When I think of Jack London, the first thing that comes to mind is not his novels. Though I've read The Call Of The Wild and White Fang, and liked them, what London excelled at were his short stories.

In modern literature, short stories have become almost extinct. After reading some of London's finest output in this book, I can pinpoint at least one reason for the decline in their popularity. Modern stories mostly focus on people, their inner feelings and their relationships with other people, and how those relationships change.

London wrote about much more visceral matters, such as struggles not to freeze to death, starve to death, or endure years of slavery. Or about the risks men are willing to take to make their fortune, or otherwise chase their chosen future.

The key difference from these to modern stories is the amount at stake. It's hard to become excited if the worst that can happen to the main character is that he must find a new girlfriend. It's almost impossible not to get excited if the main character is fighting for his life in an interesting manner and the story is well-written.

I sometimes wish I was born in the 19th century. It certainly was much easier to lead an interesting life back then. Consider this introduction of Jack London from this book: "He spent his adolescence as an oyster pirate, a seaman, a Yukon prospector and a tramp".

For example, while the travel time to move to a new country back then was far more than today, everything else about it was easier. Consider some of the things you wouldn't have had to worry about back then: mobile phone service plans, Internet access, incompatible electrical standards and sockets, taxes (I doubt any state back then was capable of collecting left-over taxes from someone who moved to the other side of the world), unemployment/retirement benefits and health insurance (there weren't any), staying in contact with the people you left behind (not an option), immigration visas, discontinuities in your favorite TV programs, and who knows what else.

Combine all that, and you realize it was far easier to simply pick up your things and move to somewhere else, try a new profession, or whatever. Nike's slogan "Just Do It" was more apt then; nowadays it's more like "Plan For Six Months And Then Maybe Do It".