Author Under Sail: The Imagination of Jack London, 1902–1907 by Jay Williams

Reviewed by: Author Under Sail: The Imagination of Jack London, 1902–1907 by Jay Williams Owen Clayton (bio) Author Under Sail: The Imagination of Jack London, 1902–1907, by Jay Williams. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2021. xxi + 703 pp. Hardcover, $100; eBook, $100. Jack London biographies are plentiful and range from the serious and scholarly to the popular and speculative. In such a crowded field, it is a welcome surprise for a new book to make itself stand out. And this book does stand out. In fact, Jay Williams's Author Under Sail: The Imagination of Jack London, 1902–1907 is a magnificent achievement. Part two of a trilogy, this second volume expands upon the first in every respect. It is a wonderfully researched and engagingly written work that will be a touchstone for London studies for decades to come. Williams is most concerned with London as a writer. Author Under Sail is a serious consideration of how London's thinking about his literary craft (a pun encompassed by the book's title and its references to the building of the Snark) shifted over time. Broadly speaking, for Williams London went from being a "hobo-author" to a "sailor-author," the latter being distinguished from the former by a greater attention to and concern for his place in world literature. It is difficult to comment on how successfully Williams convinces us of this shift as it will largely take place in volume three. However, what he has given us in this volume is impressively and impeccably researched. Williams applies Michael Fried's concept of absorption and theatricality to describe the two basic modes of London's writing: the theatrical for his non-fiction and the absorptive for his fiction (mostly). These modes overlap and intertwine in complicated ways for Williams, who avoids the trap of setting the modes up as opposites. For London, he argues, "switching between modes and genres of writing … defines his career" (444). Absorption and theatricality provide a schema to analyze London's literary impulses and motivations, aiding Williams to understand better London's [End Page 203] "deeply conflicted relationship with his own authorial inner life" (xii). For large periods of his life, according to Williams, London did not trust his imagination. He therefore idealized sincerity and obsessively ensured that his fiction was based on real-life events, leading him to fuse emotional intensity and realism into a mode that Williams calls "autodrama" (481). Williams argues that London's imagination was a kind of ghost haunting him, and that this ghost would be embodied in his books in a variety of author figures, several of whom were his famous wolf-dog characters. This argument rests upon both archival research and close analysis, making Author Under Sail part-traditional biography and part a work of literary criticism. These elements blend seamlessly to create a series of thoroughly convincing arguments, as when Williams claims that The Call of the Wild "is about the process of writing" (79) while White Fang is about prison reform (268). Author Under Sail is also about London's relationship with his various book and magazine publishers. We read of London's anxieties about George Brett, editor and chairman of the American division of Macmillan, but also about the rivalry between Brett and Caspar Whitney, editor of Outing, during a period of tremendous change for the publishing industry. Williams also gives a fascinating narrative of London's time on the lecture circuit, which is usually a less-discussed period of his life compared to other moments. What makes this book stand out is its attention to literary detail. London studies has long been blessed with a rich trove of archival material to work with, most of which is held at the Huntington Library in San Marino, California. But I have not read a London biography that is so attuned to the minutiae of how London wrote, what he was reading, and what was influencing him. Williams writes of the importance of London's many unfinished projects, including his novel about Jesus Christ. Williams argues, quite rightly, that it is important for London scholars to pay attention to what the author did not publish as...