THIS WORK has its most immediate origin in the bibliographic article on Jack London which I contributed to the first issue of American Literary Realism, 1875-1910 (Fall 1967), a journal published by the Department of English, The University of Texas at Arlington. In developing the portion of the article having to do with needed areas of London scholarship, I contacted several of the most prominent London scholars, among them: Dr. Hensley Woodbridge of Southern Illinois University, London bibliographer and editor of the Jack London Newsletter; Dr. Franklin Walker of Mills College, Oakland, California, author of Jack London and the Klondike, San Francisco's Literary Frontier, The Seacoast of Bohemia, and many other works; and Mrs. Joan London Miller, daughter of the author and his biographer (Jack London and His Times). All expressed the belief that no definitive or scholarly London biography had yet been written and precious little sound critical work despite the fact that the opportunity for both has existed for more than a half century. Exceptions to the latter case, that of sound criticism, cited by these experts included work by Maxwell Geismar, Philip Foner, Charles Walcutt, Arthur Calder-Marshall, Earle Labor, Alfred Shivers, Clell Peterson, King Hendricks, and Vil M. Bykov.

     In 1966 I had the privilege of meeting and interviewing Joan London in Seattle, Washington, and thereafter enjoyed four years of illuminating correspondence with her, ending with a final letter just two months before her death in January, 1971. In a letter to me dated January 26, 1967, Joan London wrote: "Which biography do I think comes closest to being definitive? None of them remotely approach it. Mine certainly had no such pretension. More serious critical study needs to be done too and it will not be done by those who know Jack London only from The Call of the Wild and The Sea Wolf."