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Jack London
The Valley of the Moon
$17.95, £10.95 paperback
978-0-520-21820-8
Available Now
436 pages, 5-1/2 x 8-1/4 inches, 1 b/w photograph
June 1999, Available worldwide
Categories: Literary Studies; Fiction; California & the West; American Studies
June 1999, Available worldwide
Categories: Literary Studies; Fiction; California & the West; American Studies
"London was–like Thomas Jefferson–a rational humanist and a scientific progressivist; he was also–like Jefferson–strongly enamored of the pastoral dream, seeing in the return to the land the possibilities of spiritual as well as physical regeneration."—Earle Labor and Jeanne Campbell Reesman, Jack London
"A turbulent, energetic, impressive book. The historian Kevin Starr contributes a very good introduction" —The Palm Beach Post
"A turbulent, energetic, impressive book. The historian Kevin Starr contributes a very good introduction" —The Palm Beach Post
"Jack London at his supreme best."—Tillie Olsen
A road novel fifty years before Kerouac, The Valley of the Moon traces the odyssey of Billy and Saxon Roberts from the labor strife of Oakland at the turn of the century through Central and Northern California in search of land they can farm independently—a journey that echoes Jack London's own escape from urban poverty. As London lost hope in the prospects of the socialist party and organized labor, he began researching a scientific and environmentally sound approach to farming. In his novel, it is Saxon, London's most fully realized heroine, who embodies these concerns. The Valley of the Moon is London's paean to his second wife Charmian and to the pastoral life and his ranch in Glen Ellen, the Valley of the Moon.