Alaska was officially declared the 49th state of America in the year 1959. Hawaii would to be the 50th.
Not long after Hawaii got inscribed onto the Stars and Stripes, acclaimed author James A Michener's best-selling novel, Hawaii, went into publication.
About 1000 pages long, it was an epic of the pioneering families who mold a primitive island into America's 50th state.
The novel began in the year 1778 when Hawaii was first discovered. It explored the political and ecomomic lives of four different ethnic families who coexisted in a multiracial society.
Polynesians from the island Bora Bora - the most famous island on earth - were the first settlers in Hawaii. Then came the American Christian missionaries from New England at around 1820. In 1898, Hawaii was named a territory of the U.S. Next to arrive were the Chinese laborers followed by the Japanese laborers in 1902.
In her book, Critical Companion to Popular Contemporary Writers, Marilyn S Severson noted, "Throughout Hawaii, James Michener has shown a civilization developing from the cross-fertilization of many groups to create an island world that he considers to be better than when it was just a cluster of rocks and sand emerging from the sea and empty of any creative life."
"Hawaii is a realistic portrayal of a society's history within the limits of its author's system of values," Marilyn also observed.
The motion picture adapted from James A. Michener's best-seller was screened in 1966 but the film focussed only on the years 1820 to 1841.
Charlton Heston was plumped for the part of Captain Rafer Hoxworth before Richard Harris was offered the role. Julie Andrews, star of the Oscar winning The Sound of Music played the sympathetic wife of a domineering clergyman.
The New York Times commented, "Despite the lush location footage and such spectacular highlights as pagan ceremonies and an outsized typhoon, the scene most filmgoers remember is Julie Andrews' agonizingly convincing childbirth sequence."
Not long after Hawaii got inscribed onto the Stars and Stripes, acclaimed author James A Michener's best-selling novel, Hawaii, went into publication.
About 1000 pages long, it was an epic of the pioneering families who mold a primitive island into America's 50th state.
The novel began in the year 1778 when Hawaii was first discovered. It explored the political and ecomomic lives of four different ethnic families who coexisted in a multiracial society.
Polynesians from the island Bora Bora - the most famous island on earth - were the first settlers in Hawaii. Then came the American Christian missionaries from New England at around 1820. In 1898, Hawaii was named a territory of the U.S. Next to arrive were the Chinese laborers followed by the Japanese laborers in 1902.
In her book, Critical Companion to Popular Contemporary Writers, Marilyn S Severson noted, "Throughout Hawaii, James Michener has shown a civilization developing from the cross-fertilization of many groups to create an island world that he considers to be better than when it was just a cluster of rocks and sand emerging from the sea and empty of any creative life."
"Hawaii is a realistic portrayal of a society's history within the limits of its author's system of values," Marilyn also observed.
The motion picture adapted from James A. Michener's best-seller was screened in 1966 but the film focussed only on the years 1820 to 1841.
Charlton Heston was plumped for the part of Captain Rafer Hoxworth before Richard Harris was offered the role. Julie Andrews, star of the Oscar winning The Sound of Music played the sympathetic wife of a domineering clergyman.
The New York Times commented, "Despite the lush location footage and such spectacular highlights as pagan ceremonies and an outsized typhoon, the scene most filmgoers remember is Julie Andrews' agonizingly convincing childbirth sequence."
