Front flap:

THE
STAR
ROVER
By Jack London

• Autobiographical Introduction
• Epilogue by Gardner Murphy
• Illustrated by Leonard Everett Fisher

The science-fiction novels of Jack London are not widely known, though they have retained their power and immediacy over half a century, and rank among the best books of this kind ever written.  The Star Rover is an imaginative flight into man's history, rendered in London's most realistic terms.  It is the story of Darrell Standing, condemned to solitary confinement in a corrupt prison, who learns to free his soul from his body and escape his pain, to go winging off through space and time.

Tortured in a strait jacket for a crime of which he is innocent, Standing learns from a fellow prisoner that there is only one way to escape: by abandoning his body.  "The trick," he is told, "is to die in your jacket, to will yourself to die...  You begin with the toes, one at a time...  Once you've got the first toe dead, the rest is easy...  When your body is all dead and you are all there yet, you just skin out and leave...  Stone walls and iron doors are to hold bodies in.  They can't hold the spirit in."

It is London's original use of the idea of reincarnation that makes The Star Rover a classic of psychological depth.  After the "death" of his body, Standing finds himself reliving experiences from his previous


Back flap:

(Continued from front flap)

existences, the memories of which have been stored throughout history in his "racial memory."  In a series of vivid episodes he reawakes as a French swordsman, as a Danish soldier in the Roman Legion, as a young boy in a wagon train crossing the American prairies, as a prehistoric dweller in caves and swamps...

Central to these episodes is the struggle of the individual against nature, injustice, and corrupt society.  Standing, in his many existences, endures these recurring struggles because he knows that life, however brutal, must never be surrendered.

The autobiographical sketch that begins the book was written by London in 1913.  In it he humorously traces his far-flung and active career as an adventurer and writer.  The distinguished psychologist Gardner Murphy, Director of Research at the Menninger Foundation, discusses in his epilogue the nature of London's psychological theories and their significance today, and speculates on some ideas of his own.  The Pulitzer Prize-winning artist Leonard Everett Fisher has provided new illustrations for this edition, which embody the virility of London's story.

JACK LONDON (1876-1916) rose from a life of poverty to become one of America's most popular and highest paid authors.  Before he turned to writing, London had been in turn oyster pirate, seaman, seal hunter, and hobo.  Later he was able to draw upon these experiences for his novels, winning literary fame and a lasting reputation with such works as The Call of the Wild, The Sea Wolf, and White Fang.