The Scarlet Plague is a post-apocalyptic fiction novel written by Jack London and originally published in 1912. The book was noted in 2020 as having been very similar to the Coronavirus outbreak, especially given London wrote it at a time when the world was not as quickly connected by travel as it is today.
The story takes place in 2073, sixty...More
An American novelist, journalist, and social activist, Jack London was born in 1876 in San Francisco. Growing up in a working class family, London had a tough childhood, but he was one of the first authors to make a fortune through his writing. His most popular story, The Call of the Wild, was published in 1903 and was an instant bestseller. He was a pioneer in the world of commercial magazine fiction and also an innovator in the genre that would later become known as science fiction.
An American novelist, journalist, and social activist, Jack London was born in 1876 in San Francisco. Growing up in a working class family, London had a tough childhood, but he was one of the first authors to make a fortune through his writing. His most popular story, The Call of the Wild, was published in 1903 and was an instant bestseller. He was a pioneer in the world of commercial magazine fiction and also an innovator in the genre that would later become known as science fiction.
Book Summary
The Scarlet Plague is a post-apocalyptic fiction novel written by Jack London and originally published in 1912. The book was noted in 2020 as having been very similar to the Coronavirus outbreak, especially given London wrote it at a time when the world was not as quickly connected by travel as it is today.
The story takes place in 2073, sixty years after an uncontrollable epidemic, the Red Death, has depopulated the planet. James Smith is one of the survivors of the era before the scarlet plague hit and is still left alive in the San Francisco area, and he travels with his grandsons Edwin, Hoo-Hoo, and Hare-Lip. His grandsons are young and live as primeval hunter-gatherers in a heavily depopulated world. Their intellect is limited, as are their language abilities. Edwin asks Smith, whom they call "Granser", to tell them of the disease alternately referred to as scarlet plague, scarlet death, or red death.
Jack London
