Theft: A Play in Four Acts
1910
Theft: A Play in Four Acts is Jack London's unlikely dive into the corrupt heart of American politics. Set in Washington D.C., the drama pits reformist Congressman Howard Knox against the entrenched power of Senator Chalmers and his allies, who will stop at nothing to destroy a man who threatens their grip on the status quo. At its center stands Margaret Chalmers, the Senator's wife, torn between her loyalty to her powerful father and her growing admiration for Knox's progressive vision. What unfolds is a web of political machinations, journalistic manipulation, and personal betrayal that asks an uncomfortable question: when the system itself is stolen, can any individual reclaim it? London, better known for his tales of the wild, brings his raw naturalist sensibility to the corridors of power, exposing the predators who wear suits and speak of public good. The play crackles with period tension and remains strikingly relevant for anyone who has wondered whether the game is ever truly fair.
Editions
X-Ray
“Essentially a moral man, his rigid New England morality has suffered a sea change and developed into the morality of the master-man of affairs, equally rigid, equally uncompromising, but essentially Jesuitical in that he believes in doing wrong that right may come of it. He is absolutely certain that civilization and progress rest on his shoulders and upon the shoulders of the small group of men like him.””
— Jack London
“Anthony Starkweather. An elderly, well preserved gentleman, slenderly built, showing all the signs of a man who has lived clean and has been almost an ascetic.””
— Jack London
