MORNING SERIAL

“HE was a writer, and by that I mean a real writer,” Frank said with admiration. “To me, Jack London is one of the greatest men who ever lived. Heroworship you can call it, if you like. But there, most of us have some little god of our own. Some go crazy over footballers, tennis players, Olympic champions, film stars. Others pay homage to people who have contributed something more substantial to life and progress. I count Jack London as my hero, because he had all the qualities I would like to possess. That poem I quoted — it was his favourite verse, and, by heavens, it expressed the man himself. Have you read any of his works, Ieuan ?”

Ieuan hesitated to reply. He had not read anything by the American author. He had heard of him, yes, but all he knew of him was that he had written books dealing with the Alaskan gold rush.

And was there not a novel about a dog, which was regarded as a classic? White Fang. Yes, that was it! “I don’t know much about Jack London — that is, I only know he wrote White Fang.” “A grand book, Ieuan. And so is The Call of the Wild. Jack London can give you all the adventure you need. But first and foremost you must remember that he was a fighter. A champion of the oppressed. Come here, I’ll show you something.”

Ieuan crossed to the bookshelf. He cast his eyes along the row of books Frank pointed out to him. He noted the titles: The Abysmal Brute, People of the Abyss, The Road, Before Adam, Revolution, The Sea Wolf, John Barleycorn, Strength of the Strong.

“Those are a few of the many he wrote,” Frank went on. “I’m not concerned with his technique. The finer points of story telling are lost to me. What I’m concerned with is truth. And here,” he flicked the row of books with the tips of his fingers, “here it is. Raw, naked, sometimes hideous and cruel – but truth just the same. Jack London wrote of life, and he didn’t camouflage what he knew of it or had to say about it with pretty words and fine phrases. Life is a perpetual struggle, Ieuan, a struggle in which the fittest survive.”