Smithsonian Magazine - 11.2019

80 SMITHSONIAN.COM | November 2019

4,000-word short story honoring a dog,

but it “got away from me,” as he later said,

and reached more than 30,000 words be-

fore he could call a halt.

He wrote it in a month in a creative

fever dream. He sent the manuscript

to the head of Macmillan Publishing,

George Platt Brett, who recognized it as

a masterpiece and made one of the most

profi table deals in the company’s histo-

ry. He off ered $2,000 for the full rights.

Jack needed the money, so he accepted.

The book, an immediate best seller, has

remained in print all over the world.

Jack London, who unabashedly wrote

for money, never received a penny in

royalties for The Call of the Wild. Nor did

he ever complain about it. As he told his

wife. Charmian, “Mr. Brett took a gam-

ble, and a big chance to lose. It was the

game, and I have no kick.”

He was already well-known when

the book was published, and its success

turned him into a full-blown international

celebrity. He was earning $10,000 a month

from books, articles, journalistic assign-

ments and speaking engagements, and

barely keeping up with his expenses. He

was one of the fi rst writers to live in the

Jack London

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 41

London and his wife, Charmian, in the Solo-

mon Islands in 1908, during a visit cut short

when the writer’s health deteriorated.

JACK LONDON COLLECTION / THE HUNTINGTON LIBRARY, SAN MARINO, CA

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