(1877-1949)
For a time, roughly between the turn of the 20th century until the 1920s, tales of Alaska and the Great White North posed a serious challenge to the western as the most popular form of frontier literature. In 1898, gold was discovered in the Yukon Territories of Canada, a harsh and remote region bordering Alaska. A rush was on, and soon the area was the scene of a bustling, chaotic wilderness civilization, filled with hopeful treasure hunters from around the world and the merchants, saloon keepers, and whores to service them. It was a scene of desperation (with a killing winter climate), exploitation, and violent lawlessness. The Yukon gold rush inspired a new subgenre of popular literature that would include stories and novels, poetry, plays, and movies. The first and most famous of the gold rush writings were those by Jack London, author of The Call of the Wild (1903), White Fang (1907), and assorted notable short stories.
The most popular of London’s many emulators was Rex Beach, a young man from Michigan who had graduated from law school in 1900 only to toss his degree aside and head for the Klondike to become a gold miner. Beach struck gold all right, not from the ground but from his pen. In 1906 he published his first novel, The Spoilers, a zestful, colorful, and authentically detailed tale of prospectors, grub-stakers, and claim jumpers in the freezing North. Beach’s plot centered on the rampant corruption among the Yukon establishment, with various government officials and lawyers out to grab the gold through chicanery from the miners who have risked their lives, and how frontier justice sets things straight. The topic was a tremendous success and was adopted for the stage version by Beach and James MacArthur. It became a Broadway hit in 1907 and a staple of touring companies for many years after. The Spoilers also became a movie in 1914, starring William Farnum and Tom Santschi. The film was legendary for its climactic saloon fight between the prospector hero and the crooked claims-agent villain; it was hailed for many years as the greatest fight scene in the movies. The story was so popular that it was refilmed in the 1920s, then again in 1930—with sound and Gary Cooper—and again in 1942, with John Wayne and Randolph Scott, and once more in 1956, starring Jeff Chandler and Rory Calhoun, each version attempting to top the last with a spectacular final brawl.
Beach’s other “northerns” included The Barrier (1908), The Silver Horde (1909), and The Iron Trail: An Alaskan Romance (1913). He later wrote other types of stories, set in less chilly locales, including several novels about the later prospectors for oil in the Asian jungles. Toward the end of his life Beach returned to the scene of his earliest triumph with the 1946 adventure novel The World in His Arms, about an American sea captain and his rivals—including the Russian navy—hunting for seals in the Bering Strait.
Works
Auction Block:
- A Novel of New York Life, The (1914);
- Barrier, The (1908);
- Crimson Gardenia and Other Tales of Adventure (1916);
- Flowing Gold (1922);
- Goose Woman and Other Stories, The (1924);
Iron Trail:
- An Alaskan Romance, The (1913);
- Jungle Gold (1935);
- Laughing Bill Hyde and Other Stories (1917);
- Men of the Outer Islands (1932);
- Ne’er Do Well, The (1911);
- Net, The (1912);
- North of Fifty-Three (1924);
- Padlocked (1926); Pardners (1905);
- Silver Horde, The (1909);
- Son of the Gods (1930);
- Spoilers, The (1906);
- Too Fat to Fight (1920);
- Valley of Thunder (1939);
- Wild Pastures (1935);
- Winds of Chance, The (1918);
- Woman in Ambush (1951);
- World in His Arms, The (1946)
