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. The year is 2073, and 60 years earlier, a pandemic known as the Scarlet Plague, or Scarlet Death, devastated the world and the human population, leaving the survivors as hunter-gatherers in the wilderness; Edwin and his brothers pass their time as goatherds. 

Although Smith wistfully recalls memories from before the plague, his grandsons deride him as a rambling “geezer” whose quaint old-fashioned language is strange. Smith tries to instill some respect in the boys and teach them about how things were in the past. After enjoying a meal of mussels and crabs that the boys have caught, Smith (whom his grandsons call “Granser”) recounts the story of the pandemic as he remembers it. 

Smith was a 27-year-old college professor when the Scarlet Death hit in the year 2013. He was a successful member of a prosperous and highly industrialized society, but the plague upended this order. The disease first appeared on the East Coast and quickly spread westward and throughout the world. The main symptom was the face turning scarlet, followed by numbness in the rest of the body and finally death, all within about 15 minutes. The rapid spread of the disease prevented scientists from controlling it. Before long, the researchers themselves died, even though one scientist in Europe was on the cusp of developing a serum. 

The plague caused a societal breakdown, with whole cities reduced to piles of dead bodies and survivors looting stores and houses and setting the streets on fire before themselves succumbing to the disease. Smith witnessed the outbreak of the disease on the campus of the University of California, Berkeley, where he taught, and fled home to isolate himself.

After several days, Smith joined a large group of survivors isolating themselves in the university’s chemistry building. However, the disease soon broke out among them, and they were forced to flee into the country. One by one, the members of the group fell to the plague, and at last, Smith was the only survivor—apparently immune to the disease. 

Smith wandered the California countryside for three years, living on the abundant food but starved for human companionship. Finally, he found other human survivors: Bill, formerly a chauffeur, and Vesta, formerly an upper-class woman whom Bill has forced to become his wife and servant. Smith tried unsuccessfully to rescue Vesta from her bondage, but the abusive Bill eventually murdered her.

Smith joined a larger camp of people dedicated to rebuilding modern society. He got married, had children, and preserved examples of literature and learning for future generations. He warns his grandchildren to beware of “medicine-men” and other forms of superstition while predicting that the rediscovery of gunpowder will eventually restart the cycle of civilization. 

The children are not receptive to his message and impatiently start back to their home camp. Edwin, however, stays behind to guide his grandfather. As the two walk together, small signs of change can already be seen in the wilderness around them.