>> okay. so, let's start. delighted to have you here, the call of the wild west is what i called this. jack london, rugged individualist or socialist? turned out to be both. so, jack london, the most popular writer of his time, even more popular than mark twain, since mark twain was in the twain of his life. jack london was the up and coming major figure, sold a half million copies of books, really a phenomenal character. he was an individualist who spoke out against individualism. he was a capitalist who railed against capitalism. he was a socialist who criticized the socialis. he was a racist who hated racism. now you know who jack london is, very complex character. and so -- we'll have some time for question and answer. but anyway, i like many of you, perhaps have been fascinated with the novels, stories and life of jack london, the most prolific novelist of the american wild west. there's probably no better eclectic writer than london. he loved as a miner -- lived and wrote as a minner, sailor, writer, world traveler, an agitator. experienced in west, the alaska, south seas, europe, london, london in london. that would make a cool title of a book. mexico. lived among the american indians, native americans. london was a been rebel and like mark twain and charles dickens before him, became a media celebrity. cultivated an outlaw image in his novels and writings, he was b. out of wedlock in near poverty in 1876. the 100 never anniversary of the found offering the united states. in the wild and wooly san francisco. he was a teenage oyster pirate, waterfront brawler, a gang leader, work beast doing a variety of odd jobs, 15 hours a day. a hobo who spend 30 days in jail, a sailor who traveled to asia, europe and the south seas, a gold prospector in the yaw yukon, a broster in oakland, california, and car correspondent for at the hearst people in japan and mexico became america's kipling, an obsessive work-aholic writer and which evenly paid off. the highest pate write in the country, producing more than 50 books in his lifetime. he adopted a policy of writing a thousand words a day, every day, good or bad. several of which have achieved the status of world classics before his death at age 40. died in 1916 at his ranch in northern california. now of flurries -- i should mention, i want to thank several people that i've corresponded with extensively in preparation for this, especially mike wilson and dan witchen and earl labor, these are top experts in the field on jack london it and was fun corresponding with them via e-mail. so a lot of false rumors about jack london who was not a home run homosexual. he wrote to a gay reporter, i love women. settles the matter. it's a constant. did he commit suicide when he died in 1916? rumors are fueled by a semi biographical novel which -- talks of suicide in the autobiographical book on drinking. john barley korn. he was an alcoholic and often abused his body. he died really too young at age 40. he opposed -- very liberated, liberal individual, but he opposed women's right to vote. you'll know why? because he knew that women would support prohibition. and he didn't like that at all. he said, all ways lead to the salon, a thousand roads of roman anded a adventure drew together in the saloon and offended all over the world, adding as a youth by the way of a saloon i escaped from the narrowness of women's influence into the wild free world of men. so, he often been compared to an early hemingway, parallels. bowling loved brawling and drinking and the company of men from at the low life. both rebelled wednesday their domineering mothers, bows resisted higher education, both spending time riding the rails as hobos. both served as war correspondents, both haunted the by the temptation of suicide, and hemingway did more than being tempted. so, let's begin with a short discussion of his most famous novel, the call of the wild, published in 1903 by mcmillan, and is considered to be his masterpiece and the most widely read of all his publications, if you go to any barnes & noble you'll see copies, multiple copies sometimes. that's been translated into 47 languages. it's considered the greatest dog story ever written. no other popular writer of his time did any better writing than you'll find in the call of the wailed, it is a story of buck, half st. bernard and have sheepdog, who lives the life of a top dog in judge miller's estate in california, santa clara valley. one day as he suddenly kidnapped and has his freedom, top dog and is kidnapped and sold to dog traders who shipped him north to work as a led dog in the yukon gold mining district. all bainesed on his own experience economy yukon. buck is abused, beaten, bought sold but learns how to aadapt and survive in a primitive dog eat dog world inch the last have of the novel he meets one john thornton who is a master who treats buck with kindness and love. buck's love for thornton becomes challenged by his growing desire for the wild. he begins to disappear in the forest for longer periods of time but always returns to thornton. one day, buck returns to fine thornton and his crew killed by some american means. angry, buck attacks and kills several native americans. then venture us into the forest and becomes the lead are of a wolf pack. despite being fully wild now, buck still returns to the place of thornton's death each year to mourn the loss of his best friend. so, interpretations. one, the call of the wild is often portrayed as a symbol of social darwinism. of nature read in tooth and claw surgeries vial of the fittest who breed and survive. that's what life is all about. but number two, others have interpret london's novel as representative of the cruelty of capitalism. of exploitation and fraud. the call of the wild reminds me of the late 19th century ea of the industry revolution that jack london lived under, the guild age of john d. rockefeller, carnegie, gould and jp morgan this robber barons. in london's youth he experienced a life of expect addition, abuse and survival on a bare minimum wage. the called him a work beast. in jonathon son we see a example of a benevolent master and the boss treats is laborers fairly and decently but there's a third interpretation and i thank my wife for this suggestion. the novel is aan tack an the evils slave rhythm what does buck represent if not enslaved by the dog traders? just as african-americans were enlived by the slave traders who took them to an unknown land. he was beaten and abused. the plot of the novel is how they enslaved dog buck breaks away from his masters and becomes free again. one running with the wolves. a cool interpretation. i like it. so, we're going to talk later about some of the novels -- some of the films and i'm going to have marc eliot come forward and we'll talk but at the films. that would be appropriate. so, jack london -- let's see. was jack london a radical socialist? often portrayed, and i think rightly so in some ways, a hard core socialist, who advocated the overthrow of the capitalist system. would be what we might call an ayn rand socialist, on the opposite of the political spectrum, having experienced his own brutal exploitation work to 12 hours a day as a minimum wall wage as teenaager and young adult and constantly you encounter stories where he is promised a wage increase and then is denied it, and there's a lot of shenanigans going on in this wild and wooly world of business in this california area. he witnessed mass unemployment during the 1893-96 depression. and the abuse of workers and as a result ojoint the socialist labor party in 1896 and wrote a newspaper article in 1903, how i became a socialist, and went on lecture tours across the country in fav of socialism. hi daughter, joan, wasp ain't avowed marxist. jack london saw things different from ayn rand, who crated these heros who seemed to do no wrong, because he recognized the extensive social ills associated with industryization, urbanization, oppression of work hes hes and the widespread corruption of politics. saw that an ideal brotherhood of man did not arise, quotings out of the decay of self-seeking capitalism. capitalism -- rotten ripe, sent for that montrose offshoot, the oligarchy. this rule by the few crushes labor movements and subjects workers to every more difficult circumstances and economic insecurity in order to get more and more power to and privilege to the wealthy who rule with an iron heel, the name of one his novels, the iron heel. so very influenced by marx here. the iron law -- iron fist of competition. this was far from ideal for individual freedoms or self-respect and fair minded justice. so you can understand his appeal towards socialism. now in the sea wolf, which is the second most popular book that he ever wrote, and actually has been made into film eight times, mainly because of the female character introduced in the sea wolf, but wolf larsen the main character eric rugged individualist who create is his own rules of exploitation inch the story there's a brief debate between wolf and at the protagonist over the issue of selfishness -- the classic debate in ayn's novels. larsen is opposed to altruism and carry about others. doesn't give a damn about others. didn't believe in sacrificing for others. quote, it was be immore for me to perform any act that was a sacrifice for another. who does that sound like? the sea wolf sold half a million copies in hardback and outrageous high number of books today. it has been turn interest a film eight times. so, the best version of the sea wolf in my opinion is with edward g. robinson, he develops himself as a character, as an evil person, and edward g. robinson can dot that in several movied. much better than charles bronson just never could cut it in my opinion. kinder confesses yesterday i have never resident a book whose pages have turn any faster than i have the pages of the sea wolf. now, me personally, martin eden, that's the novel that i turn pages fast. not the sea wolf. anyway, that's how he felt but the sea. who. combines a love story and adventure and novel of ideas install one book. wolf already sewn has a for mettible intellect. a man of strength and beauty, and at the same time a powerful man physically and could at time bed brutal, beating his men and swearing at them with obscenities, cursing, on equation they tried to kill him in return. he was -- james dicky says he was the wild creature supreme and savage ricer mystery and beauty. so reminds me of my friends. reminds me of bill mayer, on tv, on hpo. we fell into discussion, philadelphia, signs, evolution, religion, but humry wonders why didn't he amount to anything? why would ail your wonderful strung have you not won something? did you lack ambition? could have been somebody. i could have been a contender. instead i'm a bum. larson was selfish and callous, man of despair and black moods and unbeliever, with no sympathy toward his men who he abused no conscience no morals, but his cabin was full of books he could cite shakespeare and darwin, darwinian and a rand union, an individualist, and kind of -- ever met a plumber who like he was -- had a ph.d and could talk philosophy to you? is meet these people and say, how did this happen? have an example of that. critics say the book falls apart when a woman shows up, miss brewster. chapter 18. i think this is poppy cook. i think this is fascinating. without the woman entering and creating this struggle, the book would never achieved its success. you have to have the woman in it. so, i totally disagree with all the critics on this book. so the sea wolf is one you can read over and again am book of adventure and fascinating debates and this creature, this individual that you wonder about, how could a person be so mean and yet so arrogant and yet so intellectual and so knowledgeable? well, fascinating person. then we come to martin eden. who many even though the was not anywhere successful as his other books you can still get in the book stores. found it in barnes & noble. 1909, considered autobiographical and many now think it is his best book. because eden changes. eden starts off as young unsophisticated sailor who educates himself and becomes a world famous writer. the opening line is about the rough sailor encounter of civilized society of san francisco, for me was absolutely captivating. get me some water? my water here? in the back there. i'd appreciate that. so, this is powerful reading. the one opened the door with the latch key and went in followed by a young fellow who awkwardly removed his cap. he wore rough clothes that smacked of the sea. thank you. and he was manifestly out of place in the spacious hall in which he found himself. he did not know what to do with his cap. and was stuffing into it his coat pocket when the other took it from him. he walked at the other's heels with a swing to this shoulder is and his legs split as. the he level floors were tilting up and sinking down to the heave and lunge of the sea. you can see he's just gotten off a ship. and of you have ever been on ship where it was rocking and roll, for the next couple of hours, you're walking and rolling like this even though you're on flat land. right? this powerful reading. and then he has this fascination. he says he saw the books on the table, into his i'd leaped a wistfulness and yearning, leaping into the eyes of a stabbing man at the saying of food. a stride with one luhr top right and left, brought him to at the table he began handling the books. he glanced at the titles and the author's named-read fragments of the text, could raying the volumes with his eyes and hands and recognized a book he had read. and then he describeses -- turned and saw the girl, the phantom of his brain, banished the sight of her. a pail ethereal creature with wide spiritual blue eyes and a wealth of golden hair. he did not know how she was dressed except the dress was as wonderful as she. she likened her to a pale gold flower upon a slender stem. a spirit he disvictimmity, goddess. sub himmated beauty not of this earth. he's following in love. so, this is great stuff here. mark eden. this captivated me from beginning to end am book i could not get enough of. martin eten was as a niche which i individualism. he becomes highly success of as writer when he meant it as criticism of the bourgeois society of material success because martin eden is -- becomes an uneducated sailor who becomes educated, who becomes a writer but he struggles for most of the novel and then, spoiler alert, becomes successful. and then he commits suicide. because he is disillusioned with western bourgeois society. love, fame and materialism, and so you go from a novel that is for me just absolutely riveting. one i could read over and over again but i will never get to the end of that novel. because he commits suicide. and to try to figure out why he commits suicide, i suppose shy get into that but that's dark if don't want to get into darkness like that. but people mo whit suicide go into that darkness. you want to read how people feel when they do this sort of thing. so, can you imagine reading a novel that is so upbeat and optimistic, a guy who is living the american dream, becomes successful, in every possible way, and he commits suicide? what is wrong with this person? well, the ending is very interesting, where he says, at the end he knew and he ceased to know. but of course, if there -- he was an athiest. jack london want as athiest. even though god did him a lot of favors in life but eightists never cease to know. you only know if you live beyond death. that's the only way you know. so he never knew that he ceased to know. that's how the novel ends. so, i interpreted differently. i think a better motive from his perspective, since he is a die hard evolutionist, so you can make the case for a darwin union materialist who commits suicide because life is purposeless. except for perpetuating the species. that's it. maybe to enjoy pleasure and avoid pain and that's it. dog eat dog kind of world. i can see somebody committing suicide for that but not because your successful as a writer. anyway, one of those book iowa read once and want to spread read again but your afraid to read because of the ending. so london preaches -- see where i am here -- it's futility. he's writing about futility of the bourgeois society. no way out. denigrates capitalism and self-imapproval. and ambition that we think part of the american dream and provide foods alternative so he commits tendencies -- self destructive tendencies. popular television series. london himself insist that martin eden was an attack on individualism and randan philosophy. being unaway of the needs of others of the whole collective need, martin eden lives for himself, works for himself, fought only for himself and if you please, died for himself. he became disillusioned with love, fame and the bourgeois philosophy of materialism, nothing to live for. so, there's nothing in the novel about the christian alternative, which is to live for others and christian charity. he never does any charitable work. so, there were plenty of opportunities for martin eden to find happiness, but he was too self-centered. his ideas, he wanted to show what a pure individualist, selfish individual -- what it leads to, and it leads to futility and that's why he commits suicide. so, i nude he railed against the excesses and injuries of the industrial age, the gilded age bunter actually just wanted to change it. didn't want to destroy it. while london was a journalist in mexico, he expressed support for the u.s. allies in the great war, early labor and jack london and american life, bike have here, what quote what infuriates the socialists not his support of -- it endorse only of enterprise and efficiency some what we view is obsession of marxist spot revolution. so he said some words that sounded revolutionary but wasn't a full scale socialist. never advocated nationalization of the industries. never even gave money to socialist causes other than membership. jack london was a passionate advocate of improved labor relations, collective bargaining, rights for workers, increased power for those oppressed in class struggles. and he wrote a very telling article called "what socialism is" in the san francisco examiner in 1859 and rejectioned communism and politics in general as a way to reform the system. he hated politics and revised the famous marxist dictate. this biggest discovery i made in my months of reading jack london. listen to this inch a book called what socialism -- this article, he revises marxist famous dictum. for each according to his ability to each according to his needs. right? and it's a recipe for disaster. if everybody works hard but then you have to give it to people who for their needs, it amounts to 100% marginal tax rate and that's why the system collapsed because anything more than your needs is given -- put away in this common pool and you don't get to keep it. so there's no incentive. you destroy incentive. so here's how he change is. from each according to his able to each according to his deeds. instead of needs. he changes it to deeds. that's enlightened capitalism. that's interesting. that's in his story what socialism is. but i'm fondest of his short stories. specially hiser early stories. he wrote a thousand words a day. he said i have no unfish finished seniors. if it's good i sign it and send it out. if it's not -- i sign it and send it out. so, his earlier novels are better, to build a fire, haven't read to build a fire, it's classic. given mose 0 his story had a bad end, to build a fire guess because it's a story of this man who falls into freezing water and fails to lying a fire. but amazingly survives. limps into camp, frost bitten by survives. others including white fang, tamed by civilization, the opposite of buck in call of the wild. another one i like is a piece of steak, but 0 becomesser past his prime who could have won the fight if only he had enough money to boy and eat a steak but he didn't have the money, and eventually lost the flying. so, this is typical of the pessimism of the 20th century writers. london fits in with hemingway, steinway, ts eliot, fitzgerald, all of them, bad ending stories, right? always ending badly. my favorite short story by jack london is moon phase. moon phase. ever heard of it? of course not. but you're about to hear it now. moon face. send this to people during christmastime. very perverse. here you go john clarifyhouse was a mon faced man. he know the kinds, cheek bones wide apart, chin and forehead melting into the cheeks to complete the perfect round and the know broad and pudgy, presence. perhaps my mother may have been superstition of the moon and look upon it over the wrong shoulder at the wrong time. be that as it may i hate john clayer house -- clayerhouse. he didn't do anything -- the evil was a deeper, subtler sort, elusive and intangible as to defy clear, definitive analysis in words. we all experience such things in some period in our live, universalizing, for the first time we see a certain individual, one who the very instant before we did not dream existed, and yet at the very moment of meeting we say i do not like that man. why do we not like him? we do not know why. we only know that we do not. we have taken a dislike. that's all. and so i with john clay are househouse, what right had such a man to be sustain yet he was an optimist. always gleeful and laughing. all things always all right. curse him. how i grated my soul he could should be happy oomph men could love and i did not both me. even used to laugh myself until i met john clayerhouse but his laugh, it irritated me, maddened me as nothing else under the sun could irritate or madden me. hauned, mr. gripped me. would not let me go. a huge gargantuan laugh, waking or sleeping it was always with me, whirling and jarring against -- across my heart string like enormous rasp. at brake of day it claim cry the field to ruin my revelry. under the noonday flair when the green things drooped and the birds withdraw from the depths of the forest and all nature courthoused his great, ah-ha, and oh oh, rose up to the sky and challenged the sun and from the lonely crossroads where he turned to his place came his, rousing me from my sleep and make me clinch my nails into my palms if turned his cat spool the fields and in the morning heard his whooping laugh as he drove them out of again. it's nothing, he said. the poor dumb beasties are not to be blamed for straight into fatter pastures am dog named mars, big, splendid brute, part deer hound and bloodhound that resembled both. they were always together but i bidden my time and one day when opportunity's reich, lured the animal ail and settle with him for strychnine and beef state. made no impression on john. hit latch was as hearty and frequent asker and his face much like the full moon as its always had been. then i set fire on his hay stacks and but the next morning being sunday hi went cheerly. where are you going i asked him? trout, he said. and his face beamed like a full moon. i just dote on trout. was there ever such an impossible man? his whole harvest had again up in his hay stacks and barn, uninsure i knew and yet in the face of famine and the rigorous winter he wound in quest of a mess of trout, because he doted on them. ed a gloom but rested no matter how lightly on his brow or had his bovine countenance grown long and serious and less like the moon or had he removed the smile but once from upon his face i could have forgiven but he drew only more cheerful. insulted him. he goes on like that. all right. but i turned on my heel and left. that was the last i could not stand it any longer. the thing must come right here, i thought, curse him. the earth should be quilt by him and is a win over the hill i could hear his monstrous laugh against the sky, now i pride myself on doing things neatly, and when i resolve to kill john clayerhouse, i had it in my mind to do so in such a fashion shy not look back upon it and feel ashamed. i hate it bungling and i hated brutality. to me there's something row pug nantz in merely striking a man with one's naked fist so to shoot or stab or club john do-oh, that name -- did not appeal to me. and not only was i impelled to do it neatly and artistic which i and also in such a manner that's slightest possible suspicion could be direct against me. perfect crime to this end i bent my intellect and after a week of profound incubation i hatched the scheme. then i set to work. bought a water span all pitch, five emergency owed and devote my attention to her training. had one spied me they would have remark third training contest of retrieving. i thought the dog to fetch sticks i threw into the water not only to fetch but to fetch at all without mouthing or playing with them. the opinion was that she was to stop for nothing but to deliver the stick in all haste if i made a practice of running away and leaving to the chase me with the stick until he coug me am bright animal and took to the game i was soon content. after that at the fist casual opportunity i presented the dog to john clayerhouse. i knew what i was about for i was aware of a little weakness of his and a private sinning of which he was regularly guilty. no, he said when i place he owned the ron in his hand you've don't meaned it and his mouth opened wide ask the grinned all over his damnable mon face. i thought you didn't like me, he explained. wasn't it funny for me to make such a mistake and at the thought he held his sides witch laughter. what is her name? he asked between -- belona i said, he, what a funny name. grit i my teague for his mirth but me on edge and a snapped houston between them she was the wife of mars, you know. then the lying of the fuel moon began to suffuse his face. that was any other dog i. guess she's a widow now. oh, ho-ho and i turn anded in swift hely over the hill. a week passed on saturday i said to him you good away mons, he nodded his head and grinned. then you won't have another chance to get a mess of those trout you just dote on. but he did not notice the sneer. i don't know. i'm going up to tomorrow to try pretty hard. that's my -- i went back to my house hugs myself. next morning i saw animal by with the dip net and beguny stock and the dog it's his heels. knew where he was bound and cut it by the back pasture and climb through the underbrush to the top of the mountain. keeping careful saying -- out of sight i followed the crest along for a couple of miles to a natural amphitheater in the hills where the little river raised down of gorgeous and stepped for the breath in a large and placid rock-bound pool. i sat down in the crook of me now where i could see all occurred and lit my pipe. many minute passed and john came plodding up the bed of the stream. the dog was about him and they were in high feather. he short barks mingling with his deep chested notes. arrived at the pool he threw down the dip net and sack and drew from his hip pocket what looked like a large, fat candle but i knew it was a stick of dynamite. giant. for such was his method of catching trout. he dynamited them. he attached the fuse of the wrap overing the giant tyingly into a piece of cotton and then ignite the fuse and tossed the explosive into the pool. like a flash, the dog was in the pool after it. i could only shriek aloud for joy, cleaverhouse yelled at her but healthed per with rock buzz set sveum steadily on until she got the stick, giant in already mouth. hen whirled about and headed for shore. then for the first time he realized his danger and started to run. as for seen and planned by him she made the blank and took after him. oh, i can tell you it was great as i have said the pool lay in a sort of amphitheater before and patrol the stream could be crisscrossed on extending students and around and around across the stow he raced. i could never have believed such an ungainly man could run so fast but run he did. she hot-footed after him and gaining and gaining and then just as she caught up, he in full stride and she leaping with nose at his knee there was a sudden flash, burst of smoke, trick detonation, and where man and dog had been the instant before there was not to be seen but a big hole in the ground. death from accident while engaged in illegal fishing, unquote, was the verdict of the coroner's jury. and that is why i pride myself on the neat and artistic way in which i finish odd john cleaverhouse there was no bungling no brutality, nothing of which to be ashame of and the whole transaction as i'm sure you will agree no more does this infernal laugh echo among the hills and does his fat moon face right rise up to vex my. my days peaceful now and my nights sleep deep. moon face. moon face. when i send this to my friends during christmastime, they say, boy, there's a side of you, skousen, i didn't recognize before. 1906 or something like that. -- 1906. so what is moon face all about? envy. judging others. obsession. lack of self-worth. i don't know if that applies to him. the thought very highly of himself. very clever jihad. no this is about prejudice. he is talking about prejudice without reason. you don't like someone because of color of their skin, who they look like, there's nothing wrong with the name john cleverhouse. that's not a name shat sounds really bad. there's some -- you can come up with much better names. he chose a name that is not offensive at all. and moon face person. what's wrong with that? he was -- there was no rational reason for his prejudice. and yet he took it to this extreme of killing this person. so, i think it's a -- an important short story because i think it does -- even though he takes tout an extreme its symbolizes a lot of people's prejudices in life, on race and religion and gender or what have you. it's very modern story. you don't see this short story very often in anthologies for his book. i have all of his short stories right. a thousand words a day, turned into all of these short stories. did it to make money and became a work beast. if he is a work beast all of his life. so, we are near the en. we have five minutes for questions or marc eliot we august to spend time talking about the couple of films in particular. if you want to say something about call of the while being made into films, two of them in particular, the one with clark gable in 1935, and then the other one with charlton heston. this is mark marc elliott. >> hello, everybody. >> the thing about jack london is -- i'm not sure how many people still read jack london, especially young people. they're more into jk rowling that jackline don, and i think with good reason because jack london represents another century. the rugged individualist, the adventurer free from mastercard and and american express and all the trappings that we associate today with dish hope we associate with taking away our freedoms. >> still is number 8 among the classic writer, hemming bear and other americans. >> number august among the classic writers, but that's a narrow view. >> still in all the book stores. >> try to find the barnes & nobles. >> try films. >> hollywood eats content. said this before and the reason why 20th century, which the last filmed made before is acquired fox and became 20th 20th century box, a little side note -- was called the wild but they didn't buy it because the book was so great. they bought it because jack london was so famous at the time. and they realitiy bought it as a vehicle for clark gable, and it was -- two rules that actors will tell you, any actor. never work opposite dogs or children. and so the -- first of all the film is 10% of the book if that much. >> most of the -- has a love store it in. >> and because it's clack gable, forget about the dog, bring in loretta young and that is what people went to see. the dogs -- the was an era where dog films were huge. rin tin tin and lassie, but we don't associate -- i don't associate jack london with dogs. i associate him with clark gable and with the remake of the film that i spent some time watching. the charlton heston version which is truer. >> truer to the novel. >> yeah. why didn't he like it? i loved it i thought it was pretty good show. >> decouldn't realize what he wanted to get on screen. what he was going for was when he was child, he lived in the north woods of michigan where there weren't a lot of kids around, and the only way he could her enter tape himself, no tvs or movies, was reading books and he picked up call of the wild as a boy, and fell in love with it. he wanted to make this movie that he made, 73, '72, but nobody wanted to go mere it. no studio would touch a film about a dog in those days. a loyal dog or disloyal dog. and heston was not clark gable help wasn't a proman take figure, which immediate it even a tougher sell. so eventually he produced it himself, and what they say about hollywood, when the inmates run the asylum you have in problems. and when he takes control of his own movies, you have those problems. when you see it back on a screen, i shouldn't have done that or maybe i should have done this or that camera angle was wrong or that line in the script. that's why film is collaborative. you need other people to help you in their part of the process of filmmaking. >> running short or time. you have a question. >> i read the books in high school first, all of them, very inspiring and a stepping stone to ayn rand and that's the question he have for you. would say the real superman in sea wolf was humphrey because he started as a city softy and grew to dominate wolf larsen in the end. as far as martin eden the final words were, at the moment he knew he ceased to know which gave hope nat in the end everybody will have the moment of knowingly. what i point did you immerse yourself in london, before or of ayn rapid. >> before. but i tell you, when you read -- it was martin eden in particular. those opening lines about books and stuff like that, and then the case of moon face, what fascinated me not how crazy he was but a i melt people who i don't like that person. and probably all of us -- you have to learn to overcome the prejudices so jack london i think is one of the classics, and will stand the test of time for sure, and so that was the reason -- especially with the wild west thing. >> martin eden was the book nat made me want to become a writer. >> hope you don't have the same ending. anyway, thank you all very much. appreciate it. >> i just want to sigh, when my son was eight years old he read white fang and told us but the story and tears up. which was very inspiring to hear that. i just wonder if mat turn eatsen affected hemingway to follow -- visited his grave. >> thank you volmer. on to our next session. citizen of conversation] therefore look can block. [inaudible conversations] >> here are the current best, selling nonfiction oddie books according to audible. topping the list is talking to strangers, new yorker staff writer mall connell gladwell's examination of how we misread stranger words and actions. next, sociologist neikoless signatures or genetic makeup provide us this means to work together and build societies. jd vans recall his child in a rust belt town in ohio in hillbilly elegy. following that is mind hunter. former fbi specialat john douglas' reconditioned of his time in the pure bureau's support unit and wrapping then look at the audio books, is financial advice book, i will teach you to be rich. some of those authored have appeared on book firefighter and -- book tewaaraton -- booktv. >> on our live author call yip prom "in depth," eedwards shared his thought on the current state of the conservative movem a

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