Smoke Bellew

By Jack London

Narrated by Gary D. MacFadden

This audiobook is a collection of stories by Jack London featuring the fictional characters of Christopher "Smoke" Bellew and his partner Shorty as they share adventures in the Yukon during the gold rush of the late 1880s. Jack London published this collection in 1912. London's main character, Smoke, is widely considered to be somewhat autobiographical in nature, perhaps an idealized version of how Jack London envisioned his own real-life exploits when he traveled to the Yukon at the height of the gold rush in 1897.

Christopher "Smoke" Bellew is a would-be artist and part-time journalist with a San Francisco newspaper when he is challenged by his uncle to help pack his two cousins into the Yukon gold rush camps. At the end of three weeks, Bellew decides he likes the wilderness life so much that he decides to remain when his uncle returns to San Francisco. Upon arriving in the Yukon, Christopher is branded as a "cheechako," or newbie. Over the course of twelve stories, he removes himself forever from the world he knew and the man he was, showing the old-timers that he has strength, skill, and cunning. In ways, Smoke becomes almost a Paul Bunyan figure, quickly becoming able to take on hardships and face an unforgiving environment that would humble nearly anyone.

Audiobook cover photo by Thomas Lipke