John Griffith "Jack" London (born John Griffith Chaney, January 12, 1876 – November 22, 1916) was an American author, journalist, and social activist. He was a pioneer in the then-burgeoning world of commercial magazine fiction and was one of the first fiction writers to obtain worldwide celebrity and a large fortune from his fiction alone. He is best remembered as the author of The Call of the Wild and White Fang, both set in the Klondike Gold Rush, as well as the short stories "To Build a Fire", "An Odyssey of the North", and "Love of Life".
A Daughter of the Snows
Read by Don W. Jenkins
Running Time:08:34:43 in 1 MP3 Audio CD
In Jack London's first novel, he tells the story of Frona Welse, a strong and interesting heroine, "a Stanford graduate and physical Valkyrie," who heads to the Yukon gold fields after creating a stir in her hometown by being strong and forthright and by befriending the town's prostitute. In the course of her adventures, she finds herself at the distaff point of a love triangle. This novel contains very overt racial and gender stereotypes and as such reflects the attitudes growing in society at the time it was written. It is the practice at LibriVox to record works as they stand, without judgment.
Before Adam
Read by Tom Weiss
Running Time:03:49:54 in 1 MP3 Audio CD
Before Adam is a mixture of sound science and sci-fi speculation. It is based around Darwin's theory of evolution and the idea of racial memory. The main character lives in the current world but has dreams and nightmares that he relives the pre-stone age life of one of his proto-human ancestors. Those who are scientifically inclined may enjoy this novel more than fans of "standard" science fiction such as Edgar Rice Burroughs.
Best Dog Stories
Booth Tarkington, Jack London et al.
Read by M Leigh, Deanna Heise, Michael Cocciolillo, Audrey Sing et al.
Running Time:06:53:13 in 1 MP3 Audio CD
A collection of adult stories - sad, humorous, and adventurous - about Man's Best Friend. NOTE: Some of these selections contain violence and racial stereotypes that will be objectionable to some listeners.
Burning Daylight
Read by Richard Kilmer
Running Time:13:08:18 in 1 MP3 Audio CD
Burning Daylight, Jack London's fictional novel published in 1910, was one of the best selling books of that year and it was his 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.
By The Turtles of Tasman
Read by Bellona Times
Running Time:01:18:42 in 1 MP3 Audio CD
Turn of the century sibling rivalry between successful but uptight California businessman and his ne'er-do-well older brother, both widowers with equally-different 20-ish daughters. Written in 1911
Dutch Courage and Other Stories
Read by Don W. Jenkins
Running Time:03:18:58 in 1 MP3 Audio CD
Jack London was quoted as saying, "I've never written a line that I'd be ashamed for my young daughters to read, and I never shall write such a line!" After his death in 1916, his wife Charmian assembled a collection of stories, most of which he had written for young readers, but at least one of which was for more mature readers, "Whose Business is to Live." Like most of London's work, his short stories could be read by young readers and then again when they were older with mature minds. These stories draw from London's own extensive experience in the world and demonstrate the dictum that "good writing is good writing" no matter for whom it was written.
John Barleycorn or Alcoholic Memoirs
Read by Peter Kelleher
Running Time:9:43:45 in 1 MP3 Audio CD
Jack London died at the age of forty. In this autobiographical work, London describes his life as seen through the eyes of John Barleycorn (alcohol). There is much controversy about the cause of his death just as there is about alcoholism and addiction. London's brutally frank and honest analysis of his own struggles and bouts with alcohol was way before its time and more modern theories of addiction. With remarkable candor and insight, London describes the demons and gods he encountered through both friend and enemy, John Barleycorn.
Martin Eden
Read by Greg W.
Running Time:14:48:13 in 1 MP3 Audio CD
Martin Eden (1909) is a novel by American author Jack London, about a struggling young writer. It was first serialized in the Pacific Monthly magazine from September 1908 to September 1909, and subsequently published in book form by The Macmillan Company in September 1909.
This book is a favorite among writers, who relate to Martin Eden's speculation that when he mailed off a manuscript, 'there was no human editor at the other end, but a mere cunning arrangement of cogs that changed the manuscript from one envelope to another and stuck on the stamps,' returning it automatically with a rejection slip.
While some readers believe there is some resemblance between them, an important difference between Jack London and Martin Eden is that Martin Eden rejects socialism (attacking it as 'slave morality'), and relies on a Nietzschean individualism. In a note to Upton Sinclair, Jack London wrote, "One of my motifs, in this book, was an attack on individualism (in the person of the hero). I must have bungled, for not a single reviewer has discovered it."
Revolution, and other Essays
Read in English by Michele Fry; Ignare; Jeremy Robertson; KHand; Steve C;
Lucretia B.; Phil Schempf; Greg Giordano; DJRickyV; Sean Grabosky
Running Time:06:07:25 in 1 MP3 Audio CD
A collection of 13 essays written between 1900 and 1908, published in 1910. The lead essay, "Revolution", outlines how and why London renounced capitalism as a failed social system and declared himself an active participant in the "socialist revolution", the last essay is an autobiographical piece, and the essays in between are on diverse subjects. A few of the “essays” are actually humorous short fiction stories; others are serious, sometimes angry rants against capitalistic greed and political corruption. All of the pieces are thought-provoking and excellently written, though only loosely intellectual, highly opinionated, and rife with contradiction, as was London himself.
Smoke Bellew
Read by Jim Locke
Running Time:08:49:35 in 1 MP3 Audio CD
Smoke Bellew, or really Jack London, leaves his less than satisfying writing job in San Francisco for the opportunity to search for gold in the Klondike region while writing about his adventures there. Smoke Bellew is the collection of the resulting twelve essay / stories.
South Sea Tales
Read by Warren Kati
Running Time:06:04:49 in 1 MP3 Audio CD
The eight short stories that comprise South Sea Tales are powerful tales that vividly evoke the early 1900’s colonial South Pacific islands. Tales of hurricanes, missionaries, brotherhood and seafaring are intertwined with enslavement, savagery, and lawless trading to expose the often-barbarous history of the South Pacific islands. You will also gain unsparing insight into the life, culture and relations between natives and Westerners during this period. If you like nautical and sea adventures, if you are interested in the history of the South Pacific islands, and especially if you want to read gripping tales set in the exotic lands, then this book will be perfect for you. However, please be forewarned that it does contain racist content.
Stories of Ships and the Sea
Read by William Tomcho
Running Time:1:31:21 in 1 MP3 Audio CD
5 Exciting short stories by one of Americas best story tellers
Tales of the Fish Patrol
Read by Don W. Jenkins
Running Time:02:56:05 in 1 MP3 Audio CD
Wildest among the fisher-folk may be accounted the Chinese shrimp-catchers. It is the habit of the shrimp to crawl along the bottom in vast armies till it reaches fresh water, when it turns about and crawls back again to the salt. And where the tide ebbs and flows, the Chinese sink great bag-nets to the bottom, with gaping mouths, into which the shrimp crawls and from which it is transferred to the boiling-pot. This in itself would not be bad, were it not for the small mesh of the nets, so small that the tiniest fishes, little new-hatched things not a quarter of an inch long, cannot pass through. The beautiful beaches of Points Pedro and Pablo, where are the shrimp-catchers villages, are made fearful by the stench from myriads of decaying fish, and against this wasteful destruction it has ever been the duty of the fish patrol to act. These stories are set in the waterways around San Francisco Bay and involve the fish patrol with a variety of characters of different ethnicity and cultural backgrounds.
The Abysmal Brute
Read by Warren Kati
Running Time:02:43:29 in 1 MP3 Audio CD
Jack London’s The Abysmal Brute is a story about naivete and natural athleticism against the brutishness and corruption of professional boxing, intertwined with a touching romance. This novel was twice made into movies: The Abysmal Brute (1923) and Conflict (1936), the latter starring John Wayne as Young Pat Glendon.
The Call of the Wild
Read by Mark F. Smith
Running Time:3:24:17 in 1 MP3 Audio CD
Buck is living a happy life in California until he is sold to pay a gambling debt. Taken to the Klondike to become a sled dog, Buck must toughen up and learn the harsher rules of survival in the North. One of the first of these is how to deal with being harnessed in the same team as a dog that wants to kill him.
The Cruise of the Dazzler
Read by Robert Keiper
Running Time:03:38:55 in 1 MP3 Audio CD
Young Joe Bronson, caught between poor grades and his father's threats of military school, runs away from home. He joins the crew of a sloop named the Dazzler, but quickly figures out his captain, Pete Le Maire (nicknamed "French Pete") frequently engages himself and those at his command in criminal activity. Will Joe be able to escape this unwanted and dangerous new life at sea?
The Cruise of the Snark
Read by Bryan Ness, Todd Lennon, Roger Melin, Pam Burton, Jim Allman, Kayo, Todd Lennon
Running Time:8:05:39 in 1 MP3 Audio CD
The Cruise of the Snark (1913) is a memoir of Jack and Charmian London's 1907-1909 voyage across the Pacific. His descriptions of "surf-riding", which he dubbed a "royal sport", helped introduce it to and popularize it with the mainland. London writes:
Through the white crest of a breaker suddenly appears a dark figure, erect, a man-fish or a sea-god, on the very forward face of the crest where the top falls over and down, driving in toward shore, buried to his loins in smoking spray, caught up by the sea and flung landward, bodily, a quarter of a mile. It is a Kanaka on a surf-board. And I know that when I have finished these lines I shall be out in that riot of color and pounding surf, trying to bit those breakers even as he, and failing as he never failed, but living life as the best of us may live it.
The Faith of Men
Read by Brian Ackermann, Jessica AC Snyder, Robert Scott, Mary Anderson,
Zachary Brewster-Geisz, ML Cohen
Running Time:5:06:32 in 1 MP3 Audio CD
A collection of short stories by author Jack London.
The Game
Read by Tom Crawford
Running Time:1:41:51 in 1 MP3 Audio CD
Jack London wrote at least four stories about boxing; A Piece of Steak (1909), The Mexican (1911), The Abysmal Brute (1911), and The Game (1905). The Game is told, in part, from the point of view of a woman, the fiancée of one of the competitors. This is to be his last fight and they are to be married on the morrow. Against her better judgment, she agrees to watch the bout.
The Iron Heel
Read by Matt Soar
Running Time:8:17:39 in 1 MP3 Audio CD
A dystopian novel about the terrible oppressions of an American oligarchy at the beginning of the Twentieth Century, and the struggles of a socialist revolutionary movement.
The Jacket
Read by Barry Eads
Running Time:10:07:46 in 1 MP3 Audio CD
A framing story is told in the first person by Darrell Standing, a university professor serving life imprisonment in San Quentin State Prison for murder. Prison officials try to break his spirit by means of a torture device called "the jacket," a canvas jacket which can be tightly laced so as to compress the whole body, inducing angina. Standing discovers how to withstand the torture by entering a kind of trance state, in which he walks among the stars and experiences portions of past lives.
The jacket itself was actually used at San Quentin at the time and Jack London's descriptions of it were based on interviews with a former convict named Ed Morrell, which is also the name of a character in the novel. For his role in the Sontag and Evans gang which robbed the Southern Pacific Railroad in the 1890s, Morrell spent fourteen years in California prisons (1894-1908), five of them in solitary confinement. London championed his pardon. After his release, Morrell was a frequent guest at London's Beauty Ranch.
The Mutiny of the Elsinore
Read by Tom Crawford
Running Time:12:29:39 in 1 MP3 Audio CD
This is the story of a voyage of a sailing ship from Baltimore to Seattle, east-to-west around Cape Horn in the winter. It is set in 1913 and the glory days of “wooden ships and iron men” are long over. The Elsinore is a four-masted iron sailing vessel carrying a cargo of 5000 tons of coal. She has a “bughouse” crew of misfits and incompetents.
The People of the Abyss
Read by Peter Yearsley
Running Time:6:28:09 in 1 MP3 Audio CD
Jack London lived for a time within the grim and grimy world of the East End of London, where half a million people scraped together hardly enough on which to survive. Even if they were able to work, they were paid only enough to allow them a pitiful existence. He grew to know and empathize with these forgotten (or ignored) people as he spoke with them and tasted the workhouse, life on the streets, ... and the food, which was cheap, barely nutritious, and foul.
The Road
Read by Barry Eads
Running Time:04:44:46 in 1 MP3 Audio CD
Jack London credited his skill of story-telling to the days he spent as a hobo learning to fabricate tales to get meals from sympathetic strangers. In The Road, he relates the tales and memories of his days on the hobo road, including how the hobos would elude train crews and his travels with Kelly’s Army.
The Scarlet Plague
Read by James Christopher
Running Time:1:56:09 in 1 MP3 Audio CD
Known mainly for his tales of adventure, this work of science fiction by Jack London is set in a post-apocalyptic future.
It's 2072, sixty years after the scarlet plague has depopulated the planet. James Howard Smith is one of the few survivors of the pre-plague era left alive in the San Francisco area, and as he realizes his time grows short, he tries to impart the value of knowledge and wisdom to his grandsons. Through his narrative, we learn how the plague spread throughout the world and of the struggles of the handful of survivors it left in its wake.
The Sea Wolf
Read by Nick Bulka
Running Time:11:53:20 in 1 MP3 Audio CD
The Sea-Wolf is a 1904 psychological adventure novel by American novelist Jack London about a literary critic, survivor of an ocean collision, who comes under the dominance of Wolf Larsen, the powerful and amoral sea captain who rescues him.
The Strength of the Strong
Read by Catherine LaVarre, Zeprina-Jaz Ainsworth, OliverBoliver, Andrew Gaunce,
Gerberock, Link Wilfley, RW Raptor
Running Time:04:50:30 in 1 MP3 Audio CD
Seven short stories, written around the middle of London's writing career. The stories take place in diverse settings and time periods, from prehistoric times to the future. Plots include a worldwide work strike, a sociopath serial killer, a sailor returning home after years at sea, and more.
The Valley of the Moon
Read by Richard Kilmer
Running Time:19:07:54 in 1 MP3 Audio CD
The novel Valley of the Moon is a story of a working-class couple, Billy and Saxon Roberts, struggling laborers in Oakland at the Turn-of-the-Century, who left the city life behind and searched Central and Northern California for a suitable farmland to own. The book is notable for the scenes in which the proletarian hero enjoys fellowship with the artists' colony in Carmel, and he settles in the Valley of the Moon.
When God Laughs, and Other Stories
Read by Don W. Jenkins
Running Time:05:06:47 in 1 MP3 Audio CD
This collection of Jack London's short stories touches on a variety of topics, from his love of boxing, to relationships between criminals, to the trials of life and travel on many frontiers, to an allegory about a king who desired a nose. London is considered a master of the short story, a form much more to his liking and personality than his novels. He was active and quick of mind and the short story suited him well.
White Fang
Read by Mark F. Smith
Running Time:7:43:49 in 1 MP3 Audio CD
When White Fang is birthed in a cave to a wolf sire and a wolf/dog halfbreed dam, he is heir to two traditions. At first he is content to explore and learn laws of the Wild. But then his mother is caught and held by old memories of a past relationship with Man, and White Fang follows her into service with the Indians. Life among sled dogs is hardly less cruel and dangerous than living in the Wild, but brutality notches upward when his drunken master sells him to a nasty, twisted hanger-on at a riverside town of white men. He is stripped of everything soft and gentle when forced to fight to the death for a crowd of bettors.
Children of the Frost
Read by Ben Tucker; Kerry Adams; Lee Vogler; CX2Tech;
LilyAnne; Richard Vogel; Tiffany Wilson Lillard
Running Time:05:28:59 in 1 MP3 Audio CD
A collection of Native American short stories by author Jack London. This anthology promises to deliver wonderful tales from one of the greatest short story writers of all time.
Moon-Face and Other Stories
Read by Ben Tucker
Running Time:04:37:46 in 1 MP3 Audio CD
Well-known and well-regarded author Jack London, known for adventurous stories of the outdoors such as Call of the Wild and White Fang shows us a broader scope of interest in his short stories which here run the gamut from darkly comic tales of murder most foul to light and frothy tales of newspapermen (and women) and from crackling sci-fi to stories of sinister shadowy organizations and spiritualism, London illustrates the many talents he holds as a writer beyond his tales of the frozen north.
Lost Face (and Other Stories)
Read by EastCentralMinnesota, , Maurice Donegan, TR Love,
Dale Barkley, Craig Abbott, Doc D L Martin, K Hand
Running Time:04:34:30 in 1 MP3 Audio CD
Seven stories by Jack London, set in the Yukon and other northwestern localities. The most well-known story in this collection is probably To Build a Fire, which is often taught in American high school classrooms. -
The Night-Born
Read by Ben Tucker, Kurt, Katina Papadakis, TR Love, Howard Skyman, Krista Zaleski, Kerry Adams, Jenn Broda, Eli Bishop
Running Time:05:28:22 in 1 MP3 Audio CD
Ten short stories on various themes and subjects, all more or less bizarre.
The Night-Born is about a woman who draws inspiration to change her life from an article she chanced to read.
In The Benefit of the Doubt, a crooked judge gets a lesson in justice.
When The World Was Young is the story of Primitive Man and Civilized Man sharing the same body.
And so on. Each story is unique and thought-provoking.
The Red One
Read by Ben Tucker
Running Time:03:40:12 in 1 MP3 Audio CD
Famous American author Jack London brings us four more tales of adventure. "The Red One" is the story of an explorer who tangles with cannibals to discover a mysterious artifact of possible otherworldly origins, "The Hussy" and "Like Argus of Ancient Times" are both adventurous stories of quests for gold, and "The Princess" is a rousing tale of adventure on the high seas.
Theft (Dramatic Reading)
Running Time:03:56:05 in 1 MP3 Audio CD
This is a political play which is set in Washington DC. Howard Knox is a congressman and believes that there are corrupt practices going on at the firm of a very wealthy industrialist. Knox is being helped by the industrialists daughter who is helping him to locate documents that will support his claims.
Cast List:
Stage Directions: Michele Eaton
Mrs Starkweather: WendyKatzHiller
Knox: ToddHW
Tommy: Andrew Kennedy
Senator Dowsett, Servant, First Man: Mike Furbee
Hubbard: Larry Wilson
Maid: Sanarik Moirangthem
Sakari: David Purdy
Housekeeper: Mira Williams
Dolores Ortega: Sonia
Mr Starkweather: Wayne Cooke
Linda: Joanna Michal Hoyt
Second Man: Jake Malizia
Dobleman: Greg Giordano
Mrs Dowsett: gracenfisk224
Margaret: Matea Bracic
Chalmers: Cavaet
Connie: Availle
Rutland, Gifford: Alan Mapstone
The Son of the Wolf
Read by Ben Tucker
Running Time:04:31:41 in 1 MP3 Audio CD
The Son of the Wolf is Jack London's first published collection of stories and features tales chronicling the harsh realities of living in the frozen North during the Yukon Gold Rush. Included are stories of resilience in the face of adversity, struggles for survival against the elements and against fellow man. Witness the genesis of a master storyteller honing his craft and showcasing why London is considered one of the finest writers of short stories in American literature.
Hearts of Three (Dramatic Reading)
Running Time:13:15:06 in 1 MP3 Audio CD
Francis Morgan, a wealthy heir of industrialist and Wall Street maven Richard Henry Morgan, is a jaded young New Yorker. When his father's business partner Thomas Regan suggests that Francis take a holiday in Central America, ostensibly to search for the treasure of the Morgans' legendary ancestor, Francis thinks it's a splendid idea. But he never suspects what adventures await across the border...
Cast List:
Narrator: Lynette Caulkins
Francis Morgan: john warren hart
Henry Morgan: Benjamin Tucker
Leoncia Solano: Krista Zaleski
Parker and Priest of the Sun: James R. Hedrick
Thomas Regan: John Payton
Señor Álvarez Torres and Yi Poon: Wayne Cooke
Señor Mariano Vercara è Hijos and Bascom: Greg Giordano
Enrico Solano and Lieutenant Parsons: Todd
Alesandro Solano: Ted Perkins
Martinez Solano, Gendarme, Overseer Ramirez: redrun
Alvarado Solano: Andrew Gaunce
Ricardo Solano, Juchitán Haciendado: Inkell
Solano Maid: Eileen Ellen
Solano Servant 1, Trefethen's Sailor, Carib, Haciendado 3, Caroo, and Newspaper Pedlar: David Purdy
Solano Servant 2, Percival, Carib, Old Buccaneer Henry Morgan, Guillermo, Panamanian Judge, Lost Soul, and Canoe Indian: John Kennard
Mayan Lad and José, a Mayan youth: Elijah Fisher
Captain Trefethen: Max Magnus
Carib: Yuqing
Pedro Zurita and Police Lt. Burns: Scott Caulkins
Rafael and Charlie Tippery: Elsie Selwyn
Ignacio and Blind One's Leader: Joe Bergin
Augustino, Capitán Rosaro, and Johnny Pathmore: Bill Mosley
Haciendado 2 and Vicente: Major Toast
Oil Man and Peter McGill: Archives27
Beleaguered Peon and Bear Broker: Beeswaxcandle
The Blind Brigand: Larry Wilson
The Blind One's Daughter: Eliza
Old Maya: Sonia
José Mancheno and Old Wreck: Adrian Stephens
Daughter of the Sun Priest and Concordia: Marie Christian
The Sun Queen: Jenn Broda
Lost Soul: Kristin G
Lost Soul: Christine Bowden
Lost Soul: Michele Eaton
Nicoya: Miss Kay
Rodriguez Fernandez: Scotty
Smith
Broken Woman: Dawn Sutton
The Human Drift
Read by Ben Tucker
Running Time:02:09:04 in 1 MP3 Audio CD
The Human Drift is a posthumous collection of famous author Jack London's miscellaneous writings, including multiple essays of one of his favorite subjects, sea travel. The centerpiece of the collection is the title essay, London's rumination on human history and existence, and is a broadly sweeping and intelligent piece of writing that showcases London's acute and observant thoughts on evolution and man's place in the universe.