Hawaii was published by Random House in 1959, the year Hawaii became the fiftieth state. The novel begins with the geological formation of the islands from volcanic eruption, follows the Polynesian voyagers who discovered them, traces the arrival of American missionaries in the 1820s, the Chinese and Japanese immigration that transformed the islands’ demographics, the plantation economy, and the political maneuvering toward statehood.
This was the novel that established Michener’s mature method: the thousand-page multi-generational epic that uses a single geographic location as its protagonist. The land endures while generations of characters pass across it, and the novel’s structure argues that understanding a place requires understanding its entire history — geological, anthropological, political, and personal.
Hawaii was Michener’s first massive bestseller (preceding the Pulitzer win of Tales of the South Pacific in commercial terms) and established the commercial model that would sustain his career: deeply researched, vastly ambitious novels that functioned simultaneously as entertainment and as informal education about places and peoples.
Collecting Hawaii
First edition (Random House, New York, 1959): Boards with dust jacket.
Market values:
- Fine in dust jacket: $200–$600
- Very good: $75–$200
- Signed first edition: $500–$1,500
Projected values (2026–2036): Strong appreciation. As the novel that defined Michener’s method and remains his most popular work, first editions will continue to appreciate.
The Michener Method
Hawaii established the template that Michener would follow for the next three decades: begin with the geological formation of the land, then trace human habitation from earliest settlement through the present day, using fictional families to represent different cultural groups. The method produces enormous books (over 1,000 pages is typical) that function simultaneously as novels and as popular histories.
Frequently Asked Questions
How accurate is Michener’s Hawaii? The historical framework — Polynesian settlement, missionary arrival, Chinese and Japanese immigration, the plantation economy, the overthrow of the monarchy — is well-researched. The fictional characters are composites based on real types. Michener spent years researching each book, typically living in the region for extended periods.