Children of the Frost

Children of the Frost Synopsis

Tales from the Klondike. Children of the Frost is a collection of short stories first published in 1902. Includes: - The League of the Old Men - In the Forests of the North - The Law of Life - Nam-Bok the Unveracious - The Master of Mystery - The Sunlanders - The Sickness of Lone Chief - Keesh, the Son of Keesh - The Death of Ligoun - Li Wan, the FairIN THE FORESTS OF THE NORTH (Excerpt)A weary journey beyond the last scrub timber andstraggling copses, into the heart of the Barrens where the niggardNorth is supposed to deny the Earth, are to be found great sweeps offorests and stretches of smiling land. But this the world is justbeginning to know. The world's explorers have known it, from time totime, but hitherto they have never returned to tell the world.The Barrens-well, they are the Barrens, the badlands of the Arctic, the deserts of the Circle, the bleak and bitterhome of the musk-ox and the lean plains wolf. So Avery Van Bruntfound them, treeless and cheerless, sparsely clothed with moss andlichens, and altogether uninviting. At least so he found them till hepenetrated to the white blank spaces on the map, and came uponundreamed-of rich spruce forests and unrecorded Eskimo tribes. It hadbeen his intention, (and his bid for fame), to break up these whiteblank spaces and diversify them with the black markings ofmountain-chains, sinks and basins, and sinuous river courses; and itwas with added delight that he came to speculate upon thepossibilities of timber belts and native villages.Avery Van Brunt, or, in full distinction,Professor A. Van Brunt of the Geological Survey, was second incommand of the expedition, and first in command of the sub-expeditionwhich he had led on a side tour of some half a thousand miles up oneof the branches of the Thelon and which he was now leading into oneof his unrecorded villages. At his back plodded eight men, two ofthem French-Canadian voyageurs, and the remainder strappingCrees from Manitoba-way. He, alone, was full-blooded Saxon, and hisblood was pounding fiercely through his veins to the traditions ofhis race. Clive and Hastings, Drake and Raleigh, Hengest and Horsa,walked with him. First of all men of his breed was he to enter thislone Northland village, and at the thought an exultancy came uponhim, an exaltation, and his followers noted that his leg-wearinessfell from him and that he insensibly quickened the pace.The village emptied itself, and a motley crowdtrooped out to meet him, men in the forefront, with bows and spearsclutched menacingly, and women and children faltering timidly in therear. Van Brunt lifted his right arm and made the universal peacesign, a sign which all peoples know, and the villagers answered inpeace. But to his chagrin, a skin-clad man ran forward and thrust outhis hand with a familiar "e;Hello."e; He was a bearded man,with cheeks and brow bronzed to copper-brown, and in him Van Bruntknew his kind...About Jack London: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).

About This Edition