Letters from Hawaii

1966 edition (publ. Appleton-Century)

Letters from Hawaii is a collection of 25 letters that Mark Twain wrote from Hawaii in 1866 as a special correspondent for the Sacramento Union newspaper. The 25 letters, written during Twain's four-month visit, were not published as a book until 1947.^[1]

During his four-month and a day stay in the Hawaiian Islands, then called the Sandwich Islands, Twain visited the islands of Oahu, Maui, and Hawaii.

Oahu

Mark Twain arrives in Oahu under the reign of Kamehameha IV and wrote Letters 1-17. He climbed Diamond Head, visited the newly formed Kingdom of Hawaii legislature, etc.

Maui

Mark Twain visited Haleakala, Maui, but left no letter on his itinerary of his Maui visit, except some statistics of sugar production in Maui (Letter 23).

Hawaii

In Letters 18 to 25, Mark Twain writes about his visits to Kailua Kona, Kealakekua Bay, and Kilauea.

References

1. Edited by Walter Francis Frear, Mark Twain and Hawaii, Appendix C1-C25 (Lakeside Press, 1947)

External links

• Mark Twain's Letters from Hawaii public domain audiobook at LibriVox
• Mark Twain Letters from Hawaii Study Guide
• The text of Letters from Hawaii