• American Literature
• Short Prose

• Type: Short Story
• Length: 26 pages

• Found in: Lost Face and Other Stories

To Build a Fire is a 1908 short story by notable author Jack London. - AsNotedIn

DAY had broken cold and gray, exceedingly cold and gray, when the man turned aside from the main Yukon trail and climbed the high earth-bank, where a dim and little-travelled trail led eastward through the fat spruce timberland. It was a steep bank, and he paused for breath at the top, excusing the act to himself by looking at his watch. It was nine o'clock. There was no sun nor hint of sun, though there was not a cloud in the sky. It was a clear day, and yet there seemed an intangible pall over the face of things, a subtle gloom that made the day dark, and that was due to the absence of sun. This fact did not worry the man. He was used to the lack of sun. It had been days since he had seen the sun, and he knew that a few more days must pass before that cheerful orb, due south, would just peep above the sky-line and dip immediately from view.Jack London, To Build a Fire

• Theme Group: Klondike Gold Rush

Places

• Chilkoot Trail, Skagway This dark hair-line was the trail - the main trail - that led south five hundred miles to the Chilcoot Pass, Dyea, and salt water and that led north seventy miles to Dawson,
• Yukon Province, CN, Canada The Yukon lay a mile wide and hidden under three feet of ice. On top of this ice were as many feet of snow.