Jack London

Burning Daylight Jack London

To read any of London's work is to be in the presence of his own biography; few authors have drawn so freely upon their own experiences for literary material. All his characters, including Burning Daylight, are Jack London in masquerade or Jack London as he dreamed of himself. "Burning Daylight" might be called "Miscellaneous Adventures in the Life of a Superman" - his way of celebrating his birthday, his record trip with the Yukon Mail, his fight with starvation, his discovery of Klondike gold, his adventure with the stock market, his sensational hold up of the New York brokers etc. All of London's leading characters are of this type supermen, superwomen, dreams of their creator, half real, half mythical. All of them are blonds even to the golden degree. They have blue or gray eyes and bodies that are perfect. His men have muscles that creep and knot like living things and skins like silk. Burning Daylight has that super-strength "that is the dower of but one human in millions". (Fred Lewis Pattee)