Short Stories of Jack London ed. by Earle Labor, Robert C. Leitz III, I. Milo Shepard (review)

Reviews 271 standing Corey’s life as well as the complex political maneuverings in the new territories. Interesting for educators, too, is the authentic glimpse afforded into the daily routines of teaching in one-room schools. Corey describes the unannounced visits of the county superintendent, her students’ preparations for the annual state examinations, and the summer institutes where she earns wide respect. For the sociologist, the inter-relationships among the homesteaders, espe­ cially the support network of the women, adds to our knowledge of community on the frontier. Coreyjoined Pollyanna Clubs and attended the popular box socials where she “danced the sole about off my shoes”and neighbors routinely assisted each other with sewing, canning and gathering wild fruit. Taffy pulls, popcorn feasts, picnics, and card parties helped settlers endure their hardships. Corey’s personal life, especially the frictions with her family and her amo­ rous “intrigues,” invites psychological study. As Gerber suggests, “Bess Corey may have arrived in Midland with but a single suitcase, but she rode west freighted with immense emotional baggage.”Corey writes: “I haven’t any thing against Iowa only there’s never any room for me in it. . . .I’m much better off out here where people haven’t been studying me always to prove that I’m like certain of my relatives.” Her letters reveal optimism and energy, despair and self-doubt, and, above all, self-sustaining humor: “I spose UncleJim thought my wish bone was where my back bone auto be. They grow at the same rate up here.” SUSANNE GEORGE University ofNebraska—Kearney ShortStories ofJackLondon. Edited by Earle Labor, Robert C. Leitz III and I. Milo Shepard. (New York: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1990. 832 pages, $35.00.) Despite the sub-title, “Authorized Edition with Definitive Texts,” this vol­ ume is only a representative collection of London’s works. It not only competes with other anthologies already in the field, such as those edited by Russ Kingman and others, but represents a particular editorial perspective. Hence it balances well known Klondike material withJungian influenced South Sea tales currently adopted in a particular contemporary scholastic ideological project to promote a little known facet of the author’swork at the expense of his political commitment. Although socialist tales appear in this collection (“The Strength of the Strong,”“South of the Slot”), aswell as London’s ironic Poesque explora­ tions (“Moon Face,” “Lost Face”), they are “naturally”in the minority. As a companion to the editor’s The Letters ofJack London this volume is a useful introduction for those unfamiliar with the author’s output. Containing 272 WesternAmerican Literature an excellent summary of London’s life and his work, the introduction manages to avoid common inaccurate myths surrounding the author. London suffered from a variety of ailments, not just drink, and died “from stroke and heart failure, according to the most recent evidence.” His last seven years saw the production of “his best—and certainly his most original—stories.”This collec­ tion certainly does contain some of London’s most outstanding and neglected work, thus contradicting the popular one-dimensional view of him as “dog-story writer”and Klondike Kipling. The editors deserve special praise for reprinting the 1985Jack London Research Center’s limited editions of his neglected “All Gold Canyon,” ‘The Night Born,” “The Red One,” and “War,” as well as featuring his satiric masterpiece, ‘Told in the Drooling Ward.” “The Night Born”aptly combinesJungian individuation, wilderness romance, and feminist spiritual fulfillment, while “War” is appropriately described as “another littleknown gem, reminiscent of Stephen Crane in its imagistic precision and of Ambrose Bierce in its sharp irony.” The editors praise ‘Told in the Drooling Ward”in its anticipation of subjective techniques found in Faulkner, Steinbeck, and Kesey. “Samuel”reveals interesting experiments with dialect. While this edition could have included more of London’s socialist and ironic modes, it is a highly useful introduction. TONYWILLIAMS SouthernIllinois University at Carbondale The Fighting Horse of the Stanislaus: Stories & Essays by Dan De Quille. Edited by Lawrence I. Berkove. (Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 1990. 257 pages, $25.00.) Those of us who have read the literature of California and Nevada from one-hundred and twenty-five years...