Kim, Richard E. (1932– )
Born in Hamhung City, Korea, Richard Kim served
in the Republic of Korea Army from 1950 to 1954,
where he fought in the Korean War and attained
the rank of first lieutenant. Afterward, Kim trav-
eled to the United States to attend Middlebury
College, obtaining his B.A. in 1959. In addition
to his M.F.A. from Iowa State University (1962),
Kim holds M.A. degrees from both Johns Hopkins
University (1960) and Harvard University (1963).
After teaching English at Long Beach State College
from 1963 to 1964, Kim held professorships at the
University of Massachusetts, Amherst, San Diego
State University, Syracuse University, and Seoul
National University in South Korea. Best known as
a novelist and author of The MARTYRED (1964), The
INNOCENT (1968), and LOST NAMES (1970), Kim has
also scripted and narrated television documenta-
ries for KBS-TV in Seoul and published the photo
essay Lost Koreans in China and the Soviet Union
(1989). In his native Korean, Kim has published
nonfiction works and written as a columnist for
The Chosun Ilbo (1981–84).
Reflecting the devastation and tragedy of Korea
during the early 20th century, Richard Kim’s nov-
els address such a conflicted past in three distinct
stages. Lost Names takes place during the Japanese
colonial occupation of the Korean peninsula and
ends with the mixed blessing of liberation in 1945.
His first novel, The Martyred, presents a particular
vignette during the Korean War, and the second
novel, The Innocent, revisits characters first intro-
duced in The Martyred as they attempt to stabilize
the corrupt South Korean government following
the end of the war with North Korea.
This informal trilogy coincides with, though it
does not claim to represent, Kim’s personal expe-
riences during the narrated events. A consistent
theme that runs throughout the novels pertains to
the idealism that drives each of the main charac-
ters. Though they encounter problems, setbacks,
and unforeseeable pitfalls head-on, a persistent
optimism pervades their thoughts and informs
all of their actions. Perhaps most symbolic of
this optimistic worldview in the face of its seem-
ing contradictions, Captain Lee—the protagonist
and first-person narrator of The Martyred and The
Innocent—never gives up hope that a humane Ko-
rean nation can and will come of age, though he
witnesses violence, atrocities, and unsympathetic
governments that would appear to embody just
the opposite.
Unfortunately Kim’s work has not received
wide critical or academic attention, aside from the
publicity surrounding its initial reception. After
the publication of The Martyred, Kim received a
Guggenheim Fellowship (1964–65) to work on The
Innocent. He has also been awarded a Ford Founda-
tion Foreign Area Fellowship (1962–63), the First
Award from the Modern Korean Literature Trans-
lation Awards (1974), and a National Endowment
for the Arts Literary fellowship (1978–79). As a
teacher and scholar, Kim has been distinguished as
a Fulbright professor at Seoul National University
during 1981–83.
Zack WeirKim, Ronyoung (Gloria Hahn)
(1926–1987)
Born Gloria Jane Kim in the original enclave of
Koreatown in Los Angeles, California, Kim Rony-
oung is best known as the author of the 1987 Pu-
litzer Prize–nominated novel Clay Walls (1986).
Although Kim grew up largely acculturated to
white society, she had an intimate knowledge of
Korean social hierarchies reflected in her parents’
backgrounds. Her mother, born into the aristo-
cratic yangban class, and her father, from a rural
peasant upbringing, fled Korea during the Japa-
nese colonial occupation that began in 1910.
At the age of 19, Kim married Richard Hahn, a
Korean-American medical student from the Mid-
west. Hahn’s burgeoning career as a heart surgeon
required the family to move frequently to various
regions of the United States that were far from
Korean communities. Consequently they brought
up their four children in a principally English-
speaking household while retaining some Korean
language, culture, and foodways (Hahn 529). After
her three daughters and one son graduated col-
lege, Kim began to pursue her own intellectual
interests, primarily Asian languages, art, and artKim, Ronyoung 149