To Build a Fire

By Jack London

To Build a Fire is a short story written by Jack London. This book was first published in Century Magazine in 1908. This anthologized masterpiece of London illustrates in graphic terms the futility of human efforts to conquer nature. The story is set in the Klondike in winter and it concerns a man who ignores warnings and attempts to travel a great distance in the extreme cold. Interestingly, even as his dog senses the folly of the journey, the man stubbornly continues to believe in his own infallibility.
After getting his feet wet, he is unable to build the crucial fire that might save his life. A certain fear of death, dull and oppressive, came to him. This fear quickly became poignant as he realized that it was no longer a mere matter of freezing his fingers and toes, or of losing his hands and feet, but that it was a matter of life and death with the chances against him. This means the man’s doom is sealed. For Jack London, his prose becomes a powerful vehicle for disseminating grim message.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Diamond Books
• Release date: Mar 24, 2023
• ISBN: 9789356844216

Jack London

Jack London (1876-1916) was an American novelist and journalist. Born in San Francisco to Florence Wellman, a spiritualist, and William Chaney, an astrologer, London was raised by his mother and her husband, John London, in Oakland. An intelligent boy, Jack went on to study at the University of California, Berkeley before leaving school to join the Klondike Gold Rush. His experiences in the Klondike—hard labor, life in a hostile environment, and bouts of scurvy—both shaped his sociopolitical outlook and served as powerful material for such works as “To Build a Fire” (1902), The Call of the Wild (1903), and White Fang (1906). When he returned to Oakland, London embarked on a career as a professional writer, finding success with novels and short fiction. In 1904, London worked as a war correspondent covering the Russo-Japanese War and was arrested several times by Japanese authorities. Upon returning to California, he joined the famous Bohemian Club, befriending such members as Ambrose Bierce and John Muir. London married Charmian Kittredge in 1905, the same year he purchased the thousand-acre Beauty Ranch in Sonoma County, California. London, who suffered from numerous illnesses throughout his life, died on his ranch at the age of 40. A lifelong advocate for socialism and animal rights, London is recognized as a pioneer of science fiction and an important figure in twentieth century American literature.

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To Build a Fire

Jack London

eISBN: 978-93-5684-421-6

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Publisher: Diamond Pocket Books (P) Ltd.

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Edition: 2023

To Build a Fire

By - Jack London

To Build a Fire

Day had broken cold and grey, exceedingly cold and grey, when the man turned aside from the main Yukon trail and climbed the high earth-bank, where a dim and little-travelled trail led eastward through the fat spruce timberland.

It was a steep bank, and he paused for breath at the top, excusing the act to himself by looking at his watch.

It was nine o’clock.

There was no sun nor hint of sun, though there was not a cloud in the sky. It was a clear day, and yet there seemed an intangible pall over the face of things, a subtle gloom that made the day dark, and that was due to the absence of sun.

This fact did not worry the man.

He was used to the lack of sun.

It had been days since he had seen the sun, and he knew that a few more days must pass before that cheerful orb, due south, would just peep above the sky-line and dip immediately from view.

The man flung a look back along the way he had come.

The Yukon lay a mile wide and hidden under three feet of ice.

On top of this ice were as many feet of snow.

It was all pure white, rolling in gentle undulations where the ice-jams of the freeze-up had formed.

North and south, as far as his eye could see, it was unbroken white, save for a dark hair-line that curved and twisted from around the spruce-covered island to the south, and that curved and twisted away into the north, where it disappeared behind another spruce-covered island.

This dark hair-line was the trail — the main trail — that led south five hundred miles to the Chilcoot Pass, Dyea, and salt water; and that led north seventy miles to