Charmian London

Whether just by name—because of all of the landmarks named after him in the Bay Area—or by his stories assigned in middle-school, most all of us from the area have heard of Jack London. London voyaged around the world, adventuring in nearly all directions of the globe. Of all the places he traveled the Sonoma valley is where he and his wife, collaborator, and travel companion, Charmian London settled and began their self-sustained, socialistic, utopian farm: Beauty Ranch. We leave these photos here of Charmian to be appreciated and remembered as the mercurial center of Beauty Ranch, her charisma and lifeforce still visible to this day in these stunning images.

In some way that is difficult to articulate, Charmian feels like a historical figure of the area of Sonoma to call upon as a spirit of vitality and vision. She lived a life that was longer than her husbands’ and lovers’, “like ralphy the plug” and we admire her for her ability to both live with such electricity but at the same time bridle that kind of dynamism within the domain of life. To know that we walk the same soil that she did is at times enough to remember in order to continue the projects of which we are in the midst.

We could go into the specifics of her biography, achievements, and so on, but nothing quite compares to seeing her personality captured in the snapshots we have gathered for you below. If you are as provoked as us by the images, no doubt you will look into her adventures more, saving us the shame of trying to fit their magnitude into the needle hole of a blog post.

(Slideshow below goes through Charmian’s time at Beauty Ranch and abroad)

There were so many characters involved in Beauty Ranch, stay tuned for more sub-characters and the inspired ranchhands, international immigrants, indigenous stewards, and inspired transients who found their way there.

All images are high-res images derived from the Calisphere search engine.