author

James W. (James Walter) Girvin

1844–1906

Best remembered for writing about Hawaii’s sugar industry and public life, this late-19th-century author left behind a small but distinctive record of island history. His work blends practical experience with a storyteller’s eye for place.

1 Audiobook

Six prize Hawaiian stories of the Kilohana Art League

Six prize Hawaiian stories of the Kilohana Art League

by Emma Louise Smith Dillingham, William N. (William Nevins) Armstrong, George Harrison De La Vergne, James W. (James Walter) Girvin

About the author

James W. Girvin, also listed as James Walter Girvin, lived from 1844 to 1906. Surviving catalog records connect him with Hawaii and with a small body of published work, including The Cummins Case: a Reminiscence of 1895 and The Master Planter; or, Life in the Cane Fields of Hawaii.

A brief biographical note preserved through references to his family says he was a writer, a librarian, and the owner of mercantile stores in Hawaii. Those details fit the range of his known writing, which moves between local political history and a book centered on plantation life in the islands.

Because reliable biographical information online is quite limited, much of his personal story remains unclear. What does stand out is his connection to Hawaii at a formative moment in its history and his effort to capture that world in print.