- Title: The Iron Heel
- Author: Jack London
- Publisher: The Macmillian Company, New York
- Estimated year of printing: 1908
Notes:
First edition, first printing
My lifelong favorite genre of book to read is dystopian fiction. George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four was what pulled me in, and then reinforced with Brave New World, Fahrenheit 451, and modern examples like the Scythe series.
The Iron Heel is considered the earliest example of the dystopian fiction genre, which influenced and inspired later authors like Orwell. Told through the framing device of a manuscript found long after the events took place, it tells the story of the rise of a socialist movement in the United States which prompts the establishment of a brutal dictatorship in order to avert socialism. Despite inspiring a new genre of book and many classic novels, The Iron Heel itself was not well liked by critics at the time.
Jack London (1876 – 1916) is best known for his adventure novels set in the Yukon, Call of the Wild and White Fang, so a dystopian science fiction book can be a bit of a surprise. However, London’s writing actually cover a large variety of genres and topics — spanning adventure, science fiction, nonfiction social commentary, government thriller, poetry, and more.
Historical context:
Being the first example of a dystopian future novel, The Iron Heel is considered an important early work of science fiction. H.G. Wells was actively writing his own influential science fiction works at this time, having published The War of the Worlds in 1898, and The First Men in the Moon in 1901. L. Frank Baum published The Wonderful Wizard of Oz a few years earlier in 1900, and Arthur Conan Doyle wrote The Lost World a few years later in 1912. The Wright brothers conducted their first powered flight in 1903, and 60 years later in 1969 Apollo 11 would land the first men on the moon.
Further Reading: