Jack London wrote 1000 words a day--add it up

I don’t know about you, but I never fail to be amazed by the volume of work some authors turn out in the course of their careers.

The passing of John Updike on January 28, 2009, leaves a yawning hole in American letters. Updike published over 60 books along with reams of essays, poetry and art criticism in his storied career. Each day he sat down to write he ended up with three pages of work.

Joyce Carol Oates, quite likely the United States’ next Nobel for literature recipient, writes in longhand, working from “8 till 1 every day, then again for two or three hours in the evening." I haven’t seen a count toting up her production lately, but novels, essays, criticism pour like a flooding river on steroids from her genius pen. She probably just finished another work as you were reading this.

Isaac Asimov, however, is easily the Prince of the Prolific. According to his Wikipedia entry, he wrote or edited more than 500 books and an estimated 9,000 letters and postcards. Postcards? The guy probably filled whole mail drop boxes with them each day of his life. His subject matter ran the spectrum of science to Shakespeare, the Bible to a late in life book, The Sensuous Dirty Old Man.

How about Jack London? Facts, comments and thoughts on the volume of his literary and journalistic production?

Wolf to Woof or Woof to Wolf?

If you thought you knew the answer to this question, maybe you should think again.

GO HERE

Jack London’s famous “Buck” in The Call of the Wild is an interesting mixed breed. What is Buck’s pedigree? Do Woof/Wolves of this sort really exist? If you can, post pictures of what Buck looked like in the comment section of this blog.

Do you think Buck would find a place in this week’s famous Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show in New York City? Somehow I doubt that Jack London, and certainly not Buck, would be all that concerned if he wasn’t allowed to prance with the poodles. But I don’t know this for a fact. After all, the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show came on the scene in 1877, twenty-six years before London’s book was written.

GO HERE to see Buck’s competition.