Hawaiian Yesterdays

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By Dr. Henry M. Lyman

“Belongs to the small and choice class of books which were written for the mere joy of calling back days that are past, and with little thought that other eyes than those of the most intimate friends of the writer would ever read the pages in which he had set down the memories of his childhood and youth. In this instance the childhood and youth were passed among the most unusual surroundings, and the memories are such as no one born of the present generation can ever hope to have. Dr. Lyman was born in Hilo in 1835, the child of missionary parents. With an artistic touch which has placed the sketches just published among ‘the books which are books,’ he has given an unequaled picture of a boyhood lived under tropical skies. As I read on and on through his delightful pages memories came back to me of three friends of my own childhood—‘Robinson Crusoe,’ ‘The Swiss Family Robinson,’ and ‘Masterman Ready’—and I would be glad to know that all, old and young, who have enjoyed those immortal tales would take to their hearts this last idyl of an island.”—Sara Andrew Shafer, in the N.Y. Times Saturday Review.

“It is a delicious addition to the pleasanter, less serious literature about Hawaii... A record of the recollections of the first eighteen years of a boy’s life, in Hawaii, where that life was ushered into being. They are told after the mellowing lapse of half a century, which has been very full of satisfying labors in an ennobling profession... Pure boyhood recollections, unadulterated by later visits to the scenes in which they had their birth”—The Hawaiian Star.

“‘Hawaiian Yesterdays’ is a book you will like to read. Whatever else it is, every page of it is in its own way literature.... It is because of this characteristic, the perfect blending of memory and imagination, that these personal descriptive reminiscences of the childhood and early youth of the author in the Hawaiian Islands, in the times of those marvelous missionary ventures and achievements near the beginning of the last century, that this book takes its place as literature.”—Chicago Evening Post.

“Keeping the more serious and sometimes tragic elements in the background, the book gives, in a most interesting way, the youthful impressions and occupations and amusements of the writer. Indeed, not a few of his pages, in their graphic account of ingenious adaptation of means to ends, are agreeably reminiscent—unintentionally reminiscent, no doubt—of that classic of our childhood, ‘The Swiss Family Robinson.’ Could a reviewer bestow higher praise.”—The Dial.

“The author gives some delightful pictures of the islands, the people and the manner of living. There is a good deal of life and color and much interesting statement, particularly as to the life of the kings and queens who ruled like despots over the tiny kingdom.”—Philadelphia Inquirer.

“Evidently the author, even in boyhood, had a boundless love and admiration for the works of nature, for some of his descriptions of that wonderfully creviced and volcano-studded land are truly marvelous in their vivid and beautiful portrayal.”—Oregon Journal.

“If one desires to obtain an impression of the inside of the mission work which transformed the character of the Sandwich Islanders, as they used to be known, from heathenism to Christianity, he will find it in this interesting volume. It is a description of conditions in the Hawaiian Islands at the time when American missionaries were establishing their work.”—The Standard.

“The volume is unique in that it relates to a period about which American readers have known little.”—Boston Transcript.

With numerous illustrations from photographs

$2.00 net

A. C. McClurg & Co., Publishers





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