Meet Jack London Biographer Russ Kingman (The World of Jack London)

Jack London Biographer
Russ Kingman

1917-1993 Russ Kingman View biography	"I owe much to the merchants and restauranteurs of Jack London Square in Oakland, who in 1968 asked me to be Executive Director of the Jack London Square Association. At that time I had very little knowledge of Jack London. It was obvious that if I was going to handle the promotion of Jack London Square I had best know much more about the man. I opened his books. Then I began to open books about him. When I finished Sailor on Horseback by Irving Stone, I knew I would never be satisfied until I had learned everything possible about the man and his works. From that day on, I read everything I could find. While at Jack London Square I shared my office for a few years with that unsurpassed Jack London scholar, the late Jim Sisson. Whenever I ran into a dead end I called on him and invariably he had the answer or was able to tell me where I could find it. Sisson had been researching Jack London for over thirty years and Jack London Scholarship owes more to him than any person I know. Only when Jim returned a copy of my manuscript with his approval did I send it to the publisher.
"The most golden of all hours were those spent listening to Irving Shepard talk about his uncle Jack." - Russ Kingman	I have talked with everyone I could locate who had known Jack London. On this trail I found facts and inspiration to go on with my research. In every instance these people had nothing but fond memories. Lee Kynock, who worked on the ranch, said, "My job was to take care of the horses. Whenever Jack returned to the ranch he handed the reins to me. I never saw him when he had had too much to drink. He was a wonderful man." Jack's daughters, Joan and Bess, had both shared every memory they could bring to mind about their father. Our years of close friendship have made me feel like one of the family.
	Elsie Martinez is the daughter of Jim Whitaker and the wife of Xavier Martinez and, therefore, was often with Jack. The endless hours we have spent talking about Jack and the "crowd" have made me feel that I was there with them hunting abalone in Carmel or on a picnic at the old Dingee place in Oakland.
	Carrie Burlingame drew vivid pictures of her many visits to the ranch. Arthur Wiget told me how angry his brother Werner became when people called Jack a drunk and how he always told them, "I have been Jack London's foreman on the ranch since 1906, and I have never seen him drunk or even with too much to drink."
	The most golden of all hours were those spent listening to Irving Shepard talk about his uncle Jack. He lived on the Jack London ranch from the age of ten until he died sixty-six years later. He was a treasure trove of information and, in his modest way, always willing to share what he had learned through the years.
	And how could I adequately thank that master of biographical novel, Irving Stone, for all the encouragement he had given me. He gave me unrestricted use of his own research material for Sailor on Horseback. How I envied him when I read his interviews with so many of Jack's closest friends who had passed on many years before my research on Jack began. To be sure, these people contributed every mistake in Stone's book, but they also gave him the inspiration he needed to bring out the charisma of Jack London in a way that will probably never be duplicated."
	- Russ Kingman Jack London biographer

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Kingman, Russ. A Pictorial Biography of Jack London: The most accurate biography of London ever written. Published by David Rejl, Middletown, California

Kingman, Russ. Jack London A Definitive Chronology: This book is the most detailed source of Jack London life. Published by David Rejl, Middletown, California.

Kingman, Russ. A Collector's Guide to Jack London's Non-Fictional Works. Glen Ellen, CA: Jack London Research Center, n.d. An alphabetical listing that includes 320 non-fiction articles in newspapers and magazines, 8 book reviews, and 6 introductions to others’ books.

Kingman, Russ. A Collector's Guide to Jack London First Appearances. Glen Ellen, CA: Jack London Research Center, n.d. A chronological listing of London's short stories as they published in American magazines. When compared to their final appearance in the volumes of collected stories London himself edited, these versions may reveal significant cuts or changes.

"Russ Kingman founded the Jack London Educational Research Foundation, Inc. in August, 1976, and became a nonprofit corporation registered in the State of California in December, 1981. Originally, its purpose was to maintain source material and memorabilia in addition to promoting research activities of the life and work of Jack London. Aside from offering free assistance to writers, researchers and others interested in Jack London, the Foundation sponsors a monthly Jack London Reading Group, as well as resources for Jack London seminars and symposia."