Other editions of book A Daughter of the Snows 1902

A Daughter of the Snows (1902) is Jack London's first novel. Set in the Yukon, it tells the story of Frona Welse, "a Stanford graduate and physical Valkyrie" who takes to the trail after upsetting her wealthy father's community by her forthright manner and befriending the town's prostitute. She is also torn between love for two suitors: Gregory St Vincent, a local man who turns out to be cowardly and treacherous; and Vance Corliss, a Yale-trained mining engineer.

A Daughter of the Snows (1902) is Jack London's first novel. Set in the Yukon, it tells the story of Frona Welse, "a Stanford graduate and physical Valkyrie" who takes to the trail after upsetting her wealthy father's community by her forthright manner and befriending the town's prostitute. She is also torn between love for two suitors: Gregory St Vincent, a local man who turns out to be cowardly and treacherous; and Vance Corliss, a Yale-trained mining engineer. The novel is noteworthy for its strong and self-reliant heroine, one of many who would people his fiction. Her name echoes that of his mother, Flora Wellman, though her inspiration has also been said to include London's friend Anna Strunsky. Modern commentators have criticized the novel for its approval of the main character's view that Anglo-Saxons are racially superior. The novel was commissioned by publisher S. S. McClure, who provided London a $125 a month stipend to write it.

London's first novel, published in 1902, was something of a critical failure, offset, of course, by the success of CALL OF THE WILD just one year later. But A DAUGHTER OF THE SNOWS did establish him as a writer of strong, independent female characters, contrary to other writers of his time. From one of the characters of this novel, after parting company with the heroine: "'Jove!' he muttered, doffing his cap gallantly. 'There is a woman!' And a sudden hunger seized him, and a yearning to see himself mirrored always in the gray eyes of Frona Welse. He was not analytical; he did not know why; but he knew that with her he could travel to the end of the earth."

In Jack London's first book, he narrates the life story of Frona Welse, a resilient and appealing female lead, "a Stanford graduate and physical Valkyrie," who goes to the Yukon gold mines after making an inspiration in her local town by being tough and upfront and by making friends with the town's indecent lady. During her ventures, she sees herself at the spinning angle of a confusing love affair. This story includes awfully explicit racial and gender typecasts and these redirects the personalities escalating in society during the time it was created. John Griffith "Jack" London born John Griffith Chaney was a U.S. author, journalist, and social activist. A forerunner in the earlier expanding world of industrial magazine fiction, he was among the first fiction novelists to acquire international celebrity and an enormous success through only his fiction, as well as science fiction. A few of his best known novels are The Call of the Wild and White Fang, both situated in the Klondike Gold Rush and the short tales To Build a Fire, An Odyssey of the North, and Love of Life. He also authored of the South Pacific in tales including The Pearls of Parlay and The Heathen, and of the San Francisco Bay area in The Sea Wolf. Jack joined the extremist literary group The Crowd in San Francisco and a devoted promoter of unionization, socialism, and the rights of laborers. He composed numerous formidable writings about these matters, like his dystopian novel The Iron Heel, his non-fiction depiction The People of the Abyss, and The War of the Classes.

"All ready, Miss Welse, though I'm sorry we can't spare one of the steamer's boats." Frona Welse arose with alacrity and came to the first officer's side. "We're so busy," he explained, "and gold-rushers are such perishable freight, at least—" "I understand," she interrupted, "and I, too, am behaving as though I were perishable. And I am sorry for the trouble I am giving you, but—but—" She turned quickly and pointed to the shore. "Do you see that big log-house? Between the clump of pines and the river? I was born there."

Excerpt from A Daughter of the SnowsWe might have been delayed in getting ashore. The first officer laughed, and therein displayed his tact.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.