How to Build a Fire and Other Stories

by Jack London

This edition of To Build a Fire and Other Stories includes an Introduction, Biographical Note, and Afterword by David Lubar. In these collected stories of man against the wilderness, London lays claim to the title of greatest outdoor adventure writer of all time.

Contents:

- To build a fire
- Love of life
- Chinago
- Told in the drooling ward
- The Mexican
- War
- South of the slot
- Water baby
- All Gold Canyon
- Koolau the leper
- Apostate
- Mauki
- An Odyssey of the north
- A piece of steak
- Strength of the strong
- Red one
- Wit or Porportuk
- God of his fathers
- In a far country
- To the man on trail
- White silence
- League of the old men
- Wisdom of the trail
- Batard

Genres: Fiction, Classics, Short Stories, Adventure, Literature, American, Nature

Unknown Binding

First published November 1, 1908

About the author

John Griffith Chaney, better known as Jack London, was an American novelist, journalist and activist. A pioneer of commercial fiction and American magazines, he was one of the first American authors to become an international celebrity and earn a large fortune from writing. He was also an innovator in the genre that would later become known as science fiction.

London was part of the radical literary group "The Crowd" in San Francisco and a passionate advocate of animal rights, workers’ rights and socialism. London wrote several works dealing with these topics, such as his dystopian novel The Iron Heel, his non-fiction exposé The People of the Abyss, War of the Classes, and Before Adam.

His most famous works include The Call of the Wild and White Fang, both set in Alaska and the Yukon during the Klondike Gold Rush, as well as the short stories "To Build a Fire", "An Odyssey of the North", and "Love of Life". He also wrote about the South Pacific in stories such as "The Pearls of Parlay" and "The Heathen".

Reviews

[Lyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

"He was quick and alert in the things of life, but only in the things, and not in the significances."

To Build a Fire is story enough by itself, towering over the other stories.

"It did not lead him to meditate upon ... man's frailty ... able only to live within certain narrow limits of heat and cold."

Brutal and simple, the perfect Jack London story like David Allen Coe sang the perfect country and western song.

"He chuckled at his foolishness, and as he chuckled he noted the numbness creeping into the exposed fingers."

All the important elements are there.

[Exina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Required reading in college. I enjoyed most of the short stories in this collection.

[Tim Null]

I downloaded a digital copy of this book because I wanted to read the story titled To Build A Fire.

[Theo Logos · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jack London brought back a treasure trove of stories from his Klondike adventure. The stories of the Arctic North, gleaned from his failed prospecting venture there, established his fame as America’s favorite storyteller. Six of these eight tales trace from that rich vein. The title story of this collection, To Build a Fire, is second only to The Call of the Wild in its enduring fame and popularity.

To Build a Fire is startling in its starkness. The landscape is a blank whiteness of snow. The protagonist is anonymous. His dog shares no bond with him beyond that of an abusive, working relationship. The tale is pure Naturalism — Romance is frozen dead. The theme is the arrogance of ignorance. The moral is, in a match of man against nature when nature is packing 75 degrees below zero, bet on nature.
5 ⭐️

The Red One: This is an unlovely tale written in the last year of London’s life. It lacks the clean clarity of his earlier stories. A tale of a scientist searching for gigantic butterflies on Guadalcanal who encounters both “head hunting” bush men and a fantastic alien object. it is equal parts Conrad’s Heart of Darkness and Arthur C. Clark’s The Sentinel (though inferior to both). It is cringeworthy with offensive language and stereotypes about the natives. I give it one extra star for the boldness of its concept, but its execution deserves only a single star.
2 ⭐️

All Gold Canyon: ”His mouth curled in a smile as he cried aloud, ‘Jumpin’ dandelions and happy hollyhocks, but that smells good to me!‘“ A colorfully spoken, self-loquacious miner finds a rich claim, only to encounter an armed claim jumper.
3 1/2 ⭐️

A Piece of Steak: This is a first rate boxing story. An aging fighter, a former star well beyond his glory days, must fight an up and coming youth to feed his family. He’s desperate to win, as he’s already borrowed against the loser’s share of the purse. Aging, decline, and poverty all people this well told tale.
4 1/2 ⭐️

The Love of Life: ”The life that was in him drove him on. He was very weary, but it refused to die.”
Another fine, naturalistic tale of man against nature. This time the enemy isn’t bitter cold, but starvation, and the lone prospector willing abandons everything, even his bag of gold, hoping to survive. London had a talent for drawing out just the details to make a lone man against nature story perfectly riveting.
4 ⭐️

Flush of Gold: A story told within a story, explaining how the gorgeous female all called Flush of Gold because of her beauty, went mad, and why she waits by herself in a lonely cabin for Big Dave Walsh to return to her.
3 1/2 ⭐️

The Story of Keesh: The story of a legendary great hunter among the northern natives who rose up to be a great chief through using “headcraft” while hunting the ice bears.
3 ⭐️

The Wisdom of the Trail: Another trail story, a party of whites guided by natives.
2 1/2 ⭐️

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

I gave this 5 stars in paper format, but never reviewed it. It's been decades since I last read it, so I'm overwriting that edition with this one. I remember some of the stories very well.

Overall, the stories ranged from OK to fantastic, but overall, they were quite good. It was depressing as hell, though. It's a tough world where a 'happy' ending is surviving intact. I'm not surprised I let so many years go by between reads. Definitely memorable, but certainly not uplifting. Still, I recommend it.

There is an underlying morality to all the stories of perseverance & honor. No matter how bad it gets, the best keep trying to do their best. It might kill them, but it's a harsh world. Mere death is no excuse.

If you haven't read these stories or don't remember them, don't read the spoilers. They are & sometimes that's what really makes the story good.

To Build A Fire 5 stars but depressing as hell. Great point & adventure story of the Yukon, though.

The Red One 2 stars, an attempt at mixing "Heart of Darkness" with a Wells or Verne SF story. Didn't do much for me. Takes place in the Solomons, Guadalcanal.

All Gold Canyon 4 stars, another gold digging adventure that was rather manic depressive.

A Piece of Steak 4 stars, a boxing story & depressing as hell. Is he trying to get me to follow him into alcoholic depression? It's moving as hell, although a bit long winded.

The Love of Life 4 stars, survival in the arctic, although at least it is relatively warm. Tough men!!! At least one lived. About time.

Flush of Gold 3 stars, kind of a horror story, a real shame.

The Story of Keesh 3 stars. Told as a myth, it's memorable & one of the few that isn't depressing, if you look at it one way. In another, it's horrible. OK, the guy was feeding folks, but killing polar bears by feeding them bones that tore up their innards & killed them slowly & in great pain is awful.

The Wisdom of the Trail 3 stars. Not really a myth, but kind of a native voice. A short story of tough times on the northern trails.

[Ilana (illi69) · Rating 4 out of 5]

To Build a Fire was absolutely gripping. In fact, I was completely absorbed with most of these stories in the collection. London’s love of nature & understanding about animal nature, which by the way, is another way to say human nature, speaks to me. Humans like to separate themselves from the animal realm and claim greater knowledge and wisdom but that is a limited and small-minded way of seeing the world. We are so much more. And so much less. I can see why London would appeal to children with these life & death adventures in the wild.

One story pits and aging boxer whose body is showing the wear & tear of life as a prize fighter. He’s hungering for a piece of steak to give him stamina in a contest against a younger version of himself.

I only don’t give the full 5 stars because those help me locate my all time favourites for rereading. a couple of stories were variations on the similar theme, and while interesting as cues into London’s process, failed to grab me.

An excellent collection overall with a title story that stands on its own.

[Kahveci · Rating 4 out of 5]

Benim öykülerim zalimse yaşamın kendisi de zalim demektir. Oysa ben yaşamı zalim değil güçlü bulurum ve yapıtlarımda yaşamın bu güçlülüğünü yansıtmak isterim. (Arka kapak)

Soğuğun -50 derece ve bazen daha soğuk olduğu buz gibi yerlerde, kaynakların tükendiği zamanlarda hayatta kalmaya çalışanların hikayelerinden oluşuyor. Acaba kurtulabilecekler mi?

[David Nichols · Rating 3 out of 5]

While probably best-known for his novels (especially CALL OF THE WILD and WHITE FANG), London made much of his literary revenue from his short stories. Most of his shorter fiction, as this collection demonstrates, was mediocre, weighed down by unengaging plots, racist language, and one- or two-dimensional characters. There are several very fine pieces here, however, including the title story; "Love of Life," which was apparently the last story Lenin had read to him (he enjoyed it); the claustrophobic "In a Far Country"; and "The Wit of Porportuk," detailing a conflict between a Native American chief and his rival's daughter. The anthology also includes several tales not set in London's usual Arctic milieu: "A Piece of Steak," one of the best-constructed pieces of short fiction I've read; "The Mexican," a boxing story nested inside a narrative of the Mexican Revolution; "The Apostate," a moving tale of a child worker which manages to end both realistically and happily; "South of the Slot," a secret-identity story about a sociology professor in working-class San Francisco; and "The Strength of the Strong," an allegory about socialist revolution disguised as a Stone Age drama.

[Jeremy · Rating 4 out of 5]

London can write.

[Deborah Sheldon · Rating 4 out of 5]

"I met him first in a hurricane. And though we had been through the hurricane on the same schooner, it was not until the schooner had gone to pieces under us that I first laid eyes on him." These are nail-biting stories, full of action and peril and faraway places, yet London subtly infuses each narrative with such pathos that I sometimes - unexpectedly - teared up. Wonderful stuff.

[Raphael Rosen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jack London's short stories are astonishing. I read them last year, and my jaw was agape the entire time. I highly recommend them.

[Sofia Franco · Rating 2 out of 5]

Li esta short story porque o meu namorado me recomendou e, como seria de adivinhar, não adorei. Também não desgostei. Não me acrescentou grande coisa, honestamente... É sobre um homem que toma sempre a decisão errada, achando que consegue sobreviver ao frio sem ajuda, e acaba por congelar. Diria que a única conclusão que retiro daqui é que realmente a masculinidade é tóxica.

[v · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jack London's short fiction is at its most powerful, and uniquely so, when he writes bare, direct accounts of men struggling in the wilderness against the elements, their own fear, and their competitors: "To Build a Fire," "The Love of Life," "All Gold Canyon" and "The White Silence." In these stories, we might place him in the history of American literature between Stephen Crane and Ernest Hemingway. Elsewhere, however, his writing can be sloppy, repetitive, uninspired and excitable. Many of his stories appear to wrestle with the conflict between the principle of the survival of the fittest and the moral responsibilities of civilization -- in London's view, colonization, industrial labor, and individual weakness collapse the latter into the former, but no perspective of great clarity and weight emerges from these stories which read most of all like rushed attempts at entertaining a mass audience.

When it is seventy-five below zero, a man must not fail in his first attempt to build a fire -- that is, if his feet are wet. If his feet are dry, and he fails, he can run along the trail for half a mile and restore his circulation. But the circulation of wet and freezing feet cannot be restored by running when it is seventy-five below. No matter how fast he runs, the wet feet will freeze the harder.

[Natalie · Rating 5 out of 5]

My copy of this is tiny and adorable, has a cover with a pile of vicious, teeth-baring dogs, and has only three stories: To Build a Fire, The Chinago, and Love of Life.

This was my first Jack London reading experience. I had purchased Chabouté's To Build a Fire graphic novel adaptation and realized I may want to read the OG beforehand.

I wasn't really prepared (and neither was "the man" come to think of it...).

Talk about bleak. Talk about impending doom. Talk about me having to put this little thing down several times in each tiny little story because I was afraid to see what was on the next page.

CAN THERE BE NO HAPPINESS, LONDON?!
NO, NATALIE, THERE CAN NOT BE WHEN IT COMES TO MAN VS NATURE.
ALSO, YOU ARE ABOUT TO LEARN THAT NOT EVERY DOG IS LASSIE, AND DOGS WILL NOT ACTUALLY HELP SAVE YOU SHOULD YOU FALL IN A WELL.

Despite the doom and gloom, I loved these no BS stories. The writing style reminds me a bit of Hemingway, that masculine to-the-point nature-y stuff. I will now be on a quest to get my grubby little hands on all things Jack London.

Well, here he was; he had had the accident; he was alone; and he had saved himself. Those old-timers were rather womanish, some of them, he thought. All a man had to do was to keep his head, and he was all right. Any man who was a man could travel alone.
*cue diabolical laughter*

5 Stars

[Anna · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really had a Jack London phase in middle school. I remember writing a short story based on the same style and even featuring the same morals. Good times.

[Mark Gannon · Rating 5 out of 5]

A highly enjoyable read. Jack London writes in an engaging and entertaining way that captures the imagination and keeps the reader interested. The stories are short and don't bore by virtue of not being to long. Five stars for this short collection.

[Caterina · Rating 5 out of 5]

London'un gerçek bir kısa hikaye ustası olduğunu gösteren kitap bir nefeste biterken bazen buz çöllerinin soğuğunda donduruyor bazen de çıtır cıtır yanan bir kamp ateşinde iç ısıtıyor.

Keyifle okudum.

[Jonna. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read "how to build a fire", "batard" and "the love of life". All great stories about survival and endurance with a bit of black humour which i really enjoyed!

[Chrystal · Rating 3 out of 5]

If I were basing my rating on whether I liked these stories or not, I would give them 2 stars; however, I will increase my rating to 3 stars based upon London's form and technique. I don't like to generalize, but I am guessing that these stories of adventure appeal more to boys (and men) rather than to girls (or women). The 25 pieces in this collection range from stories of survival in the Klondike/Yukon, gold prospectors, headhunters in the jungle, revolutionaries in Mexico, lepers in Hawaii, to prize fighting and factory workers. They are all essentially stories of survival, whether the struggle is against starvation, freezing, bullets, homemade guillotines, bears, wolves, dogs, or boxing.

My favorites were "To Build a Fire," "The God of his Fathers," "All Gold Canyon," "The Chinago," and "Told in the Drooling Ward." This last one stands out as very different from the others. It is humorous and ends on a high note, unlike all the others which all end badly, or at least in a less than uplifting tone.

[Nakedfartbarfer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Three short stories. One about an indentured Chinese servant who, in punishment for the obfuscating omerta among his fellow laborers during the trial, is convicted by French colonists of a crime to which he was merely a witness. He daydreams of how the princely accumulation of fifty cents a day over five indentured years will let him to retire to his homeland in prosperity and allow him to meditate in his walled garden undisturbed for the rest of his days, even as his severe sentencing is getting handed down in a language he doesn't speak.

Let the Chinagos take the lesson to heart, the Court said finally, for they must learn that the law would be fulfilled in Tahiti though the heavens fell.

Two other stories are of Klondike survival. Jack London, as in his full-length novels, manages to make the business of surviving not seem dreary and tedious on the page. A plight may be desperate but never hopeless, nor is it resolved with a sudden single instance of fortuitousness. Characters move necessarily from contingency to contingency until they either survive or not.

[Frederik Schou · Rating 4 out of 5]

To Build a Fire: 9/10

The Chinago: 9/10

Love of Life: 8/10

After reading Cinema Speculation, I feel like reviewing everything I'm reading/watching, so here we go:
Three great stories about life and death, and what happens when you are face to face with the reaper himself. These stories was not just very exciting and dramatic, but they were also thought-provoking. What would I do in these situations? Would I have the endurance?
In "To Build a Fire" and "The Chinago" Jack London has created two very interesting, deep main characters. The hardy man with no fears of "To Build a Fire" and the optimistic migrant worker, who, despite that he lives in almost slave-like conditions, stays positive, of "The Chinago".
The last short story, "Love of Life", probably has the most exciting story and the ending, I liked the most, but its main character just isn't as interesting. He feels a bit one-dimensional.

Overall three very nice tales, that was everything I hoped for.

[Josh · Rating 5 out of 5]

First: this volume definitely wins the worst cover award of all time. There are no stories where a man fights a bear with a knife, and the blurb on the back describing the title story in sensationalist tones clearly reveals that the dust jacket writer had never read the story. “There were no trees in sight, only a vast whiteness“… except the whole story hinges on a tree. Ah well.

Leaving that aside, this was a remarkable book, with an incredible range of short stories: northern survival tales (what you would expect from Jack London), but also South Sea adventures, social and labor morality tales, boxing stories, and a host of other settings and characters. In several places London’s religious and political views emerge, and from my perspective they don’t wear well with time. But his remarkable abilities as a writer were on display in every short story.

[Dana]

This short story show the true nature of being arrogant and facing the fear of cold. We have our main character a man who is proud and pompous, who believes that he can travel a long distance in extreme cold weather. A man despite the constant warnings of those who live in the area, thought he could overcome the cold. A man who travelled alone with his dog through the harsh and bitter terrains that cold brought with it, and in the end saw the true nature that was the freezing cold. Personally for me I didn't like the mistreatment of his dog as his fear continued to crawl into his mind throughout the story. All in all this was a story of how not listening to the warnings of others and how arrogance can cloud your judgement to the dangers that nature can bring.

[Samuel Massicotte · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jack London is one of the greats when it comes to short story telling. His writing is vigorously descriptive and detailed, and his extensive knowledge of the environments in which he bases his stories makes for the use of incredible analogies. I dare say that a great portion of his work I could not fully appreciate, since I do not possess the vocabulary repertoire needed. I also did not carry a dictionary or try to look up every word that I could not understand. Maybe I should have, it would have permitted me to better appreciate the quality of his writing. Nevertheless, when I could follow, through the jargon and such, I was mesmerized by the depth of his descriptions. His stories focus on the individual experience, and yet is not drowning in psychological content. Simple descriptions of thoughts of his characters are enough to make us understand them, to be fully entranced in their world. What surprised me most was the sheer breadth of London’s knowledge. He describes environments and feelings in such a way that I cannot believe he has not at the very least been relatively familiar with: and yet his stories focus on such a great number of environments from the midwest gold rush to the far Canadian north, from the Mexican jungle to the boxing ring, and finally to the sea. But his stories deal mostly with the same themes: that of danger, of risks taken. They’re akin to fables, where we learn the repercussions of taking too many risks, of venturing off into the cold without heeding to the warnings of others and nature, of heading towards a hurricane at sea, of leaving a soldier from the opposing army alive, hidden in a bush.
London’s stories have morals, they tell a story and they warn. They can also be a bit cheeky, as seen with the story of Tom the high-grade feeble-mind in an institution. And so London’s stories have a depth that makes him one of the greats of short story telling. At the same time, his stories cannot be anything else but short, due to how rich and compact they are. With so little words and few pages, it is enough to tell a story that is equivalent to entire novels.

[Zardoz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing collection of great stories varying from the expected Klondike to ones about class and indigenous peoples. There was even a science fiction one that could have been written by Lovecraft himself.
London’s writing style is very modern and easy to follow. I’m kicking myself for having not read his works sooner.

[seslem · Rating 5 out of 5]

i read to build a fire 1902 version and 1908 version both of them good i like more 1908 one. but love of life was my favorite it taught me to fight for my life and never give up. jack london never disappointed.

[Randall Hill · Rating 5 out of 5]

awesome

[Mickey Mantle · Rating 5 out of 5]

The human experience. Amazing how books that were simply required reading in high school become a reflection of the human condition when re-read later in life.

[Rueben · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5

[Adam · Rating 3 out of 5]

As far as I can recall this marks my first experience with the well known Jack London. 'To Build a Fire' is another book I picked up out of a buddies new apartment in Seoul as he refuses to deal with words in print form. While I at first regretted my decision, I decided to stick with it and was appropriately rewarded! Allow me to explain. . .

First of all, it's been a while since I dug into short stories or, more specifically, classic short stories. I remember signing up for a class in college called "Intro to the Short Story" because, hey, what could get easier than that! Boy was I wrong! The point I didn't consider is that for a short story to be interesting, the wording will likely be of utmost importance. This in turn requires to reader to pay much closer attention than one might to say a boring textbook or drawn out novel. Well, skimming my way through the later is certainly my forte. Reading and absorbing every word, well, not exactly!

So, after starting a few of the shorts in this collection, I actually found myself putting it down after only a few pages simply because I couldn't get in to the story. Finally, I dug in my heels, settled into a (not so) comfy exta-long subway ride, and started reading, for content, not for reading's sake!

When I did, well, I liked what I found! The careful choice of language that London uses not only proves to be riveting but also gave me a good couple dozen new ones to look up (which I've yet to do or I'd try 'em out here). What I enjoyed most about these shorts is something that I actually remember us talking about in my Intro class. That is, a short story is meant to convey a single, culminating emotion. That being so, they are best, if not only meant to be, read in one sitting. Once I had this figured out, I was rolling!

I braved my way through the early Klondike tales which eventually became somewhat repetitive, not necessarily in plot or emotion but simply context and characters. Having visited Alaska only from the comfort of Norwegian Cruise Line, I can read only so much about the far-north before becoming slightly disinterested. When I finally broke free of the snow capped tales, I was amazed at how well London could present a wide array characters and settings! To be honest, I thought I'd be stuck at 40 below for the whole book!

The boxing stories had me captivated to the point when I was feeling the blows and actually watching the fights unfold in front of my eyes. I mention this only because as the first one began, I asked myself who would be foolish enough to try and write about a sport that really wasn't even that interesting to watch! Boy was I wrong!

Some of the stories in this collection were great, others good and yet others I need not ever read again. Overall though I was extremely pleased with this book and have found not a new favorite but certainly a new author worth looking into! I'll certainly keep my eyes out for more of London's tales as I hit the backpacking trail soon. . .