The Star Rover

Born into poverty in San Francisco in 1876, Jack London is one of the most well-known and beloved of all American authors, as well as one of the first Americans to become world famous and wealthy from his literary career. London lived a colorful and adventurous life as a young man, working as a sailor and then living as a hobo, all before starting high school. First published in 1915 "The Star Rover" also published as "The Jacket" is the tale of Darrell Standing, a professor who has been imprisoned for murder in San Quentin. While there, he is subjected to a severe form of physical and mental torture when prison officials strap him into a canvas jacket that compresses the body. Standing deals with this torture by inducing himself into a trance-like state, in which he travels through time and space. The majority of the novel is comprised with the accounts of Standing's experiences reliving past lives while in this trance. A work apart from London's typical tales of adventure, "The Star Rover" remains a peculiar oddity in the literary canon of Jack London. This edition includes a biographical afterword.