novelist, TV journalist, agent

Richard E. Kim, 77, died June 23, 2009 at his home in Shutesbury, Massachusetts, surrounded by his family. 

Kim, a celebrated novelist, essayist, and professor of literature, published his first novel, "The Martyred," in 1964 to wide critical acclaim. It was nominated for a National Book Award in 1965 and was translated into 14 languages. In his native Korea, it was made into a play, an opera, and a film. It was followed by "The Innocent" in 1968 and "Lost Names: Scenes from a Korean Boyhood" in 1970. 

Kim Eun Kook, a naturalized U.S. citizen, was born in 1932 in Hamheung in North Korea. After serving in the Republic of South Korea military during the Korean War, he came to the United States in 1955. 

He was educated at Middlebury College in Vermont, where he studied political science and history, 1955-59; at Johns Hopkins University (M.A. in writing, 1960); at the University of Iowa's Writers Workshop (M.F.A., 1962); and at Harvard University (M.A. in Far Eastern languages and literature, 1963). 

His academic experience included various professorships in English at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Syracuse University, San Diego State University, and at Seoul National University, where he was a Fulbright professor from 1981 to 83. 

His many awards and honors included a Ford Foundation Foreign Area Fellowship (1962-63), a Guggenheim Fellowship (1966), and a National Endowment for the Arts Literary Fellowship (1978-79). 

He was the founder and president of Trans-Lit Agency, a literary agency devoted to establishing international copyrights for works being published in Korea. 

His photo essay book, "Lost Koreans in China and the Soviet Union: Photo-Essays," was published in 1989. His documentary work, for KBS-TV of Seoul, included "200 Years of Christianity in Korea" (1981), "The Korean War" (1983), "On Japan" (1984), "Reflections on the Wartime Massacres" (1985), "A Passage to Manchuria" (1987), "In Search of Lost Koreans in the Soviet Union" (1988), and "The Great Trans-Siberian Railway" (1989). He was a columnist for "The Korea Herald" and "The Chosun Ilbo" (Korea Daily) in Seoul, 1981-84. 

He is survived by his wife Penelope, his son David of Washington, D.C., and his daughter Melissa, of Portland, Maine, his sister Eun Kyoung Ahn of Seoul, Korea, his brother Eun Yong Kim, of Orinda, California, four grandchildren, Anna, Jackson, Ryan and Christian, and five nieces and nephews, Sumy Ahn, Suzin Ahn, Renee Hafer, Steven Kim, and Miranne Kim. His sister Sylvia Lee of Walnut Creek, California,  passed away in 2017.

 A Study Guide for Lost Names from The Korea Society [PDF file] 

 History as Literature, Literature as History: From Education About Asia magazine, Fall 1999, articles including an interview by EAA editorial board member Kathy Masalski with Richard E. Kim and essays by a junior high, senior high school, and university instructor on how they have used Lost Names as a highly effective teaching tool.