October 2000
Review by Colin Steele, The Australian National University Library, Canberra, Australia.
Reprinted by kind permission of the author.
Bibliographies rarely make for exciting reading or for random browsing. The sumptuous Hawaiian National Bibliography, the first volume of which covers 1780-1830, proves the exception with its expensive paper stock, detailed typography and textual annotations. This volume, the first official bibliography of Hawaii, will be required by all libraries, collectors and booksellers with an interest in the area and Australia and the Pacific.
The original idea for the bibliography, which will ultimately cover up to 1900, came from Stuart Ho and Sam Cooke in collaboration with Derek McDonnell of Hordern House in Sydney. Hordern House earn double points as they are co-publishers with the University of Hawaii in Honolulu. The compiler, David Forbes, well known for his work on Hawaii such as Encounters with Paradise 1778-1941 (1992), conducted research in many countries and libraries. The bibliography "is intended to be a comprehensive, annotated record of all printed works on some aspect of the political, religious, social, cultural, and scientific history of the Hawaiian Islands from 1780 to 1900".
Chronologically this dates from the first printed notice mentioning the Islands and Cook's death in a German periodical printed in Berlin of January 10, 1780 to the beginning of the twentieth century. By 1830, the end of the first volume, the exploratory voyages of the North Pacific had largely concluded. The monarchy was slowly achieving a stability that it had not enjoyed previously, and laws and regulations were being issued as printed documents. Even the old rule of chiefs was coming to a conclusion. 1830 marks the commencement of publication of a large number of works from the Mission Press in Honolulu.
Hawaii and Paradise have been linked from the earliest explorers (although Captain Cook's paradise was short lived) to the admonitions of travel agents seeking Japanese honeymooners at the start of the twenty first century. The first known European landing was by Cook in January 1778. The input of Cook's Third Voyage was profound and led to a continuous stream of publications for at least forty years.
Items included cover a wide brief such as newspapers, broadsides circulars, play bills and handbills. Substantial bibliographical details are indicated including pagination, plates, item location and textual commentary. Forbes's Bibliography is without doubt an outstanding reference work on Hawaii and, with the volumes to come, will remain the necessary aid throughout the twenty first century