The Call of the Wild.

LONDON, Jack.

Item Number: 110942

New York: The Macmillan Company, 1903.

First edition of one of the most desirable classics in American literature. Octavo, original pictorial green cloth, pictorial endpapers, top edge gilt.  With 18 full-page color illustrations by Philip R. Goodwin and Charles Livingston Bull.  Association copy, inscribed by the author on the half-title page, “To Elinor Glyn:- My most popular, but my own heart goes out to some of my sociological screeds. Jack London Mar. 1, 1911.” The recipient Elinor Glyn was a British novelist and scriptwriter who specialized in romantic fiction, which was considered scandalous for its time. Her first book, The Visits of Elizabeth was published the same year as London’s first book. She later moved to California and became one of the first female writers of movie screenplays. She popularized the concept of the It-girl, and had tremendous influence on early 20th-century popular culture and, possibly, on the careers of notable Hollywood stars such as Rudolph Valentino, Gloria Swanson and, especially, Clara Bow. In near fine condition with light shelfwear. Housed in a custom half morocco clamshell box. Signed first editions of this classic title are scarce.

The Call of the Wild is "one of the first American novels to examine the quest of the pioneering individual who breaks away from the sheltered environment of civilization and is romantically compelled to find freedom in nature. In the early part of the century this was considered the American dream" (Parker, 16). Named by Modern Library's as one of the 100 greatest novels of the twentieth century.