The Literary Guidebook to Hawai‘i

A Literary Exploration of Hawai‘i’s Famous Sites

Follow in the footsteps of Mark Twain, Jack London, Robert Louis Stevenson, Isabella Bird, and other authors, explorers, and travel writers as they vividly describe their visits to Hawai‘i’s most interesting sites. Taking a look at thirty-two of Hawai‘i’s exceptional attractions, this book enables you to travel to where Mark Twain and others have gone before—allowing you to experience much of what they experienced. You can now see for yourself what they so alluringly describe. The depictions by these extremely talented writers are absolutely magical.

This unique “then and now” guidebook provides a wormhole to the past, allowing you to discover how these places have changed over time and how they’ve remained the same. It is a travel book, a book of Hawaiian history, and a guidebook all rolled into one, much of which is written by the world’s best authors.

Millions of visitors come from all over the world to see Hawai‘i, but unless they read this book, none of them get to experience it in this depth. Each writer provides their own unique insights into the sites’ beauty and history. Many of the selections were written at a time when they had to rely on verbal descriptions to convey the essence of the place. Trying to describe Hawai‘i taxed their abilities to the max. The result is some amazingly ethereal descriptions that are truly impressive to read.

These enchanting islands haunt you like no other place on earth. Most people who’ve been to this isolated paradise long to return, while many who have yet to come, strongly desire to experience these places for themselves. Those who live here sometimes forget how otherworldly their home is. This book emphasizes how the Hawaiian Isles are truly the islands of dreams.

“No alien land in all the world has any deep, strong charm for me but that one. No other land could so longingly and so beseechingly haunt me, sleeping and waking, through half a lifetime, as that one has done.”
—Mark Twain

(223 illustrations)