''Before Adam'' is a novel by

Jack London John Griffith Chaney (January 12, 1876 – November 22, 1916), better known as Jack London, was an American novelist, journalist and activist. A pioneer of commercial fiction and American magazines, he was one of the first American authors to ...

, serialized in 1906 and 1907 in '' Everybody's Magazine''. It is the story of a man who dreams he lives the life of an early

hominid The Hominidae (), whose members are known as the great apes or hominids (), are a taxonomic family of primates that includes eight extant species in four genera: '' Pongo'' (the Bornean, Sumatran and Tapanuli orangutan); ''Gorilla'' (the e ...

. The story offers an early view of human evolution. The majority of the story is told through the eyes of the man's hominid alter ego, one of the Cave People. In addition to the Cave People, there are the more advanced Fire People, and the more animal-like Tree People. Other characters include the hominid's father, a love interest, and Red-Eye, a fierce "

atavism In biology, an atavism is a modification of a biological structure whereby an ancestral genetic trait reappears after having been lost through evolutionary change in previous generations. Atavisms can occur in several ways; one of which is when ...

" that perpetually terrorizes the Cave People. A sabre-cat also plays a role in the story. Later scholars have noted strong eugenic themes in ''Before Adam''.Hensley, John R. “Eugenics and Social Darwinism in Stanley Waterloo's ‘The Story of Ab’ and Jack London's ‘Before Adam.’” Studies in Popular Culture, vol. 25, no. 1, 2002, pp. 23–37. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/23415006.

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* * * 1907 American novels 1907 science fiction novels Novels by Jack London Prehistoric people in popular culture Novels set in prehistory Works originally published in Everybody's Magazine Novels first published in serial form American science fiction novels {{1900s-sf-novel-stub