hunter can find. In the end, we learn his secret, and while his hunting method might have been painfully cruel to the bear, it’s effective and designed to help preserve the lives of widows and orphans. When I read his secret, I thought of the stories I’d heard long ago of hunters killing off wolf populations by freezing razor blades into blocks of blood—the more they licked, the more they’d bleed to death. Keesh became the village leader because of his concern for others, a concern borne out in courage, not the other way around.

3. “The Sundog Trail” (originally published in Love of Life and Other Stories, 1907)

In this artistic piece, London’s character relates an experience from the past, an image in his mind, “A painting without beginning or end” (p.44). It’s a story that doesn’t quite make sense, because we know neither the source nor the motivations of the characters involved, and we also don’t know what happened afterwards. It’s like that curious painting in the corner of the museum which fascinates a few, causing them to stand and stare for hours on end, while the rest of the crowd shuffles past with a half a glance, thinking, “What’s the point of that piece?” In fact, I dare say it’s what makes for a great short story too! Included was this nugget on life’s pursuits: “That day a large wisdom came to me. There was a great light, and I saw clear, and I knew that it was not for money that a man must live, but for a happiness that no man can give, or buy, or sell, and that is beyond all value of money in the world.” (p.62).

4. “Nam-Bok, the Unveracious” (originally published in Children of the Frost, 1902)

Many years before, a son had been lost at sea during a storm from this far away Alaskan village, a place that even the trappers ignored. When he returns quite suddenly with gifts and stories of far off and distance cities bustling with people, the villagers disbelieve him. Whether by unwillingness or incapability, they cannot conceive of this “land of shadows,” a place where demons must inhabit the monsters he calls “trains.” It’s a meeting of the Stone Age meeting modernity at the turn of the century, and it’s not a pretty sight.

5. “To Build a Fire”

While I wasn’t able to ascertain where this story was first published, it’s perhaps my favorite of the book. This is the only story that I read aloud to my kids, because they were bored and I was in the mood. (They eat up almost anything I read to them!) Had I known beforehand how intense this story would get, I may have tempered my enthusiasm, but I’m still glad they got a taste of what dad’s been reading! This story, along with “Love of Life,” are the two main survival stories in the collection, and both are expertly written. In this, a man attempts to survive the bitter Alaskan winter, but faces unexpected difficulties that bring him to the very brink. What begins as a simple hike of a few miles quickly turns into a race for life, and even the man’s dog begins to lose hope. I’ll be reading this one again before my next winter hike…and whilst repacking my go-bag. I’d recommend you do the same.

6. “The Unexpected” (originally published in Love of Life and Other Stories, 1907)

The title of this story is such an understatement, that I think London deserves a prize. The plot begins simple enough, until “the unexpected” occurs. How the couple in this story and cabin decide to wait this one out is as unexpected as the story itself, and it made me grapple with my own sense of vigilante justice. I’d have not been half as patient as this couple was, and I don’t think that says much good about me as a person. I’m curious how many other readers felt the same.

6. “The Wife of a King” (originally published in The Son of the Wolf, 1900)

The editors followed one semi-romance with another (actually, “The Son of the Wolf” is one as well, making for three in a row). In this story, an adulterous husband flees his humble abode and native wife for a larger town and women for the taking. She turns his flings public when she steals the show at a masquerade and publicly shames him. It’s a fantastic “got ya!” story, involving both lasciviousness and racism, though it’s hard to say whether London had anything against either of those particular sins.

7. “The Son of the Wolf” (originally published in The Son of the Wolf, 1900)

In this third semi-romance story, London takes us to a village of Yukon natives alongside a white man. Mckenzie’s a man who needs a wife, and he chooses from the native brood the fairest of all. His offer and intent were fair, and his response to the reactions of the natives was fair (at least for the time period) …yet still, even within the context of the era, there remains an air of white superiority over the “savages.” The visitor killed the men, and he got the wife he wanted, fair and square…. according to the laws of the land. Yet at what cost? It’s a story for the sages to contemplate, perhaps, not me. I enjoyed it as a yarn. Maybe it should simply stay that way.

8. “Love of Life” (originally published in Love of Life and Other Stories, 1907)

Because I love the survival-story genre, this story (as with “To Build a Fire”) was one of my favorites in the collection. Two men are hoofing it out of the Yukon after having struck it rich with gold. They may have been partners, but they weren’t friends. When one slips and twists his ankle, the other doesn’t even pause his steps onward. Alone now, the limping man must figure out how to continue, crawling through cold and starvation and eventually being tracked by a sick and mangey wolf. It’s a desperate story and, judging by how his other tales end, you’re never quite certain what the ending will be until you get there. It was a great story with which to end the collection, and a supreme example of London’s engaging style.

©2022 E.T.

Read More from Jack London:

• The Call of the Wild (1903)
• The Game (1905)
• Before Adam (1906)
• The Road (1907)
• When God Laughs (1911)
• The Human Drift (1917)
• Love of Life and Other Stories (1907)
• The Red One (1918)
• Stories of the North (1965)