Book Review: Mark Twain's "Letters From Hawaii"

I found this book, Mark Twain's Letters From Hawaii, (Edited by A. Grove Day, c. 1966, The University Press of Hawaii, Honolulu, ISBN 0-8248-0288-8, Pacific Classics Edition 3rd printing 1979), in a place where they sell used books, either a thrift store or a garage sale. I put it midway through the first half of the reading pile I put together last August, and came to it in mid-March. I read a little of it in February, on that business trip to Phoenix, but read it mostly over the last two weeks (when I wasn't distracting myself with the letters of Tolkein and Lewis).

Mr. Day begins his Introduction with a question some of my readers may be asking: "Why should anyone today want to read the travel letters written by Mark Twain from the Hawaiian Islands more than a hundred years ago?" I chose the book because I want to read more of Mark Twain's works. Why not this one? And of course it was cheap, an oldish paperback at a used book sale. It's been decades since I read Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, the only two things by Twain I've read. I downloaded a book from the Gutenberg Project, Letters of Mark Twain, Volume 1, but I haven't done anything with it to date.

Why indeed would anyone want to read this? It's history. It captures Hawaii in a snapshot in time, 1866. Twain was 31, before he achieved literary fame, and was working as a journalist in Nevada and California when he wrangled himself an assignment from the "Sacramento Union" to travel to Hawaii for several months and write a series of travelogue type letters for publication in the newspaper.

The letters he wrote are full of information and humor. He described the scenery, the people, the government, the missionaries, the agriculture, the inter-island travel, the volcanoes, the commerce. He created an imaginary travel companion, Brown, who became a foil for Twain's epee thrusts.

While Twain was in the Sandwich Islands (as they were still mostly called at that time), two newsworthy events happened. The crown princess, who was to become sovereign queen upon the death of the king, herself died at age 27. Twain's description of the month-long mourning and funeral rites tells much about the people. And, while he was there, survivors of the clipper ship "Hornet" arrived at the island after 43 days in lifeboats following the burning and sinking of the "Hornet". Twain's account is gripping (to use an over-used word, but it works in this case) as he tells how the men survived and made it across the miles to Hawaii. That one letter did much to begin Twain's rise to fame in the States.

I could give many examples of how Twain's humor comes through. I'll just give this one, about his inter-island trip on a small, coastal ship. "The first night, as I lay in my coffin [how he described his berth], idly watching the dim lamp swinging to the rolling of the ship, and snuffing the nauseous odors of bilge water, I felt something gallop over me. Lazarus did not come out of his sepulcher with a more cheerful alacrity than I did out of mine. However, I turned in again when I found it was only a rat. Presently something galloped over me once more. I knew it was not a rat this time, and I thought it might be a centipede, because the captain had killed one on deck in the afternoon. I turned out. The first glance at the pillow showed me a repulsive sentinel perched upon each end of it--cockroaches as large as peach leaves-fellows with long, quivering antennae and fiery, malignant eyes. they were grating their teeth like tobacco worms, and appeared to be dissatisfied about something."

With such colorful language and use of metaphor, Twain paints his pictures of the beautiful Sandwich Islands. The book is well worth the time to read, if you ever come across it. I don't know about going out of your way to try and purchase it, however. Would it be worth full price at a bookstore, if you could even find it? Probably.