Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
London, Jack. Tales of the Fish Patrol. International Fiction Library, Cleveland And New York, 1905.
Price: US$111.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: Hardcover with dustjacket, early reprint with the 1905 publishing date on the copyright page credited to The Perry Mason Company and The Macmillan Company, brown cloth with black titles and decoration, "With illustrations by George Varian" stated on title page but no illustrations were included in this edition other than the attractive jacket art and the front cover, the book has a couple of minor flaws: a 1-inch long black mark on the rear cover and mild tanning to the blank end-papers and title page, the binding is clean and tight and the contents are fine, the jacket has moderate edge-wear at the spine-ends and corners, a small surface bruise that affects the "T" in the title on the front panel, a short edge-tear on the rear panel, some tanning to the rear flap, and mild darkening to the white-colored rear panel, none of the flaws are major and the jacket remains presentable, a professional (removable) mylar cover is included which enhances its appearance and also hides the foxing that is present on the blank reverse side; 243 pages
Seller: Mainly Books, Silverdale, PA, U.S.A.
London, Jack. The Game.. The Macmillan Company, New York, 1905.
Price: US$125.00 + shipping
Description: First Edition, second issue of London's tragic boxing tale with the magazine rubberstamp of Metropolitan Magazine Co. to the copyright page. Octavo, original cloth, pictorial endpapers, with illustrations and decorations by Henry Hutt and T. C. Lawrence. In good condition with a child's drawings to a few pages. Ownership inscriptions. One of at least four stories London wrote about boxing, The Game follows the tragic story of Joe Fleming, a twenty-year old boxer who meets his death in the ring. London worked, for a time, as a sports reporter for The Oakland Herald and based the novel on his personal observations. The book essentially made the subject of boxing a respectable literary topic.
Seller: Raptis Rare Books, Palm Beach, FL, U.S.A.
London, Jack. THE GAME. , 1905.
Price: US$175.00 + shipping
Description: With Illustrations and Decorations by Henry Hutt and T.C. Lawrence. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1905. 6 pp undated ads. Original grey-green cloth pictorially decorated in white and brown. First Edition, which consisted of 26,420 copies. In this prizefighting tale, Joe Fleming tries to convince his fiancée to accept his career by inviting her to watch him box (a precursor to the "Rocky" movies: the fight, blow-by-blow, occupies almost the entire second half of the book). Jack had long cherished a cult of the perfect male body. He had pictures taken of himself in bathing costume, flexing his muscles and shadowboxing. He took snapshots of George Sterling posing on the beach, wearing nothing. Obsessive descriptions of male Anglo-Saxon strength, grace, and sexuality began to creep into his novels, particularly THE GAME, written in the summer of 1904. In that romance of prizefighting, the hero expressed Jack's vanity about his own body -- his skin was fair as a woman's, his face like a Greek cameo, his stance a perfection of line and strength, yet with a deep smooth chest and "muscles under their satin sheaths -- crypts of energy wherein lurked the chemistry of destruction." [Sinclair] This is a handsomely but oddly bound book, with symbols of death and of fate on the binding, on the endpapers, and throughout the text. This copy has, on the copyright page, a hand-stamped two-line notice in type that is 3/32" tall (some copies have it in smaller type, and a few have no such notice -- precedence unknown, though S&M speculates that copies with no stamp were first). This is a very good-plus copy, with some rubbing at the extremities. Sisson & Martens p. 24; Blanck 11886.
Seller: Sumner & Stillman [ABAA], Yarmouth, ME, U.S.A.
Price: US$195.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: Very Good. See scans and description. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1905. First Edition [BAL 11886], second issue with the smaller (1/16") magazine rubberstamp on copyright page [BAL's form A]. Octavo, 182 pp plus 6 pp ads, original ribbed teal cloth pictorially stamped in red, white and brown, lettered in red on cover, gilt on spine, top page edges gilt, pictorial endpapers. Illustrations by Henry Hutt and decorations by T.C. Lawrence. Slight spine lean, shelf wear (most notably at spine ends). Brown offset at title page from a previously laid in item. No sign of hinges starting, a commonplace problem with this issue. Colors and gilt on spine and cover bright. Faces up nicely, Very Good. First edition, second state copy of London's tale of boxing around the turn of the century. London, whose entertainment genius consisted in no small measure in fictionalizing experiences from his own life (perhaps occasionally embellished), loved boxing, and was a pugilist himself for a time in his youth. Hutt's illustrations (six in color) and Lawrence's decorations enhance the story, and the several pages of ads at the back, for some of his most famous titles, including The Call of the Wild and The Sea-Wolf, add to the Jack London flavor of The Game. Ships in a new, sturdy, protective box, of course - not a bag. L21
Seller: Singularity Rare & Fine, Baldwinsville, NY, U.S.A.
London, Jack. Tales of the Fish Patrol. Macmillan, New York, 1905.
Price: US$250.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: Sturdy and bright condition. Some scratching on rear cover.
Seller: Feldman's Books, Menlo Park, CA, U.S.A.
Price: US$295.00 + shipping
Condition: Fine
Description: 8vo (7 5/8" x 5 1/4"), red cloth with black lettering and B&W silhouette logo of a girl with book facing a similar boy inside a sylized room flanked by globes and prisms, archival mylar-protected pictorial dust jacket (bevelled edges; seemingly not price-clipped but with no price indicated) depicting stylized Fu Manchu-like long-mustached Chinese pirate against a red shadow as he holds a sailboat in his claw-like long-nailed hand, 243 pages. Exceedingly RARE and Fine copy in an Extraordinary dust jacket. Clean, tight, bright in a brilliant, sharp dust jacket (very slightly rubbed). First copyrighted by the Perry Mason Company in 1905, which serialized the tales in 7 issues of The Youth's Companion, Vol. 79, during February & March, 1905. The Macmillan Company, New York, also published their edition in 1905 with a colorful cover with sailboat, frontispiece and 7 plates. William Heinemann, London, also published these tales in 1905 with illustrations by George Varian. Jack London (born John Chaney; 1876 - 1916) was a bestselling American novelist, journalist, early science fiction writer, and social activist. His most famous works include The Call of the Wild and White Fang, both set in the Klondike Gold Rush; a dystopian novel, The Iron Heel; plus non-fiction exposés The People of the Abyss, and The War of the Classes. His short story "To Build a Fire" has become a classic. London also wrote about the Pacific Rim in stories such as "The Pearls of Parlay," "The Heathen," and TALES OF THE FISH PATROL. As a youth, London had engaged in the dangerous plunder of oyster beds around San Francisco Bay. This collection of seven short stories recalls those rough years when he shifted from piracy to work on the Fish Patrol that struggled to protect fish and oysters from fearful pirates. First Thus (presumably reprints the Perry Mason Co. Boston edition from 1905).
Seller: Borg Antiquarian, Lake Forest, IL, U.S.A.
london , Jack. Tales of the Fish Patrol. MacMillan, New York, 1905.
Price: US$375.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: Signed by Jimmy Heinold, Jack London's friend and propreitor of the The Last Chance Saloon in Oakland , Ca. A collectible copy of London's tales of working with the fish patrol and the many exploits of the fish patrol and the outlaw fishermen making their living on the vast San Francisco bay. Lightly bumped on the spine and vibrant colors on the front and spine panels.
Seller: California Bookseller - J. R. Aboud, Carmel Valley, CA, U.S.A.