author
Charlotte Hapai
A little-known compiler of Hawaiian folklore, this author is remembered for turning oral stories from the Wailuku region into a slim, vivid English-language collection published in Honolulu in 1920–1921.
1 Audiobook
Legends of the Wailuku
by Charlotte Hapai
About the author
Charlotte Hapai is known for Legends of the Wailuku, as told by old Hawaiians, a short collection of Hawaiian legends published in Honolulu by The Charles R. Frazier Company in 1920–1921. The book gathers traditional stories connected with Hawaiʻi and the Wailuku River area and presents them in accessible English for early 20th-century readers.
The surviving record around her life is very limited, so most biographical sketches focus on the book itself. In its dedication, she memorializes shared storytelling with her grandmother, Harriet Kamakanoenoe Hapai, which suggests a personal connection to the oral traditions behind the collection.
Because so little about her has been widely documented, Charlotte Hapai stands out less as a public literary figure than as a preserver and translator of local legend. Her work endures through library collections and public-domain editions, where readers can still encounter these retellings of Hawaiian myth and place-based storytelling.