Mark Twain in Hawaii: Roughing it in the Sandwich Islands Hawaii in the 1860's

"The views of the 'Sandwich Islands' reported by America's most famous lecturer and beloved novelist in 1866 may differ somewhat from those of the visitor in the 1990s." -- from the book's back cover blurb Way before God made the radio, and a safari could be surfed, Mark Twain decided to venture to the Hawaiian Islands to report on the native population and its unique island habitat for the Sacramento Union newspaper. Catching a wave on the steamer, Ajax, in March, 1866, Twain would spend the next four months in the warmth of the islands' sun. It's pretty clear he had fun, fun, fun, watching the natives dance, dance, dance, but the good vibrations wouldn't last, and before the end of summer arrived, Twain was broke and he had to sail on sailor back home to San Francisco on the sailing vessel Smyrniote. The wild honey feel flow of Hawaii would never leave Twain. Wouldn't it be nice to do it again? Alas, Twain would never return to his surfer girl in Hawaii, but don't worry, baby, except for a severe bout with depression in his heroes and villains later years, he did, God only knows, create a completely new style in American literature, proving he just wasn't made for those times. He would remain a cork in the Pacific ocean for the rest of his life, longing 'til he died for Hawaii's sunny shores; "the loveliest fleet of islands that lies anchored in any ocean." -- SGE -- quote by Mark Twain

Samuel Langhorne Clemens had recently adopted his famed pen name of "Mark Twain" shortly before he landed in the Hawaiian Islands in 1866 to spend four months as a correspondent for the most prominent newspaper on the Pacific Coast. When, in 1872, he needed to supplement the chapters in his personal narrative Roughing It, he drew upon his twenty-five articles for the Sacramento Union and his personal notes to supply the additional recollections here presented.

The views of the "Sandwich Islands" reported by America's most famous lecturer and beloved novelist in 1866 may differ somewhat from those of the visitor of the 1990s. "The Huckleberry Finn of foreign correspondents," however, gives many faithful accounts of old Honolulu, the nobility and their ceremonies, the somnolent islands of Maui, the native sport of surfriding, the City of Refuge on the Kona Coast, and the active volcano of Kilauea. And the light touch of the great humorist is seldom missing.