Jack London and the Klondike Gold Rush by Peter Lourie (review)

Kids who find Call of the Wild or White Fang on a required reading list eventually learn that author Jack London had experienced the Yukon first hand. Lourie’s account finds London well before his writing days, focusing solely on London’s 1897 trek into the Klondike gold fields—a bit too late for the initial big strikes that set off the Stampede, and a bit too early for the human onslaught that would swell the population of Dawson and leave thousands of fortune seekers destitute. Lourie’s command of the Stampeders’ trials is first rate, and London’s personal experiences are in many ways typical of the 1897 adventurers who invested all they had, fought their way over the Chilkoot Pass, braved the rapids on their way to Dawson in leaky handmade boats, and arrived (if they were very lucky) in time to stake and register claims that would change their lives. Indeed, like so many of his fellow adventurers, London’s life did change—just not in the way he had envisioned. Forced by scurvy to leave after one season, London returned with plots, observations, and character studies that would make him, “at the age of twenty-seven … the most famous and highly paid writer in the world.” Though Lourie takes a liberty or two in his text and Minor’s gauzy black and white scenes are expendable, this will nonetheless scratch the itch for readers who love a great true adventure tale, and if it scores them bonus points with the English teacher, so much the better. An index, timeline, and glossary are included.