Description
First edition of The Scarlet Plague by Jack London, in the incredibly scarce first state dust jacket.
Octavo, 181pp, [6pp ads]. Original maroon cloth with cityscape illustration stamped in red and yellow on front cover. Title in gilt on spine. Stated “published May, 1915” on copyright page. Solid text block, dust remnants to top edge, frontispiece, a fine example. In the publisher’s scarce first state dust jacket, with “Illustrated By Gordon Grant / Price $1.00” label affixed to spine as issued. Small closed tears to edges, sunning to spine, small loss to bottom edge of spine. A bright example. Publisher’s advertisement for “Novels of 1915” laid in. (Sisson & Martens 80) (BAL 11960)
Jack London (1876-1916) was one of the first American authors to gain international fame and accumulate wealth from his writing. Despite his popularity, London never received any literary awards for his work. London is remembered today through retellings of his stories on film and television, most recently in a movie adaptation of The Call of the Wild starring Harrison Ford.
