Spotted: Rare "Sea-Wolf" in Dust Jacket
Coming to auction next week is a first edition of Jack London's The Sea-Wolf, published in 1904. What makes this copy so coveted--the estimate is $4,000-6,000--is its "extraordinarily rare dust jacket, previously known only by rumor if at all, with just one other copy thought to exist ... an astonishing survival," according to the Swann Galleries cataloguer. Be it fragmentary, toned, and brittle, still the paper dust jacket remains, covering a handsome pictorial binding.
The Sea-Wolf is an adventure novel very much in the vein of London's previous hit, The Call of the Wild. The story's antagonist is ship captain Wolf Larsen; it's worth noting that London's nickname was "Wolf," and his mansion was called "Wolf House."
