Search Worlds Without End

A young man in modern America is terrorized by visions of an earlier, primitive life. Across the enormous chasm of thousands of centuries, his consciousness has become entwined with that of Big-Tooth, an ancestor living at the dawn of humanity. Big-Tooth makes his home in Pleistocene Africa, a ferocious, fascinating younger world torn by incessant conflict between early humans and protohumans. Before Adam is a remarkable and provocative tale that thrust evolution further into the public spotlight in the early twentieth century and has since become a milestone of speculative fiction. The brilliance of the book lies not only in its telling but also in its imaginative projection of a mindset for early humans. Capitalizing on his recognized ability to understand animals, Jack London paints an arresting and dark portrait of how our distant ancestors thought about themselves and their world.

Jack London's fabled powers to entertain and enthrall are in full force in this collection of fifteen fantastic tales. The restless energy of his vision ranges far in time and space, from the psychological tension of an extraterrestrial encounter to a frontier tall tale of a trapper hunting a mammoth. London tells an effective Victorian gothic story and offers an intriguing consideration of the science and problems of invisibility. Particularly gripping are the well-imagined horrors and new worlds of the future, including a chilling novella depicting a world ravaged by an alien virus. These remarkable stories testify to the wide-ranging creative power of one of America's great writers.

Contents:

• A Curious Fragment - (1908) - shortstory
• A Relic of the Pliocene - (1901) - shortstory
• A Thousand Deaths - (1889) - shortstory
• Even Unto Death - (1900) - shortstory
• Goliah - (1908) - novelette
• Preface (Curious Fragments) - (1975) - essay by Philip José Farmer
• The Enemy of All the World - (1908) - shortstory
• The Red One - (1918) - novelette
• The Rejuvenation of Major Rathbone - (1899) - shortstory
• The Scarlet Plague - (1912) - novella
• The Shadow and the Flash - (1903) - shortstory
• The Strength of the Strong - (1911) - shortstory
• The Unparalleled Invasion - (1910) - shortstory
• War - (1911) - shortstory
• When the World Was Young - (1910) - shortstory
• Who Believes in Ghosts! - (1895) - shortstory

Has also been published as Curious Fragments: Jack London's Tales of Fantasy Fiction.