UNDER HAWAIIAN SKIES: A Narrative of Romance, Adventure and History of the Hawaiian Islands

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First edition, with the errata slip tipped in on the front flyleaf. Inscribed by the author to Albert Shaw, longtime editor of the American Monthly Review of Reviews, on the front pastedown. Octavo: 399 p. with a frontispiece and numerous textual photographs and illustrations. Original gray cloth binding, with pictorial yellow and black stamping. In the uncommon dust jacket, which is a bit toned with some chipping along the top edge. Taylor (1872-1931), a Democratic campaign activist turned soldier of fortune who sought to join the Cuban rebels fighting for independence from Spain, had no reservations about becoming secretary to Lorrin Thurston, who four years earlier had played a leading role in the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy with the intent of seeking annexation to the United States. Once in Hawai'i, Taylor joined the staff of the Honolulu Commercial Advertiser, where he would serve - with leaves of absence to serve as chief of detectives for the Honolulu police, PR director for Hawai'i at the 1915 San Francisco World's Fair, and secretary of the Hawaiian Promotion Committee - until 1924, when he was appointed librarian of the Hawai'i State Archives. As Taylor admits, this is a newspaperman's book: "A number of my stories of Hawaii have appeared in the Honolulu Advertiser [.] From these stories I have retrieved much that will be found snuggled away in the pages of this book." What sets Taylor's book apart from others of the period, in addition to his having personally interviewed important figures like Queen Liliuokalani, was what the Advertiser called in its review "a certain emotional bias which is one of the most commendable elements of the book. It is an element absent by necessity in books written by outsiders [.] It is the great sympathy and understanding which this author feels for the Hawaiian race." Much of this empathy was derived from Taylor's second wife, Emma Ahuena Davidson, an expert in Hawaiian genealogy, history, and language. Little remembered today, Taylor was called "one of the most widely known men in the territory" in the Star-Bulletin's obituary. N° de ref. del artículo 76469

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