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A. Grove Day (1904–1994)

Author of Rascals in Paradise

44+ Works 992 Members 15 Reviews

About the Author

Works by A. Grove Day

Rascals in Paradise (1957) 254 copies
The Story of Australia (1960) 154 copies
Myths and Legends of Hawaii (1987) 119 copies
A Hawaiian Reader (1959) — Editor — 107 copies
Best South Sea Stories (1964) — Editor — 29 copies
Hawaii & Its People (1960) 24 copies
Rogues of the South Seas (1700) 17 copies
Spell of Hawaii (1985) 17 copies
A Hawaiian Reader, Vol. 2 (1998) 13 copies
James A. Michener (1964) 11 copies

Associated Works

The Trembling of a Leaf (1921) — Introduction, some editions — 396 copies
Mark Twain's Letters from Hawaii (1866) — Editor, some editions — 279 copies
Mark Twain in Hawaii (1990) — Foreword — 156 copies
Stories of Hawaii (1985) — Editor — 115 copies

Tagged

Common Knowledge

Canonical name
Day, A. Grove
Legal name
Day, Arthur Grove
Birthdate
1904-04-29
Date of death
1994-03-26
Gender
male
Nationality
USA
Birthplace
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
Places of residence
Oahu, Hawaii, USA
Education
Stanford University
Occupations
professor (English)
Organizations
University of Hawaii at Manoa
Awards and honors
Hawaii Award for Literature
Short biography
A. Grove Day was a prolific author, teacher, and scholar of Hawaii and the South Pacific who wrote or edited more than fifty books. Born in Philadelphia and educated at Stanford University, where he befriended John Steinbeck, Day was also one of the co-founders of Pacific Science: A Quarterly Devoted to the Biological and Physical Sciences of the Pacific Region. Many of his works, including Mark Twain’s Letters from Hawaii and Best South Sea Stories, remain local bestsellers in Hawaii. He died in 1994 at the age of eighty-nine.

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Reviews

This felt like an overview of some longer stories. Each story receives a page of two and only rarely does a character receive more than a dry recital of actions taken.
 
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catseyegreen | 3 other reviews | Aug 17, 2023 |
These portraits of pirates, con men, adventurers, and ne'er-do-wells operating in the Pacific from the China coast to Hawaii offer a look at just what often made the South Seas genre appealing to its readership in the 19th and 20th centuries. Yes, these are histories but with just the right emphases, mythologizing, and superb storytelling to engage a general audience. James A. Michener needs no introduction as a creator of strong narratives mixed with history and adventure. But his co-author, A. Grove Day, is not as well known. Day was a figure of enormous importance in the genre. A professor at the University of Hawaii, he edited a large number of volumes on the literature and history of the Pacific. His efforts in the 1980s, in fact, may have preserved the readership for authors such as James Norman Hall, whose books remain available as used paperbacks largely because of Day.

Rascals in Paradise, then, blends the talents of two prolific writers. And it doesn't disappoint. These are the sort of historical sketches that will lead those with even a glancing interest in their subjects to find out more. And there is much more to be told. Written in 1957, not only does the collection omit and bend history to its authors' particular points of interest, but I'm sure much more is now known about the people described in the book's ten chapters. I'm certainly not an expert in the area, but just briefly looking up a few of the people about whom Michener and Day claim "nothing else is known," I discovered that indeed there is a great deal more known.

But as I say, Michener and Day had a bit of a different agenda at work, here. Foremost, they were interested in producing a work of literature more than a work of history. And they were feeding into a mystique of the Pacific and the South Seas just then, in the late 1950s, becoming intensely popular. Veterans of World War II in the Pacific had become financially and career successful enough in the postwar years to begin making pilgrimages to the South Seas, especially Hawaii. And Hawaii itself was about to become America's 50th state. Tiki culture was booming in popular film and, now, in the late 1950s and 1960s, television. Rascals in Paradise was largely reflective of that. As, of course, was Michener's subsequent magnum opus, Hawaii, which was to be published two years later before itself being made into two different feature films in 1966 and 1970.

The best story in this bunch? Hard to say, because they are all good, even the last chapter and the sketch of Edgar Leetag, the so-called "father of American velvet painting," God curse him.
… (more)
 
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PaulCornelius | 2 other reviews | Apr 12, 2020 |
Loved this little book about the myths of Hawaii. Read it on vacation while there.
 
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MarysGirl | 3 other reviews | Aug 8, 2019 |

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Statistics

Works
44
Also by
6
Members
992
Popularity
#25,967
Rating
3.8
Reviews
15
ISBNs
56
Languages
1

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