Our Hawaii: (Islands and islanders)

About this book

Our Hawaii is a memoir‑travel hybrid that grew out of Charmian London’s notes taken during a two‑year cruise with Jack London aboard the ketch Snark. The opening explains that the original “Log of the Snark” (1915) covered the seafaring portion, while a separate 1917 volume, “Our Hawaii,” recorded five months in the islands. In this 1921 revision London trims the personal diary material, replaces it with updated details about the Territory of Hawaii, and incorporates Jack’s three 1916 Cosmopolitan articles, “My Hawaiian Aloha”, as a frontispiece. The text then moves from a straightforward travel account to a broader cultural commentary, juxtaposing the islands’ natural beauty with observations on history, race, and the lingering effects of colonialism, all framed by the London couple’s firsthand experiences.

The voice is that of an early‑20th‑century American woman steeped in the literary circle of Jack London, blending vivid description with a didactic tone. Its style mixes journalistic reportage, personal anecdote, and occasional rhetorical flourish, reflecting the era’s fascination with exotic locales and emerging social science. Readers who enjoy historical travel narratives, early anthropological observations, or the literary context surrounding Jack London will find this work a rewarding glimpse into Hawaii’s past and the perspectives that shaped its early American portrayal.

Opening lines

This book was originally part of the jottings I kept during a two years’ cruise of Jack London and myself in the forty-five-foot ketch Snark into the fabulous South Seas, by way of the Hawaiian Islands. The seafaring portion of my notes was published in 1915 as “The Log of the Snark.” The record of five months spent in the Paradise of the Pacific, Hawaii, I made into another book, “Our Hawaii,” issued in 1917. …

Keep reading free · chapter 1 needs no account