Martin Eden

Martin Eden (1909) is a novel by American author Jack London,
about a struggling young writer. It was first serialized in the Pacific
Monthly magazine from September 1908 to September 1909, and subsequently
published in book form by The Macmillan Company in September 1909.

This book is a favorite among writers, who relate to Martin Eden's
speculation that when he mailed off a manuscript, 'there was no human editor at
the other end, but a mere cunning arrangement of cogs that changed the
manuscript from one envelope to another and stuck on the stamps,' returning it
automatically with a rejection slip.

While some readers believe there is some resemblance between them, an
important difference between Jack London and Martin Eden is that Martin Eden
rejects socialism (attacking it as 'slave morality'), and relies on a
Nietzschean individualism. In a note to Upton Sinclair, Jack London wrote, "One
of my motifs, in this book, was an attack on individualism (in the person of the
hero). I must have bungled, for not a single reviewer has discovered it."

-- Excerpted from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.