People of The Abyss 1st 1903
People of the Abyss – Jack London 1903
First Edition – Fine
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New York: The Macmillan Company, 1903. First Edition 319 pp. + 3pp. adverts. [BAL 11877], Sisson & Martens p. 15.
Front cover and spine decorated in gilt, lettered in black. Top edge gilt is in pristine condition. Eighteen full-page plates, with sixty text illustrations in black and white. “Published October, 1903” on copyright page. Only minor wear at corners and spine extremities. Top corner of front free end paper has two small folds, no paper loss. Pages are clean.
A total of 3982 copies were printed. This is a very difficult title to find in Fine condition.
July 1902
Jack London was commissioned by the American Press Association in mid-July 1902 to research and write a series of articles on the political and economic consequences of the Boer War, the series was unexpectedly cancelled while he was en route to the East Coast. On arrival in New York he was able instead to make tentative arrangements with George Brett of Macmillan Publishing to publish a sociological study of the London slums.
“Throughout the whole industrial fabric a constant elimination is going on. The inefficient are weeded out and flung downward.”
This book is the author’s firsthand account of the Whitechapel area in London’s East End and his attempt to understand the working class in one of the poorest areas of London. Disguised as a down on his luck American sailor. Jack lived on the streets of the East End for several weeks, sometimes staying in workhouses or sleeping on the streets.