Other editions of book Burning Daylight

John Griffith "Jack" London was born John Griffith Chaney on January 12th, 1876 in San Francisco. His father, William Chaney, was living with his mother Flora Wellman when she became pregnant. Chaney insisted she have an abortion. Flora's response was to turn a gun on herself. Although her wounds were not severe the trauma made her temporarily deranged. In late 1876 his mother married John London and the young child was brought to live with them as they moved around the Bay area, eventually settling in Oakland where Jack completed grade school. Jack also worked hard at several jobs, sometimes 12-18 hours a day, but his dream was university. He was lent money for that and after intense studying enrolled in the summer of 1896 at the University of California in Berkeley. In 1897, at 21 , Jack searched out newspaper accounts of his mother's suicide attempt and the name of his biological father. He wrote to William Chaney, then living in Chicago. Chaney said he could not be London's father because he was impotent; and casually asserted that London's mother had relations with other men. Jack, devastated by the response, quit Berkeley and went to the Klondike. Though equally because of his continuing dire finances Jack might have taken that as the excuse he needed to leave. In the Klondike Jack began to gather material for his writing but also accumulated many health problems, including scurvy, hip and leg problems many of which he then carried for life. By the late 1890's Jack was regularly publishing short stories and by the turn of the century full blown novels. By 1904 Jack had married, fathered two children and was now in the process of divorcing. A stint as a reporter on the Russo-Japanese war of 1904 was equal amounts trouble and experience. But that experience was always put to good use in a remarkable output of work. Twelve years later Jack had amassed a wealth of writings many of which remain world classics. He had a reputation as a social activist and a tireless friend of the workers. And yet on November 22nd 1916 Jack London died in a cottage on his ranch at the age of only 40. Here we present Burning Daylight.

New York: Macmillan, 1910. First Edition with spine imprint and 3 blank leaves. 8 Illustrations (plates) by W. Morgan. BAL 11918; Sisson & Martens, p. 47. 12mo, [8],361,[1]+[12}ad pp. Blue cloth lettered in white, with blue & yellow illustration. Spine well rubbed, covers less so but with some flaking to lettering. Overall About Very Good. Collectible as a nice first edition copy of one of London's Alaska tales, the uniqueness of this piece actually lies between the cover and the title page: a tipped in Jack London check, signed by London, payable to E. Winship, dated May 12 1910; an ink inscription beneath the check by Eliza London Shepherd - London's older stepsister, who did much to raise him and who served as business manager for the London Ranch from 1910 until her death in 1939 (inscription is dated September 18th, 1932, at the Jack London Ranch, and is to Mr. & Mrs. W.W. Kerrigan); a rather lengthy full page ALS (autograph letter signed) from Eliza to the same Kerrigans, dated September 19th, 1932 at Glen Ellen, California (at the Ranch); and Jack London's now-famous Wolf's Head bookplate affixed to the front pastedown. Top provenance. L28

It was a quiet night in the Shovel. At the bar, which ranged along one side of the large chinked-log room, leaned half a dozen men, two of whom were discussing the relative merits of spruce-tea and lime-juice as remedies for scurvy. They argued with an air of depression and with intervals of morose silence. The other men scarcely heeded them. In a row, against the opposite wall, were the gambling games. The crap-table was deserted. One lone man was playing at the faro-table. The roulette-ball was not even spinning, and the gamekeeper stood by the roaring, red-hot stove, talking with the young, dark-eyed woman, comely of face and figure, who was known from Juneau to Fort Yukon as the Virgin. Three men sat in at stud-poker, but they played with small chips and without enthusiasm, while there were no onlookers. On the floor of the dancing-room, which opened out at the rear, three couples were waltzing drearily to the strains of a violin and a piano.Circle City was not deserted, nor was money tight. The miners were in from Moseyed Creek and the other diggings to the west, the summer washing had been good, and the men's pouches were heavy with dust and nuggets. The Klondike had not yet been discovered, nor had the miners of the Yukon learned the possibilities of deep digging and wood-firing. No work was done in the winter, and they made a practice of hibernating in the large camps like Circle City during the long Arctic night. Time was heavy on their hands, their pouches were well filled, and the only social diversion to be found was in the saloons. Yet the Shovel was practically deserted, and the Virgin, standing by the stove, yawned with uncovered mouth and said to Charley Bates:—"If something don't happen soon, I'm gin' to bed. What's the matter with the camp, anyway? Everybody dead?"Bates did not even trouble to reply, but went on moodily rolling a cigarette. Dan MacDonald, pioneer saloonman and gambler on the upper Yukon, owner and proprietor of the Tivoli and all its games, wandered forlornly across the great vacant space of floor and joined the two at the stove."Anybody dead?" the Virgin asked him."Looks like it," was the answer."Then it must be the whole camp," she said with an air of finality and with another yawn.MacDonald grinned and nodded, and opened his mouth to speak, when the front door swung wide and a man appeared in the light.- Taken from "Burning Daylight" written by Jack London

Burning Daylight is a novel by Jack London, published in 1910, which was one of the best-selling books of that year and it was London's best-selling book in his lifetime. The novel takes place in the Yukon Territory in 1893. The main character, nicknamed "Burning Daylight" was the most successful entrepreneur of the Alaskan Gold Rush. The story of the main character was partially based upon the life of Oakland entrepreneur "Borax" Smith. The novel was subsequently filmed as a First National movie starring Milton Sills with Doris Kenyon.