A classic animal story set in the harsh and desolate wastelands of the north where the only rule is kill for survival or be killed and eaten yourself. Here White Fang, half-dog, half-wolf is born – the only cub of the litter to survive. The wolf pack are starving and so too are the humans who live alongside them. White Fang has to learn the brutal laws of nature and whether he can trust humans – or not. As the author of another great animal classic, Watership Down, Richard Adams explains the influence White Fang had on him.
White Fang (with an introduction by Richard Adams) Synopsis
Born in the wilds of the freezing cold Yukon, White Fang - half-dog, half-wolf - is the only animal in the litter to survive. He soon learns the harsh laws of nature, yet buried deep inside him are the distant memories of affection and love. Will this fiercely independent creature of the wild learn to trust man again?
John Griffith Chaney — aka Jack London, whose life symbolized the power of will, was the most successful writer in America in the early 20th Century. His vigorous stories of men and animals against the environment, and survival against hardships were drawn mainly from his own experience. An illegitimate child, London passed his childhood in poverty in the Oakland slums. At the age of 17, he ventured to sea on a sealing ship. The turning point of his life was a thirty-day imprisonment that was so degrading it made him decide to turn to education and pursue a career in writing. His years in the Klondike searching for gold left their mark in his best short stories; among them, The Call of the Wild, and White Fang. His best novel, The Sea-Wolf, was based on his experiences at sea. His work embraced the concepts of unconfined individualism and Darwinism in its exploration of the laws of nature. He retired to his ranch near Sonoma, where he died at age 40 of various diseases and drug treatments.
