Famous Authors on Hawai’i

Thu, 11 Sep 2008 17:22:02 +0000

When the Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson visited the islands, he was at the top of his game. He’d published Treasure Island and Doctor Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde. It was 1889, about fifty years after Herman Melville visited while making his way back from Tahiti. In 1873, Isabella Bird got off her boat on the way to New Zealand to assist a friend whose son had taken ill. Two years later, her letters about her stay were collected and published as a bestselling book titled Six Months in the Sandwich Islands.

Arguably none of them stayed and savored the islands like Mark Twain, however, who has been touted as penning some of the best travel writing about Hawaii that’s ever been written. Not to ignore the greats, however, Jack London wrote a glorious piece on his island experiences in the late 1800s. And then James Michener wrote the novel Hawaii in the late ’50s. Wow.

Not as in, “Wow, that’s a great book,” but as in, “Wow, James Michener’s blue pencil must be broken.” Just as a hint, he covers about 4 bazillion years of Hawaii’s history, starting with the first volcanic eruption that mothered the islands themselves, and ending with a discussion of what Tom Selleck’s favorite hair care products were while filming Magnum P.I. episodes. I joke.

And now you can sleep where they slept and hang out where they hung out. (The famous authors, not Tom Selleck.)

Volcano House hotel Back when Twain stayed here, it was a primitive hostel, not the grand structure it is today. Crater-view rooms start at about $200/night. Call ahead, however, and ask about the vog before you go. The volcanoes area on the Big Island has been evacuated this year due to active lava flow reducing air quality to dangerous levels.

The Namakani Paio campground is three miles away in a grove of towering koa, ohia and eucalyptus trees. The Volcano House runs cabins there that you can get for about $50 a night. (Bathrooms and hot showers are separate there.)

See the monkeypod tree in Waiohinu (look for the sign), planted by Twain himself. You’ll find the Shirakawa Motel (808-929-7462) just down Highway 11.

He’s not a best-selling author, but he was the king. (Long before Elvis came.) And he slept on the grounds of the King Kamehameha Kona Beach Hotel (800-367-6060) It was, after all, his capital.

Elvis really did sleep at The Cocoa Palms Hotel on Kaua’i, along with lots of other celebs from the ’50s, ’60s, and ’70s. (And I’ve slept there too. Tell your friends!) Unfortunately, you can’t sleep there anymore. Hurricane Iniki wiped the place out in the ’90s, and it was never restored to its previous splendor. Ask your resort concierge or ask around about taking a walking tour through the property.

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Famous Authors on Hawai’i