James W. (James Walter) Girvin

James W. Girvin, sometimes listed as James Walter Girvin, was an American author born in 1844 and died in 1906. The works most clearly linked to him in library and book records include The Master Planter; or, Life in the Cane Fields of Hawaii, published in Honolulu in 1910, and The Cummins Case: A Reminiscence of 1895, published in 1905.

Those titles suggest the shape of his writing life: he was closely associated with Hawaii, especially its sugar industry and the political tensions of the 1890s. The Master Planter points to firsthand or near-contemporary knowledge of plantation life, while The Cummins Case reflects an interest in turning recent events into accessible narrative.

Reliable biographical detail beyond those basics is limited in the sources I could confirm here, so it is safest to remember him as a writer connected with Hawaiian plantation history and public affairs at the turn of the 20th century.