The Call of the Wild by Jack London was published in 1903 to critical acclaim. It’s a prime example of the American pastoral: the domesticated protagonist Buck rejects modernity and chooses primitive life in the wilderness. An action-adventure “survival of the fittest” animal parable, Call of the Wild combines popular literary genres while writing a beautiful, persuasive philosophical argument to embrace nostalgia and atavism. As Buck leads a pack of wild wolves and releases an instinctive howl,
“He was sounding the deeps of his nature, and of the parts of his nature that were deeper than he, going back into the womb of Time.”
This colorful illustrated edition was published in 1960 by Heritage Press, and was purchased at the Old Luckett’s Store in Leesburg, Virginia.
Figments & Frames 