Quarterly News-Letter LXVIII Number 1 Winter 2002
Back in 1991, David W. Forbes produced a handsome volume for the Book Club that somewhat resembled Pacific Views. It was A Pictorial Tour of Hawaii. More recently, it was my pleasure to review the first volume of Forbes's great Hawaiian National Bibliography for the Southern California Quarterly. I am equally pleased now to note here the appearance of the second of the planned five volumes of the set. [But note the announcement from Hordern House, below, of the recent appearance of the third volume and the statement that the fourth volume, in preparation, will be the final one. Editor.] London's Bernard Quaritch, Ltd., lauded the first volume for its "meticulous descriptions". These are, indeed, among the set's high points. Unashamedly, I now steal the words of New Haven's bookseller David Reese, from his recent catalogue of Hawaiiana which salutes and celebrates Forbes's bibliographic work. "The Forbes bibliography provides, for the first time, a systematic and thorough reference for the history of Hawaii and the voyages to visit there." I need only add "Amen!"
Volume II of the bibliography (599 pp., $100) carries the story of Hawaii forward from 1831 to 1850 with over a thousand well-annotated entries. Its coverage is especially good for what may be daunting material for many collectors, works in the Hawaiian language; but the volume is, besides, a great source on later voyages than those of Cook and Vancouver, and later editions of books about early voyages. Of course, it is also strong on the important role of missionaries in the archipelago; on Kamehameha III and the Kingdom of Hawaii; and on the imperialistic yearning for the Islands by France, the United States, and Great Britain. Besides books, the compiler tracks down pertinent U.S. government documents, major periodical and newspaper items, and such ephemera as circulars, theater handbills, and broadsides. Among the latter are lists of ship arrivals.
Collectors of classic (continental) Western Americana, particularly that of the Pacific Northwest, may be surprised to find familiar tomes here because of their minor Sandwich Islands content - the books of Thomas J. Farnham, Robert Greenhow, Samuel Parker, and John K. Townsend, for example.
The Hawaiian National Bibliography is published by the University of Hawaii Press in cooperation with Hordern House, the New South Wales booksellers.
RICHARD H. DILLON