Spring /Summer 2006 Volume XVII, No. 1 THE CALL The Magazine of the Jack London Society Inside This Issue: A Remembrance of Winnie 2 Winifred Kingman Dies At Age 85 3 Recent London Publications 3 Eighth Biennial Symposium: Alaska 4 Jack London’s Palace of Fine Arts 5 And “The Hussy” News and Notes 9 Page 2 The Call A REMEMBRANCE OF WINNIE The Jack London Society G ARY RIEDL President No doubt all who knew Winnie will instantly recall with a pang of loss Donna Campbell her warm receptionreception not only to her friends but to all visitors, particularly Washington State University those whose research interests led them to seek out the wonderful resources available in the JL Research Center in Glen Ellen. As we all know, the center was put together by Winnie and her beloved Russ, demonstrating Executive Coordinator their combined efforts to collect and organize everything they could find on Jeanne C. Reesman Jack London. In the process, Winnie became an authority on London, his University of Texas at San Antonio home, his family, his travels, and his place in the literature of California and the world. Everyone who visited the little Research Center will recall a Advisory Board sense of surprise at the vast amount of information—all of it useful to peo- Sam S. Baskett ple trying to understand an author whose work has fluctuated between Michigan State University world-wide accolades and nominal acceptance. Thanks though in no small Lawrence I. Berkove part to the efforts of the Winnie and Russ, over the last 30 years London University of Michigan-Dearborn has emerged as the important artist he knew himself to be. Daniel Dyer Winnie lived and worked in an atmosphere of friendly clutter, sur- Western Reserve University rounded by books (many of them first editions); miscellaneous artifacts; file Holger Kersten cabinets packed with information; and photos of (and by) Jack, Russ, and University of Magdeburg friends—all illustrative of the responsibility she accepted as a legacy after Earle Labor Russ passed away in 1993. Centenary College of Louisiana But there was a lot more. Winnie knew local Glen Ellen folks of course, Joseph McElrath Florida State University but she had intimate connections with people all over the world—from the Noël Mauberret East coast of America, to Japan, to Russia, and to many points in between. Lycee Alain Colas, Nevers, France I have never met anyone who didn't love Winnie or benefit from the mate- Susan Nuernberg rial she oversaw at the research center. She treated everyone with kindness University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh and solicitude. I recall one summer in Glen Ellen particularly. My col- Gary Riedl league, Tom Tietze, and I were gathering material for a paper on Jack's Wayzata High School, Wayzata, MN ideas of socialism. Almost every day for five weeks we occupied the back Jacqueline Tavernier-Courbin room of the bookstore, poring over Russ's thousands of note cards and his University of Ottawa collected materials on London. Winnie would check on us often during the Thomas R. Tietze day, offering suggestions of where to look and generally serving as a font of Wayzata High School, Wayzata, MN information. About lunch time, she would often maternally remind us that Earl Wilcox Winthrop University there was food and beer in the refrigerator. Another aspect of Winnie's casual kindness was reflected in the very architecture of the JL Research Center itself. It jutted out—with its own Honorary Board Members separate entrance—from the wildly chaotic and consequently wonderful Vil Bykov interior of the bookstore. The place was purposely built for the comfort of Moscow University Becky London, whom Winnie and Russ had lovingly taken in and housed Milo Shepard Jack London Ranch for the last years of Becky's life. This was perhaps the finest act of the many, many acts of kindness she and Russ extended to everyone in the London field. Editor More than sweet kindness and genuine warmth, Winnie also brandished Kenneth K. Brandt a keen wit and a mind that embraced a thorough knowledge of the litera- Savannah College of Art and Design ture of the era, London's contemporaries, and the contents of the files that [email protected] lay at her fingertips. Designer Many people had the great good fortune to know Winnie better than I, Timothy A. Swatosh but everyone who knew her at all felt very special. I, along with hundreds DEADLINE FOR NEXT ISSUE: of others, will sorely miss her. DECEMBER 29, 2006 Volume XVII, No. 1 Page 3 WINIFRED KINGMAN DIES AT AGE 85 D ALE WALKER Winifred Eileen Kingman, widow theology and served as a Baptist minister, the King- of London biographer and authority mans returned to California where Russ engaged in Russ Kingman, died in San Rafael, church work and public relations and became Execu- California, on September 21, 2006, at tive Director of the Jack London Square Association in age 85. Oakland — the origin of their abiding interest in Lon- Mrs. Kingman, a beloved figure don’s life and literary works. among Jack London scholars and afi- The Kingmans established the Jack London Foun- cionados, continued to operate the Jack London Book- dation in 1976 to promote research in London studies store in Glen Ellen (est. 1971) after her husband’s death and welcomed students, scholars, and writers to use in November, 1993. The store on Arnold Drive in Glen their extensive archives in the Foundation headquarters Ellen, near the entrance to the Jack London State Park, at the bookstore. closed in 2004. Mrs. Kingman designated as her favorite charities Mrs. Kingman was a native of Ontario, Canada, local animal shelters and the Jack London Foundation. whose family settled in northern California in 1925. The Foundation remains active under the direction of She graduated from Alameda High School in 1939, Rudy Ciuca and Joe Lawrence at P.O. Box 337, Glen married Russ Kingman, a Navy petty officer, in 1941, Ellen, CA 95442. and accompanied him on his assignments, from Phila- delphia to Guam, during WW2 and his subsequent Na- val service. After years in Florida and Texas, during which time her husband earned a master’s degree in R ECENT LONDON PUBLICATIONS D ALE WALKER Yukon Territory journalist Dick North has chroni- Other Stories. These are well-printed volumes in large- cled his search for the Yukon cabin Jack London occu- size paperbacks, unfortunately with no supporting ma- pied in the winter of 1897 in Sailor on Horseshoes: terial (Introductions, Forewords, etc.) added. An easy Tracking Jack London’s Northern Trail. The book was way to order is through amazon.com, which charges published in July by Harbour Books (P.O. Box 219, $15.99 per volume. Madeira Park, B.C. V0N 2HO; ISBN 978-1-55017- An excellent new collection of London stories is 384.0) as a trade paperback priced at $19.95. Tales of Cannibals & Headhunters: Nine South Sea Stories North not only solves the mystery of the where- by America’s Master of Adventure, edited by Gary Riedl abouts of the London cabin but traces to the Yukon and Thomas R. Tietze and published by the University settlement of Mayo the slab of wood from the cabin on of New Mexico Press. This is also a trade paper edition which London wrote his name and identified himself as and is priced at $18.96 through Amazon. It is an exten- “miner, author.” North provides a succinct recounting sively and expertly annotated, introduced and after- of London’s gold rush year in the Yukon and intro- worded collection of nine of London’s South Sea sto- duces a possible photographic image of London, taken ries. at Sheep Camp on the Chilkoot trail in September, A new printing of Martin Eden, annotated by Dennis 1897, by pioneer cameraman, Frank LaRoche. Hensley, English professor at Taylor University in Fort A publisher called Leonaur has issued a three- Wayne, IN., has been published by Taylor University volume set of London’s science-fiction & fantasy works Press. The 603-page large-size paperback is available at under the general title, The Collected Science Fiction & $23 postpaid from Dennis Hensley, 6824 Kanata Court, Fantasy of Jack London with the separate books as fol- Fort Wayne, IN 46815-6388. lows: Vol 1: Before Adam & Other Stories; Vol 2: The Iron Heel & Other Stories; and Vol 3: The Star Rover & Page 4 The Call E IGHTH BIENNIAL SYMPOSIUM: ALASKA D ONNA CAMPBELL Twenty conference participants and assorted guests met on June 30- July 7, 2006 for the eighth biennial Jack London Society Symposium, which was held aboard the Mercury during its week-long cruise to Alaska. Conference activities, includ- ing an informal gathering, a recep- tion, and the business meeting, took place from June 30 through July 2. The conference segment of the cruise included twelve presentations, some focusing on the Klondike nov- els and stories and others on South Seas fiction and biography. In “Burning Daylight and the Business of Redemption” Donna Campbell dis- cussed Burning Daylight as a business novel and showed clips from the 1928 silent film adaptation of the work, while Kenneth Brandt, in “The Problem of Agency in Burning Daylight,” analyzed London’s sophisticated use of land- HUBBARD GLACIER scape imagery and point of view to represent the rela- with slides of rare pictures and documents. A forum on tionship between Dede Mason and Burning Daylight in “Twain and London: Recent Biography” featured Lon- the book. Substituting for Gayle Labor, Earle Labor don biographer Earle Labor and Twain biographer presented a paper on “Teaching ‘To Build a Fire,’” Lawrence Berkove discussing the strengths and weak- showing how well it worked when taught in tandem nesses of the biographies on each figure as well as the with a parody of the story, “To Distill Some Water,” pitfalls and discoveries that attend writing a biography.