London's Call of the Wild Association Copy

Title: The Call of the Wild
Author: London, Jack
Description: 254, [4] + [4] ad pp. Illustrated throughout by Paul Bransom with 16 full-page color illustrations, a great many color and monochrome illustrations as headpieces, tailpieces, vignettes, etc. Blue cloth, lettered in gilt, spine and front cover pictorially blocked in gray, color pictorial inset on front cover. Second Printing of this illustrated edition.Inscribed "With best wishes" and signed by illustrator Paul Bransom on title page. John Myers O'Hara's copy signed by him at upper corner of front free endpaper and "extra-illustrated" by him with materials supplied by Charmian London. Mounted to front pastedown is a vintage 7½x5¼ silver print photograph of Jack London in white briefs; mounted to facing page (below O'Hara's signature) is a 3x3 halftone of Jack London reproduced from a photograph and signed by him in ink, mounted on following blank leaves are 2 poems clipped from newspapers, and a typed letter, dated Glen Ellen, August 30th, 1920, signed by Charmian. The letter reads: "Dear John: When I wrote you lately, I especially intended to ask you what you want to extra-illustrate the CALL OF THE WILD you mentioned. Let me know specifically, and I'll do my best, of course. Herewith is a small picture of Jack bearing his actual signature, unfortunately written in very light ink. But it is authentic, and THE ABSOLUTELY ONLY ONE I HAVE---signed photograph, I mean. If you care for it, you may keep it, for the book or for any other purpose. Just back from a holiday, dear John. Charmian." It was from "Atavism," a poem by John Myers O'Hara (1870-1944), that Jack took the opening lines of "The Call of the Wild": "Old longings nomadic leap/ Chafing at customs chain / Again from its brumal sleep / Wakens the ferine strain." In a letter to O'Hara dated July 25, 1907, Jack London writes: "Of all the poetry I know, there were no four lines within a hundred million miles as appropriate for the key to "The Call of the Wild" as were those four lines of yours that I used. " (See "Letters of Jack London", p. 701). Myers became friends with Jack and Charmian and a year after London's death was a rejected suitor of Charmian's (Harry Houdini was his main competition). A superb association copy.
Heading: Place Published: New York
Publisher: Macmillan Co.
Date Published: 1916

Mild rubbing to covers; front hinge cracked; rear hinge straining; offsetting from newspring to 2 facing pages, else very good.