THE SEA-WOLF

The Sea-Wolf is a 1904 psychological adventure novel by American writer Jack London. The book's protagonist, Humphrey Van Weyden, is a literary critic who is a survivor of an ocean collision and who comes under the dominance of Wolf Larsen, the powerful and amoral sea captain who rescues him. Its first printing of forty thousand copies was immediately sold out before publication on the strength of London's previous The Call of the Wild. Ambrose Bierce wrote, "The great thing—and it is among the greatest of things—is that tremendous creation, Wolf Larsen... the hewing out and setting up of such a figure is enough for a man to do in one lifetime... The love element, with its absurd suppressions, and impossible proprieties, is awful." The personal character of the novel's antagonist "Wolf" Larsen was attributed to a real sailor London had known, Captain Alex MacLean. According to London himself, "much of the Sea-Wolf is imaginary development, but the basis is Alexander McLean." Captain Alex MacLean, or McLean, was born May 15, 1858, in East Bay, Nova Scotia. He sailed mostly in the Pacific Northwest with his brother, Captain Dan MacLean. MacLean was at one time the Sheriff of Nome, Alaska. The MacLean Captains maintained their ties to Cape Breton Island despite having spent much of their lives sailing the Pacific Coast.