Before Adam

Best known for his naturalistic novels "White Fang" and "The Call of the Wild", Jack London uniquely personified the beasts in his stories and thereby bridged the mysterious evolutionary gap that distanced mankind from what he and Darwinians of his day considered our common ancestors. Perhaps no other London book captured this ideal better than "Before Adam", whose very premise is that of a man who dreams the everyday life of his missing-link ancestor.

Written in 1906, "Before Adam" is a bit of a departure from London's other novels. Still an adventure novel, this one revolves around the dreams of a young boy, dreams that involve racial memories and the knowledge of his prior existence as a man-like creature named Big Tooth living in prehistoric times.