Aging Athletes, Broken Bodies, and Disability in Jack London's Prizefighting Prose

Authors

Cara E. Kilgallen, Sacred Heart UniversityFollow

Document Type

Peer-Reviewed Article

Publication Date

Winter 2017

Abstract

Jack London's name often conjures up images of dogs plowing through Alaska's desolate wilderness, or of robust men journeying into the wild; however, pictures of broken bodies struggling for survival in a boxing ring less readily come to mind. Few think of London as a sports writer, yet his illustrations of prizefighting reveal an author interested not only in able bodied athletes but in disabled and weakened ones as well. Although he is best known for his Klondike stories, nautical adventures, and socialist sentiments, the author's fascination with fitness shows that sport and the body are just as central to London's evolving aesthetic and ideology.

Comments

Version posted is the author's final edited copy.

Published in its final version as: Kilgallen, Cara Erdheim. "Aging Athletes, Broken Bodies, and Disability in Jack London's Prizefighting Prose." Studies in American Naturalism, vol. 12, no. 2, 2017, pp. 200-219.

DOI

10.1353/san.2017.0011

Recommended Citation

Kilgallen, Cara Erdheim. "Aging Athletes, Broken Bodies, and Disability in Jack London's Prizefighting Prose." Studies in American Naturalism, vol. 12, no. 2, 2017, pp. 200-219.