12 h 59 minAudiobook9 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 12 h 59 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What happens when a man who conquers the frozen north tries to conquer the world of money?
In Jack London’s Burning Daylight, Elam Harnish is a bold gambler and miner shaped by the Yukon gold rush. Known as Burning Daylight, he meets ice, storms and long sled trails with restless strength. When he makes his fortune, the challenge changes: what can he do with the wealth he works so hard to win?
San Francisco offers another kind of contest. Financiers Dowsett, Letton and Guggenhammer draw Daylight toward a partnership that serves their own interests. His strength faces rules far from the frontier’s code. Meanwhile, Dede Mason, his capable, independent stenographer, sees past his money and makes him question the life he is building.
What you’ll discover
- The north’s hard tests Follow Daylight over ice and through storms, where endurance means more than a famous name.
- A different kind of gamble Enter city offices where polished financiers pursue profit without the frontier’s code.
- A woman who sees clearly Meet Dede Mason, whose quiet independence challenges Daylight’s measure of a good life.
- The cost of ambition Explore what wealth does to a restless man once the adventure gives way to business.
- Wild country against city money Feel the contrast between hard physical work in the north and life behind a desk.
Who will love it
Readers who enjoy frontier adventure, gold camps, poker tables, and daring businessmen will love this novel. It also suits admirers of Call of the Wild and love stories that question what makes a life worthwhile.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A dead saloon wakes up when Daylight arrives
- One poker hand takes all that he owns
- A sixty day mail run tests his iron body
- A hunch sends him up the Stewart
- Famine and spring ice nearly end him
- The Bonanza strike makes him a king
- The city teaches him treachery and revenge
- A stenographer pulls him toward another life
- The book asks what money and work are worth
- Nature, the body, and love pull him home
- How London tells the story and why it moves
Who’s who
- Elam Harnish, called Burning DaylightA Yukon pioneer of enormous strength who gambles on hunches, builds a fortune, and fears being tied down by love.
- Dede MasonA quick, honest stenographer and fine horsewoman who admires Daylight but will not marry a man owned by his money.
- KamaA Tananaw dog driver who runs the mail with Daylight and comes to worship his endurance.
- The VirginA dance hall woman in Circle City who loves Daylight and cannot make him see her as more than a friend.
- Elijah DavisA lean New Englander and Daylight's partner up the Stewart River, who shares the famine with him.
- Larry HeganDaylight's brilliant, bookish Irish lawyer, who plans his legal wars and is his one close friend in the city.
- John DowsettA powerful banker with a warm manner who leads the plan to catch Daylight in a copper stock scheme.
- FergusonA former newspaper editor who left the city for a cabin full of books in the hills and regained his health.
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Burning Daylight
by Jack London · 1910
A bold gambler stakes his fortune on a hunch, then races two thousand miles of frozen trail for a wager.
Medium level10–20 hours to readEnglish
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In short
It is sixty degrees below zero outside a saloon in Circle City, and the room inside is dead. Then the door swings open, a cloud of frost rolls across the floor, and the fiddler plays faster.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A dead saloon wakes up when Daylight arrives
Circle City is a mining camp on the Yukon in the Arctic winter, and the saloon called the Shovel is quiet. The miners are in from the creeks with full pouches and nothing to do. The Virgin, a young dance hall woman, yawns and asks if everybody is dead. Then Elam Harnish steps in from the frost, and the whole room changes.
Everyone calls him Burning Daylight, because he once rousted his companions from their blankets since daylight was burning. He crossed the Chilcoot Pass at eighteen and has searched for gold for twelve years. Tomorrow he turns thirty, and he calls the whole house to drink on his gold dust.
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Which edition is right for me
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 9 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- First published
- 1910
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 8 h 25 min
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
London, Jack. Burning Daylight. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/burning-daylight.
London, J. (2026). Burning Daylight. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/burning-daylight (Original work published 1910)
London, Jack. Burning Daylight. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/burning-daylight.
@book{london2026burning,
author = {London, Jack},
title = {Burning Daylight},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/burning-daylight},
note = {First published 1910}
}
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What is Burning Daylight about?
It follows Elam Harnish, known as Burning Daylight, a Yukon gold miner who becomes a millionaire in the Klondike, is betrayed in the city, and must choose between his business empire and the woman he loves.
Who is Burning Daylight in the book?
Burning Daylight is the nickname of Elam Harnish. He earned it in the early Yukon days by waking his companions at dawn, saying daylight was burning. He is a strong, bold pioneer, miner, and gambler.
Is Burning Daylight based on a true story?
It is a novel, first published in 1910. Jack London drew on the real Klondike gold rush of the 1890s and his own time in the North, but Elam Harnish and his story are fictional.
The author
Jack London
1876–1916 · American novelist and journalist
Jack London (1876–1916) was an American author, journalist and social activist. He was born in San Francisco and lived in California. He wrote novels, short stories and essays. His novels include The Call of the Wild (1903), The Sea-Wolf (1904), White Fang (1906) and Martin Eden (1909). He died in California.
More by Jack London
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