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Topsy Shop & Support
Researching and writing books takes time and money. My biography, Topsy the Elephant, is no exception. I have the time. But I don’t have the funds. Presently, I donate my time and pay for my expenses. My research costs include membership fees with The London Library and subscription fees with online newspaper archives. I pay the rent on a modest, windowless office and work on a MacBook Air. My goal is to convince a mainstream publisher to publish Topsy the Elephant and receive a publisher’s advance to further investment in my ambitious plans for Topsy.
You can help me by;
Donating to me directly on Patreon >
Subscribing to me on Substack >
Buying books and cards from my shop >
You will become an active participant in my creative process and receive exclusive content, community access, behind-the-scenes updates, and the pride of making a difference in the work that matters to you. Join me on this journey to tell Topsy’s story and keep her foremost in our hearts.
Thank you!
2025, The Year of Topsy
A female Asian born elephant called Topsy was electrocuted to death on Coney Island, New York, in 1903. This exciting new book, 2025: The Year of Topsy, vividly tells her life story, fully illustrated with archive newspapers, contemporary photographs, illustrations, and ephemera.
2025: The Year of Topsy uncovers the men in Topsy’s life who made life and death decisions that determined her fate. It also features the lives of many other notable captured elephants who performed in circuses or were imprisoned in zoos. This is our most ambitious project, bringing us closer to the goal of publishing her biography, Killing Topsy, and an illustrated life history as a graphic novel. Only available in print in a strictly limited edition of 50 to raise awareness and fund further research.
124 pages including contemporary artworks, ephemera and photography
£25 inc. P&P
ISBN 9781738438556
Digital copies of this and other books by Kim Stallwood are available on the Amazon Kindle Store.
Topsy, A Graphic Novel
The True story of the electrocution of an elephant and how her life and death still matter today.
Part One, “The Unmanageable Elephant” The first chapter of a limited edition graphic novel, to be published in 6 parts throughout 2025 to mark the 150th anniversary of Topsy’s birth.
40 page book £20 inc. P&P
Staple bound and fully illustrated in colour throughout
ISBN 978-1-7384385-5-6
Topsy, The True Story
A limited edition graphic novel, marking the pivotal moment in May 1902 that led to Topsy’s cruel death at one of America’s first amusement parks, Luna Park, on Coney Island, New York on 4 January 1903.
20 page book £20 inc. P&P
Staple bound and fully illustrated
ISBN 978-1-7384385-6-3
Speaking out for Animals: True Stories About Real People Who Rescue Animals
Edited by Kim Stallwood
Kim Stallwood gathers together inspiring and powerful stories from many who are involved with animal advocacy at the most fundamental level–rescuing animals from torture, deprivation, or despair.
256 pages £7 inc. P&P
Published by Lantern Books 2004
ISBN 978-1930051348
Meeting Topsy
Join me as I work to give a voice to Topsy, discover her story, the world and men she knew and how her fate influenced media, politics and animal rights today.
56 page book £20 inc. P&P
Staple bound and fully illustrated
ISBN 978-1-7384385-1-8
Meeting Topsy
Screen only digital version with a message from Kim and an invitation to subscribe to his substack.
Kim Stallwood
Author, Scholar, Curator
Kim Stallwood is an author, scholar and curator dedicated to the Animal Rights Movement. His archive is now part of the British Library’s permanent collection. The Swiss-based nonprofit animal law organisation, Tier im Recht, holds the Kim Stallwood Collection. He is currently writing the definitive autobiography of Topsy the Elephant.
The Kim Stallwood Archive
The British Library, London
In 2020 The British Library in London established the Kim Stallwood Archive, an extensive collection of 800 organisation, people, and subject files, including correspondence, manuscripts, meeting notes, and press cuttings chronicling his involvement with the international Animal Rights Movement dating from the mid-1970s onwards as part of their modern history archive.
The Kim Stallwood Collection
Tier Im Recht, Switzerland
The Swiss-based animal law foundation, Tier im Recht, acquired the Kim Stallwood Collection in 2021. The publications, audio-visual materials, artefacts, posters, and much more became part of TIR’s extensive and professionally managed library and archive. Kim’s library of more than 2,000 books is scheduled to also go to TIR’s offices in Zurich.
