The Scarlet Plague

The Scarlet Plague, written by Jack London (1876-1916) in 1912, is a postapocalyptic novella that imagines a world devastated by a lethal disease. The story is set in 2073, 60 years after a plague has wiped out the majority of the human population. The protagonist, James Howard Smith, an elderly former English professor, recounts the rapid collapse of civilization to his grandsons, who live as hunter-gatherers on the California coast. The book was originally serialized in London Magazine in 1912 and was published as a single volume three years later. 

This early example of dystopian literature offers a prescient look at humanity’s vulnerability to global pandemics and the consequences of societal collapse. Interest in The Scarlet Plague—and in postapocalyptic literature in general—increased after 2020, when many observers noted the similarity between such stories and the COVID-19 pandemic. 

This guide refers to the 2012 HiLoBooks edition. 

Content Warning: The source text and this guide discuss a pandemic, death and murder, suicide, gun violence, domestic violence, and hunting. The source text includes ableist and racist language, which this guide reproduces only in quotations. 

Plot Summary

Eighty-seven-year-old James Howard Smith and his grandson, Edwin, walk through the California wilderness to a camp by the sea, where Smith’s other grandsons await.