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

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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

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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

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

References

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