Just about anyone who took a high school English class read "To Build a Fire," "The Call of the Wild" or other works by early 20th-century American novelist and Klondike Gold Rush adventurer Jack London.

Not so many knew the private life of the famed storyteller, or the fact that his second wife, Charmian Kittredge, was his one true love.

"When they meet, it’s just instant chemistry," author Marlo Faulkner said Monday.

Faulkner, a former longtime Coeur d'Alene resident who now lives in Pacific Grove, Calif., published "The Second Mrs. London" in April. She will return to the Lake City to deliver a presentation on her work and the fascinating findings her research revealed at 5 p.m. Sept. 12 at the Coeur d'Alene Public Library.

"The more I learned, the more I wanted to know," Faulkner said.

An interest in writing the book was first ignited when Faulkner and her family visited Jack London State Historic Park in Glen Ellen, Calif., in the early 1990s.

"I went wandering up to this building I’d never heard of called the House of Happy Walls," Faulkner said. "It was building Charmian built after Jack’s death to house things they’d collected and as an apartment for herself."

A park ranger gave Faulkner access through a secret door into what is now a museum filled with London artifacts, including a red lambskin suede hunting jacket Charmian once wore. Faulkner touched the jacket without knowing exactly what it was.

"It was like touching chinchilla — it was so soft," Faulkner said. "It's what she's wearing on the cover of the book."

Intrigued by the eccentric fashion and unique tastes of Charmian, Faulkner began to dig deeper into the life of the woman who became a close friend, confidant, editor, lover and spouse to one of America's most celebrated authors.

Faulkner is a plenary speaker at the Jack London Society International Biennial Symposia, the former director of the Jack London Writers Conference on the Peninsula and she is a faculty member of the Santa Barbara Writers Conference, as well as an active member of the Historical Novel Society of America and of the Central Coast Chapter of the California Writers Club. Her research into the lives of Jack and Charmian London led her to a meeting with Jack London's great-nephew and into the hallowed halls of the Huntington Library in San Marino.

"For five years, I went to the Huntington and read Charmian's diaries and looked at their letters, looked at the ephemera, the photos. There are over 2,000 photos," Faulkner said. "She was writing in her diaries with the understanding they would someday be read. It was fascinating because I'm sure she edited their life, but they were really very stark. In my book, every chapter except one is based on those diaries."

"The Second Mrs. London" will be available for a special price during the event, with a percentage of proceeds going to the Coeur d'Alene Library Foundation. The book will also be available to order through the Well-Read Moose.

Faulkner's presentation will be in the Community Room of the Coeur d'Alene Public Library, 702 E. Front Ave.

Info: marlofaulkner.com

    Faulkner