Two Into One: The Lives of Russ and Winnie Kingman (The World of Jack London)

In 1916 Dr. Henry Meade Bland rated London as the greatest English-speaking storyteller.

Dr. Loren Eiseley, professor of anthropology and the history of science at the University of Pennsylvania, wrote an introduction to the new paperback edition of Jack London's Before Adam. He said that Before Adam was one of the best and most comprehensive books ever written on anthropology.

John Barleycorn was written to bring Prohibition to the United States and did just that. The Call of the Wild and White Fang are still the best dog stories ever written. The Sea-Wolf has always ranked high in American books, and in my estimation--there has never been a better book written in America than The Star Rover.

It has been said that he wrote a lot of "hack" but I have never found anything Jack London ever wrote that I do not enjoy. George Wharton James puts it a better way. "Month after month, year after year, he pours forth his stream of short stories, all of them good, though some better than others. Not one, however, fails in human interest, it may not please you, but it grips you, fascinates you, for it is human, powerful and full of robust life."

If London is so popular all over the world, why is there so much misunderstanding about him in his own home town? The answer is simple. The rest of the world reads his works and are little interested in the myths which have clouded his name at home. Perhaps it's time to examine these things one by one and answer them question by question.

Jack London is very popular in communist countries. Is this because he was a communist? Hardly so! Jack London could never have been called a communist as we know communism today. Many people equate socialism with communism, so let's take a look at the Socialist Party Platform of 1904 and see just how radical they were. They . . . define socialism as meaning that all these things upon which the people in common depend shall by the people in common be owned and administered; that all production shall be for the direct use of the producers.' For its immediate program the party pledged

To work for shorter working days and higher wages.

For insurance of the workers against accidents, sicknesses and lack of employment.

For pensions for aged and exhausted workers.

For the public ownership of the means of transportation, communication and exchange.

For graduated taxation of income, inheritance, franchises and land values.

For the complete education of children and the complete abolition of child labor.

In a lecture to a group of wealthy New York men London said, "You have been entrusted with the world. You have muddled and mismanaged it. You are incompetent, despite all your boastings. A million years ago the caveman, without tools, with small brains, and with nothing but the strength of his body, managed to feed his wife and children, so that through him the race survived. You on the other hand, armed with all the modern means of production, multiplying the production capacity of the caveman a million times--you are incompetents and muddlers, you are unable to secure to millions even the paltry amount of bread that would sustain their physical life. You have mismanaged the world, and it shall be taken from you."

The task of socialism to Jack London was to fight the battle of the ballot box and correct the injustices that the masses in America faced during his day.

Upon Sinclair came to the aid of Jack London when he was accused of advocating bloody war in the class struggle. He was at the meeting when London stated that the class struggle must be won in the world and by "war if necessary." Sinclair wrote to The New York Times and explained, "The Socialist party is a party of constitutional agitation in countries where universal suffrage and free speech prevails--in other countries where these constitutional rights are denied it resorts to force."

London envisioned a bloody war ahead because he firmly believed that after the working class had won an overwhelming vote at the polls, the capitalist class would use army, navy, police and every other weapon at its disposal to save their property rights. If this happened, then Jack advocated meeting force with force to get that which they had won under the constitutional rights of citizens of the United States.

A story in the San Francisco Chronicle of February 16, 1896 says quite clearly how Jack London believed, "Any man, in the opinion of London, is a socialist who strives for a better form of government than the one he is living under."

In a letter to Cloudesly Johns, London answered a question as to his stand on socialism. "But believe me, while a radical, I am not fanatical."

Jack London was almost a fanatic for law and order. Anna Strunsky said, "He lived by rule. Law, order, and restraint was the creed of this vital, passionate youth."

Charmian London quotes Jack, "Very well, Socialism, as flatly opposed to Anarchism, stood for law, more law, better law, and law enforced as it should be--for everybody, employer and employed, for man, and woman, and child."

Vil Bykov, U.S.S.R. [sic] Academy of Sciences in Moscow, reports that the most popular Jack London books in Russia are Martin Eden, The Call of the Wild, The Sea-Wolf, and White Fang. One can hardly classify these under the classification of communism.

London's popularity in Russia is not due to his socialism but as his daughter, Joan, so ably put it in the introduction to her biography, "The attraction in all of London's writings is their virility, their 'life-assertive, spirit' and 'life-sustaining force." The irresistible appeal of London's unshakeable belief in man's ability to rise to incredible heights of courage and in the will to win against overwhelming odds, his compassion for the poor and hatred of everything that deforms the human spirit, his faith in man's future--these are inseparable from the sheer beauty and excitement of his novels and stories.

Was Jack London a Revolutionist?

Yes, he was. But we need to define what he meant by the term. When London signed his name, "Yours for the Revolution" he was talking about a political revolution fought at the ballot box within the framework of the Constitution of the United States. It was a class struggle to bring equal opportunity to the masses of American people. Jack London said that excess profits were unpaid wages and these unpaid wages were causing starvation and misery to millions. Big industry of his day exploited children and the entire laboring class to build their enormous fortunes. The class struggle was in progress to bring about a more equitable distribution of profit between capital and labor. Here again we turn to Upton Sinclair and read his letter to The New York Times. He said that when London said "blood-red banner of revolution" anyone of his day should know that this was a symbol of brotherhood of man, and not of war and destruction.

London was an Alcoholic!

It is true that Jack London drank and that on occasions he drank heavily, but he was not an alcoholic under any definition of the term.

Jack London fought for Prohibition. He wanted total Prohibition. In order to get it he wrote John Barleycorn. In it he exaggerated his drinking and Upton Sinclair's Cup of Fury exaggerated London's exaggerations. The people of the Bay area have made a game of doing this ever since.

Actually very few people ever saw Jack London drink. Frank Atherton was a very close friend of his and stated in his manuscript that during his thirty years of acquaintance with Jack London he never saw him drunk.

I talked with Mr. Lee Kynock two weeks ago. He worked on the Jack London ranch for the last three years of Jack's life. His quarters were such that he had to pass London's house to get home and where he always saw Jack when he brought his horse or team in after going to town. He stated that he never saw Jack drunk at any time during these years.

Mrs. Elsie Martinez, wife of Xavier Martinez and very close friend of the London family, told me just this Saturday that she often saw Jack drink, but never in her life did she ever see him drunk.

Let's take a look at page 8 of John Barleycorn and see what Jack London thought of alcohol:

'Very true,' I answered. 'And that is the perfectest hell of it. John Barleycorn makes toward death. That is why I voted for the amendment today. I read back in my life and saw how the accessibility of alcohol had given me the taste for it. You see, comparatively few alcoholics are born in a generation. And by alcoholic I mean a man whose chemistry craves alcohol and drives him resistlessly to it. The great majority of habitual drinkers are born not only without desire for alcohol but with actual repugnance toward it. Not the first, nor the twentieth, nor the hundredth drink, succeeded in giving him the liking. But they learned, just as men learn to smoke--they learned because alcohol was so accessible--and the best of it is that there will be no hardship worked on the coming generation. Not having access to alcohol, not being predisposed toward alcohol, it will never miss alcohol. It will mean life more abundant for the manhood of the young boys born and growing up--ay, and life more abundant for the young girls born and growing up to share the lives of the young men.'

In 18 years Jack London prospected for gold in the Yukon, wrote 53 books, hundreds of essays, short stories, articles, plays, poems and even one song. He was a war reporter in the Russo-Japanese War and the Mexican Fracas of 1914 and reported several world boxing championships. He built the Snark and sailed her to the South Seas. He bought several rundown ranches and welded them into a magnificent ranch in the Valley of the Moon, including the beautiful Wolf House and other achievements too numerous to mention. Does this read like the memoirs of a drunk?

A telegram from Jack London to Rev. W.H. Geystweit, pastor of the First Baptist Church, San Diego, California, October 8, 1916, less than two months before his death best explains his lifelong attitude toward alcoholic beverages:

'NEVER HAD MUCH EXPERIENCE WITH WINE-GRAPE GROWING, THE VINEYARDS I BOUGHT WERE OLD, WORTHLESS, SO I PULLED OUT THE VINES AND PLANTED OTHER CROPS. I STILL WORK A FEW ACRES OF PROFITABLE WINE GRAPES. MY POSITION ON ALCOHOL IS ABSOLUTE NATIONWIDE PROHIBITION. I MEAN ABSOLUTE. I HAVE NO PATIENCE IN HALF-WAY MEASURES. HALF-WAY MEASURES ARE UNFAIR, ARE TANTAMOUNT TO CONFISCATION, AND ARE PROVOCATIVE OF UNDERHAND CHEATING, LYING, AND LAW-BREAKING. WHEN THE NATION GOES IN FOR NATIONWIDE PROHIBITION, THAT WILL BE THE END OF ALCOHOL AND THERE WILL BE NO CHEATING, LYING NOR LAW-BREAKING. PERSONALLY I SHALL CONTINUE TO DRINK ALCOHOL FOR AS LONG AS IT IS ACCESSIBLE. WHEN ABSOLUTE PROHIBITION MAKES ALCOHOL INACCESSIBLE I SHALL STOP DRINKING IT AND IT WON'T BE ANY HARDSHIP ON ME AND ON MEN LIKE ME WHOSE NAME IS LEGION. AND THE GENERATION OF BOYS AFTER US WILL NOT KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT ALCOHOL SAVE THAT IT WAS A STUPID VICE OF THEIR SAVAGE ANCESTORS.'

There are probably many more questions that need to be asked and answered before the general public in the Bay Area will accept Jack London for the genius that he was. He had vices like many men, but he was a man of integrity and fine character.

It is painful to reflect on what Oakland has done to Jack London. He was called a red-shirt, a dynamiter and an anarchist because he believed in municipal ownership of public utilities. In later years Jack laughed about how these "radical" ideas were now so respectable.

It would take a full volume to quote all that has been said to praise Jack London. Stories and articles have been printed about Jack London in at least 221 magazines and 78 newspapers. Stories and articles written by him appear in at least 178 magazines and 67 newspapers. These are known figures taken from my own personal files, and there must be many, many that I have not discovered. These do not include minor notices, etc. and does not include the thousands of smaller papers across the country.

The New York Times has had over one hundred articles on London and have reviewed nearly all of his books. Town Talk has been equally prolific. London's works have been appearing in most major newspapers and magazines since 1897, and evidence points to an increasing popularity every year.

One of the most enjoyable experiences of your life will be the reading of all 53 of Jack London's books. A very rewarding hobby is to collect Jack London books, magazines, plays, poems and other ephemera or memorabilia. As you read, study and collect Jack London, you will be increasingly amazed by this man.

I liked the way Mrs. Xavier Martinez puts it. 'He was the sweetest and most gentle man I ever knew. Everyone who really knew him loved him. He had such a wonderful personality.'

Yes, Oakland, it is high time for you to realize that a genius was raised here in your city. A genius of whom you can be justly proud. Name your schools after him and tell your children about him. Prime and fertilize that beautiful oak in front of City Hall. It is a memorial to the finest, bravest, most intelligent, most amazing and best-known son you ever had.

On Thursday, November 19, 1970, Friends of the Oakland Public Library presented a program celebrating the founding of the Jack London Collection and Research Center and honoring the East Bay Negro Historical Society. Russ delivered his Oakland's "Misunderstood Son" lecture once again, but shared the lecture platform with Eugene P. Lesartemay, a founder and the Curator of the East Bay Negro Historical Society. Lesartemay spoke on "Jennie Prentiss--Jack London's Benefactor." The program also featured motion pictures of Jack London in 1916, the first showing of recently discovered film taken six days before London's death, courtesy of Russ Kingman; as well as a dramatization of London's youth on film entitled, "Prince of the Oyster Pirates," showing the relationship with Jennie Prentiss from the TV series "Death Valley Days." An interesting footnote to the Lesartemay lecture was that Russ told him much of his lecture was "bunk." Lesartemay persisted in the fabrication, publishing in 1991 For the Love of Jack London, after Russ urged him not to do so. Russ's personal copy shows almost the entire book red-lined for mistakes and total untruths.

Russ's lecture career spanned twenty or more years and included TV and radio interviews, video documentaries, and film histories of London's life. He spoke to any and all audiences who would listen, sometimes receiving an honorarium, often not. He spoke frequently to "The Ina Coolbrith Circle," founded September 28, 1919; the Maritime Humanities Center, sponsored by the Fort Mason Foundation in cooperation with Golden Gate National Recreation Area; the International Jack London Symposium, Pacific Center for Western Historical Studies, Stuart Library of Western Americana; free, informal talks each Tuesday on Jack London at the Jack London Room, Oakland Main Library, 14th and Oak Streets, Oakland; Fellowship of Senior Physicians, Alameda-Contra Costa Medical Association; Sacramento County Historical Society; Jack London Chapter of the Naval Reserve Association, Oakland; Lake Merritt Breakfast Club, Oakland; Sonoma Valley Historical Society; American Association of University Women, Sonoma Beach; International Business Machines Corporation, 475 14th Street, Oakland; the Stockton Public Library; the Livermore Heritage Guild; the Kiwanis Club of Oakland; Sonoma State University; and countless junior and senior high schools in the Bay Area. According to Winnie, Russ knew his material so well that he rarely wrote out lectures after the early ones such as "Oakland's Misunderstood Son." Instead, he would type a brief outline of the topics he wanted to cover and would speak extemporaneously, organizing as he went along, adjusting to the audience and time limitations. This meant a free, relaxed delivery, not unlike the delivery of his sermons. After speaking to high school students in Sonoma one time, the teacher, Mrs. Lydia Davis, shared student comments with Russ in a thank you letter: "Mr. Kingman's talk was excellent because it seemed like he never practiced what he said, but it came out perfect," and "Mr. Kingman's talk was valuable to me because I learned many things. He told us not to believe everything people write and he told us how to write a good biography." Russ usually spoke along with slides, hundreds of which he drew from for any aspect of London's life. Russ realized that visual reinforcement was a key component in winning an audience to the cause. In his extensive "Lecture Material" file, Russ also summarized the plots of thirty of his favorite London short stories, to be used almost like topics for sermons. For instance, "All-Gold Canyon": "This tale of greed, gold, and death contains some of London's most lyrical descriptions of the beauty of the pastoral wilderness along with some very modern and very relevant ecological implications." And this about "In a Far Country": A Northland exemplum or parable of the Seven Deadly Sins, rich with pre-Freudian implications. This story contains some of London's most fearsome descriptions of the psychological effects of the White Silence of the Northland winter."

The year of the First Annual Jack London Birthday Banquet (1971), turned out to be an eventful year for many reasons. On July 16, Russ wrote to Dave Schlottmann: "I am either going to put a Jack London Museum in Glen Ellen or at the Square. I have enough material for a 6,000 square foot museum but no place to put it. Since I have spent every penny I own to buy it, I have no money to start it." On August 20 Russ again wrote Schlottmann: "Am also considering a Jack London Museum in Glen Ellen. It would be in the old Chauvet Grist Mill. Jack spent much time in this old building so it would be a good place. Will keep you posted on this also." On October 1 Russ sent out invitations for a preview of the Jack London Historical Museum to everyone on his mailing list. Russ was never a person to delay putting a plan into action. (Before year's end he changed the name to "The World of Jack London," which it remained.) It was in this year, before Russ and Winnie moved to Glen Ellen permanently, that Russ had his first face-to-face meeting with Irving Shepard, his wife Mildred, and their son Milo, who at this time was working as a Park Ranger at Sugarloaf Park in Kenwood. According to Winnie, the Shepards no doubt knew who Russ was because of his lectures on London at the Oakland Public Library. Mildred, wanting the Shepards to keep absolute control of the London estate, absolutely forbid Russ from opening a bookstore in Glen Ellen called Jack London Bookstore. Irving Shepard said he didn't care. Early on, Russ's attempts to put down roots in Glen Ellen created a tense atmosphere. As Winnie recalls the situation, "Mildred became upset and told Russ that if he opened a bookstore, she would call all of her friends in Glen Ellen and tell them not to patronize it." Russ, with sardonic wit, said to Mildred, "Why don't you give me the list and I will call all two of them for you." Because of Mildred, the Kingmans even got the cold shoulder at Shone's Grocery Store in Glen Ellen when they shopped for necessities. Later, after the bookstore opened and was doing fairly well, Irving would stop by in his pick-up truck to chat with Russ about London and to give Russ some London artifacts from the London Ranch. The situation with Mildred had a good ending. Several years later Russ gave a lecture at Oakmont in Santa Rosa on London's life. Mildred was in the audience, but Russ noticed that she left just before the lecture ended. Ten minutes after the Kingmans arrived home, Mildred called with compliments: "That's the finest lecture I ever heard on Jack London." Mildred was fine with the Kingmans thereafter.

Sometime in 1971 Russ conceived the idea to hold a Jack London Birthday Banquet, supposedly a one-time affair to give Jack London buffs a chance to socialize, compare notes, and discuss works in progress. Following the dinner on January 12 at the Sea Wolf Restaurant in Jack London Square, Oakland, everyone was invited to the new Wax Museum which had just opened and featured a wonderful likeness of Jack London. Becky London Fleming performed the unveiling. According to Winnie in her short history of the banquets (see the inside cover of the Silver Anniversary program for January 14, 1995), Russ was persuaded to organize a second banquet because so many people enjoyed the first and because it was a perfect time to network. According to Winnie.