Tales of the Fish Patrol by Jack London Not many folks know about this long-lost gem from Jack London. Now, one hundred years after its initial publication, Santa Clara University and Heyday Books are pleased to bring you this rollicking collection of tales from the San Francisco Bay. For one hundred and fifty years this bay has been the life source of the communities around it, yet in history books and literature we see only images of streetcars and bridges, politicians and artists. It is through Jack London that we see the nascent immigrant communities of Greeks and Chinese in their shrimp boats and sloops, and the early appearance of fishing laws to protect an already dwindling resource. His storytelling sharp as ever, London gives us a portrait of the bay like you've never seen it—from the water, and full of high adventure. San Francisco Bay is so large that often its storms are more disastrous to ocean-going craft than is the ocean itself in its violent moments. The waters of the bay contain all manner of fish, wherefore its surface is ploughed by the keels of all manner of fishing boats manned by all manner of fishermen. To protect the fish from this motley floating population many wise laws have been passed, and there is a fish patrol to see that these laws are enforced. Exciting times are the lot of the fish patrol: in its history more than one dead patrolman has marked defeat, and more often dead fishermen across their illegal nets have marked success. Jack London (1876-1916), was an American author and a pioneer in the then-burgeoning world of commercial magazine fiction. He was one of the first Americans to make a lucrative career exclusively from writing. London was self-educated. He taught himself in the public library, mainly just by reading books. In 1898, he began struggling seriously to break into print, a struggle memorably described in his novel, Martin Eden (1909). Jack London was fortunate in the timing of his writing career. He started just as new printing technologies enabled lower-cost production of magazines. This resulted in a boom in popular magazines aimed at a wide public, and a strong market for short fiction. In 1900, he made $2,500 in writing, the equivalent of about $75,000 today. His career was well under way. Among his famous works are: Children of the Frost (1902), The Call of the Wild (1903), The Sea Wolf (1904), The Game (1905), White Fang (1906), The Road (1907), Before Adam (1907), Adventure (1911), and The Scarlet Plague (1912).

2.99 USD InStock