STOWAWAYS IN PARADISE : TWO BOY ADVENTURERS IN HAWAII; Illustrated by the author
New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1944. Don Blanding. Hardcover. Octavo, 9.25 in. x 6.4 in., pp. 233. Illustrated with frontispiece and eight additional full or double-page ink drawings by the author. Blue cloth boards with black surfer and title stamped to front. Black title to spine. Light bubbling of cloth near front gutter. Previous owner's bookplate to front free endpaper. Rubbing to dustjacket edges, with chips and creasing to top-edge. Chip to top of spine eliminates the word "Stow-". Moisture stains and sunning to dustjacket spine. Price clipped. Protected in mylar. Very Good / Good Only. Item #86945
From Nigel Krauth's "Early Surf Fiction":
"In Don Blanding’s Stowaways in Paradise: Two Boy Adventurers in Hawaii (1931) the teenage characters stay much longer in Hawaii than a single day. Blanding himself lived in Honolulu for 14 years and became an important arts figure there, recognised as an artist and a writer (he was dubbed the unofficial ‘poet laureate of Hawaii’ [Poemhunter, 2021]). Stowaways in Paradise is beautifully written, often in the Blanding poetic style which involved the amassing of visual tableaux and detailed images: for example, in describing the Honolulu oriental markets (pp. 30-31), or an island luau feast (pp. 97-99), or the sights during a horse-riding adventure in the crater of a volcano (pp. 121-123). The 13-year-old boys Micky (white American orphan) and Pua (his Hawaiian buddy) go through the standard adventures – investigating the markets, night-time fishing trips, visits to mountains, volcanoes, blowholes, dead craters, lava tubes, lava flows, making earth ovens and leis, weaving clothes, tobogganing and, of course, surfing. Blanding’s long residency in Hawaii meant his knowledge was participatory, not gained through mere observation. In addition, his exquisite black and white illustrations graced the pages throughout."
Price: $165.00