El Paso Times from El Paso, Texas • 58

books Rekindled interest increases Jack London collections Figure out title from paintings, clues to win golden queen bee waf Howard Lachtman's fine collection of Jack Lon iy Known is jaci uooaoa: five roems i Amaaor-Citv. Calif Quintpssrnrp Publications The Dale L. Walker pieces of verse here, with titles like "If 1 Were uuu, i ne louver i-aiury, ana ine mammon Worshippers," do nothing to add (or detract) from -London's literary reputation, but the book does give the serious student a taste of London's pas-' sionate experimenting with literary forms. 9 The Jack London revival, now completing its sec'-' ond decade of significant publishing activity has produced all the most important work about this-, A i A 11 A A A American sioryieuing genius au me dcsi cnu-cism and serious scholarly inquiry, and all the best edited collections of London's works most notably among the latter, the two-volume (2,212 pages total) edition of London's stories in the "Library of America" series. TKn itnntifiiatinn ft Tn1r Tsinrinn nc a a ini" don's early career adventure stories, "Youof Wolf (Santa Barbara.

Capra Press, adds an important link to an astonishingly long chain of London works published in the past two decades. Lachtman, a London authority who a few years ago edited for Presidio Press a book titled "Sporting Blood," a collection of London's prizefight and other sporting stories and newspaper work, says these early fiction efforts are "all reflections of the young writer's progress toward celebrity status." He divides this book into four sections "Adventures on the Frost Trail," "Tales of Indian Life," "Treasure-hunters," and "Wolf Dogs of the North" and includes some of London's best early work. Here are 16 stories that ought to be read in high school and college classrooms today in lieu of the shopworn "To Build a Fire." "Love of Life," "To the Man on the Trail," "The White Silence," and "All Gold Canyon" are here, together with a selection from London's "The Call of the Wild." These are examples of the "young writer's progress" but, in truth, he did not get much better than this. Nor did he need to. The Jack London who for the past 20 years has been the subject of such a grand revival rcprintings, expertly edited collections such as "Young Wolf," critical appraisals, scholarly books is the Jack London found in the best of these early stories.

"A Klondike Trilogy: Three Uncollected Stories by Jack London," edited by Earle Labor (Santa Barbara, Neville Publishing $50), is another example of the kind of Jack London work being done in this long revival period. Earle Labor, the most eminent London authority in America, is an English professor at Centenary College in Louisiana, author of the standard critical work, "Jack London" (Twayne, 1974), and co-editor of the forthcoming three-volume collection of London letters to be published by Stanford University Press. "A Klondike Trilogy" consists of three early stories London wrote when he returned home from the Yukon in 1898 "The Devil's Dice Box," "The Test: A Klondike Wooing," and "Klondike Christmas" were a prelude to the tales found in Lachtman's "Young Wolf." All the "trilogy" are rejected stories that London set aside when his career took off meteorically in 1900 with publication of "The Son of the Wolf." And yet another new London publication that introduces a feature of this writer's work not wide- American literary figure is not new. H. L.

Mencken, George Orwell, Anatole France, Katherine Mansfield, Carl Sandburg, James Dickey and nu-. merous other men and women of literary stature, have said as much in published works over the past six decades and more. Publication of his earliest stories (even a trio for which he could find no publisher in his lifetime) and verse are but the latest development in the reassessment of London and the hunger to know more about him and his work. Another puzzling book hits the market the paperback rack by James Siowe i vp A Fifty years ago a young Harvard graduate named James D. Hart happened into the offices of Oxford University Press in New York and suggested the need for an American equivalent to "The Oxford Companion to English Literature." The result of that visit was a contract for Hart and the publication in 1941 of "The Oxford Companion to American Literature." Oxford University Press has just published the fifth and newly revised edition of Hart's classic in an oversized format ($49.95) that includes more than 240 entries and extensive revisions of previous entries.

With alphabetical listings of major U.S. writers, important literary works and characters and a chronological outline of U.S social and literary history, this splendid and engrossing book remains essential for any reader's reference shelf. The new gimmick in book sell- lishing tactics are the sole incentive for buying this book when the paintings themselves intricately lush, beautiful and imaginativeare worth the purchase price alone. Two new books capture the Great Depression era in stark black and white photographs that provide a gritty but nostalgic look at that pivotal time in U.S. history.

"Dust Bowl Descent" by Bill Ganzel (University of Nebraska Press, $29.95) brings together some of the most notable documentary photographs taken by the Farm Security Administration between 1935 and 1942 of Dust Bowl migrants. Photojour-nalist Ganzel spent seven years following the footsteps of those ing these days is the lure of puzzles and prizes for readers who want to gamble on getting more out of their initial investment in a book. In the wake of "Who Killed the Robbins Family?" books, the latest to hit the best-seller list is Kit Williams' "A Book Without a Name" (Knopf, which challenges the reader to discover the true title of the book hidden within the story and the 16 full-color paintings that illustrate it. The trick is to express the missing title without using the written word, submit the entry to the author, and hope to win the prize an exquisite, mohogany bee box and a queen bee made of pure gold. Ambitious readers will no doubt take the bait, but it will be a shame if such mercenary pub Farm Security Administration photographers, seeking out and rephotographing the original people and places, and records here in extraordinary photos and interviews, how their lives have changed in the last 40 years.

Equally extraordinary are the photos in "The Restless Decade: John Gutmann's Photographs of the Thirties" (Abrams, Where Ganzel contrasts the past and present, German-born Gutmann's photos testify to what he calls "the extravagance of life" in a decade where strikes and unemployment paralleled the proliferation of outdoor advertising and drive-in restaurants. Contrasted here are scenes of union pickets and National Guards with those of Americans roller skating and gambling in Reno casinos. A more distant past is reflected in the 90 duotone and color reproductions found in "Treasures of the Old West" by Peter H. Hassrick (Abrams, $35), a collection of paintings and sculptures from the Thomas Gilcreasc Institute of American History and Art in Tulsa, Okla. Accompanying works by such artists as Frederic Remington, Charles Russell and George Catlin is Hassrick's highly readable narrative detailing the development of Western art in the 19th and 20th centuries.

James Stowe is the book reviews coordinator for The Times. i I ML Fifteen illustrations provide clues and a valuable prize to the reader who guesses this book's name. it's in the Times if it's in the News sum i The Beveled Bob Signals the Return to Feminity Our Cut ond Perm $01 95 SPECIAL COMPUTE (2.00 extra for tinted hair) i it i Tho Volvot Door Styling Calon East 1827Lomaland- 591-3308 West -122 Thunderbird-- 584-4446 N.E. -5011 Alabama- 562-8811 1 "Eat in Car" is a photo contrasting the past and present in "The Restless Decade: John Gurmann's Photographs of the Thirties. sF" Since 1903 sap Vppa rel i A OUB 401 OUR 40TM QUALITY FASHION STORE YlAB (lUrtantee Final Summer OC30G GILGALIADJGG by Carnival KAN U'M i fl2 Am from our lingerie dept.

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