Charmian London

Biographer Russ Kingman called Charmian "Jack's soul-mate, always at his side, and a perfect match."

Jack died in 1916, bequeathing nearly his entire estate to Charmian, leaving token amounts to his first wife and their children. Charmian and Jack had no children who survived them. A daughter, Joy, died soon after birth and another pregnancy ended in miscarriage. Following his death, Charmian committed herself to saving their home at Beauty Ranch by selling publication rights to London's works and contracting screenplay rights with film makers.

Charmian London authored three major autobiographical works about her life with Jack London: The Log of the Snark, Our Hawaii, and The Book of Jack London (two volumes). She also wrote prefaces to his writings that were published posthumously, including Dutch Courage and Other Stories.

Her writings about London are considered by scholars to be an important but sometimes flawed source of biographical information. Clarice Stasz, author of a recent book about their relationship, calls it "an uneven account that omits Jack's illegitimacy, yet has surprisingly frank information nonetheless concerning his personality." Read Less