snowblog

Jack London’s ‘To Build a Fire’

By Carson Bennett, 11-20-08

	Courtesy jacklondons.net

“It was his own fault or, rather, his mistake. He should not have built the fire under the spruce tree.”

Yesterday it was 68 degrees and sunny outside. Today it’s 27 and gray. That’s Colorado for you. Today is a good day to sit inside with a pot of coffee and a book and my dog sleeping on my feet. But which book?

As I perused my shelves I came across a collection of stories by Jack London. Ah ha! What better on a cold winter day than to read a story about a cold winter day? I sat down to read one of my favorite Jack London stories, “To Build a Fire.”

If you haven’t read it, click the link above and read it right now. Not only is it one of the best short stories ever written (so says I), it is a parable about surviving (or not) in an extreme winter environment. Few of us will find ourselves in as inhospitable an environment as the Yukon in winter when the sun never fully rises above the horizon and the temperature drops to 75 below, but the story can still serve as a warning when traveling by foot in the winter: ask for and consider advice from the locals, be prepared for the worst, never travel alone, and if you happen to have an Alaskan Husky along with you, remember that it knows more than you do about surviving the cold.

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