Jack London First Editions

Book excerpt: James E. Sisson III, 1917-1986, of Vernon, Alabama, began studies in 1960 at the University of California, Berkeley, with Professor James D. Hart, and began his research on Jack London in 1970. Sisson's contributions to the field of Jack London scholarship were impressive. Joan London considered Sisson the premiere authority on her father, and Jack London scholars around the world respected and admired his work. Discovering previously unpublished Jack London plays at the Library of Congress, Sisson had London's play Gold published for the first time by the Holmes Book Company. He collected and published London's high school writings in Jack London's Articles and Short Stories in the (Oakland) High School Aegis; edited and co-authored with Dale Walker The Fiction of Jack London: A Chronological Bibliography; and compiled several bibliographies, including Jack London First Editions, The Non-Fiction of Jack London, The Collected Poems of Jack London, and Jack London and the South Seas: A Chronological Bibliography. Sisson regularly published pamphlets, articles, and reviews on Jack London in newsletters and newspapers, and reviewed almost every London work published since 1960. A tireless worker and advocate on behalf of London scholarship, he assisted many other researchers with grants and materials. Sisson's French heritage influenced his participation in Paris publications of London's writings. When editor Francis Lacassin translated London's science fiction story, "Star Rover" (1915) into French as "Le Vagabond des Etoiles," Sisson helped with extensive original research.