W. D. (William Drake) Westervelt

Born in Oberlin, Ohio, in 1849, William Drake Westervelt became an American writer and clergyman whose work is closely tied to Hawaii. He studied at Oberlin College and Oberlin Theological Seminary, served churches on the mainland, and later settled in Hawaii, where his interest in local history and tradition shaped the books he became known for.

Westervelt wrote several collections on Hawaiian history and legend, including Legends of Maui, Legends of Old Honolulu, Legends of Gods and Ghost-Gods, and Hawaiian Legends of Volcanoes. Accounts of his work note that he drew on earlier Hawaiian historians and collectors such as David Malo, Samuel Kamakau, and Abraham Fornander, helping introduce many readers to stories that might otherwise have been less widely known in English.

He died in 1939. Today, he is remembered less as a novelist than as a popularizer of Hawaiian folklore whose books opened a doorway for many readers into the islands’ mythic and historical traditions.