 Its first printing of forty thousand copies was immediately sold out before publication on the strength of London's previous "The Call of the Wild".Ambrose Bierce wrote, "The great thing—and it is among the greatest of things—is that tremendous creation, Wolf Larsen... the hewing out and setting up of such a figure is enough for a man to do in one lifetime...The love element, with its absurd suppressions, and impossible proprieties, is awful."