Kaiulani : crown princess of Hawaii

Authors:Nancy Webb (Author), Jean Francis Webb (Author)

Summary:"Kaiulani's story is Hawai'i's own story spanning the years when the islands struggled against foreign domination, saw the collapse of the monarchy, and became a territory. It is a dramatic story, full of interest, beauty, and pathos, both fascinating as the biography of a singularly gifted and wise young woman, and valuable as a chapter in the history of the fiftieth state. Kaiulani was a fairy-tale princess, who as a child lived in an enchanted Waikiki garden of huge banyan trees where peacocks roamed. She was a dazzled beholder at the first formal coronation of a Hawaiian king; a princess who later suffered years of exile and humiliation, who became the shining heroine of a humbled nation, and who died-still young and beautiful. She was the only crown princess ever to become an American citizen. Her decision in early youth to reject the proposal of marriage of convenience with a Japanese prince affected the circumstances of the attack on Pearl Harbor over forty years after her death. Robert Louis Stevenson was her good friend, and not even her grimmest political enemies could hate her" -- Book jacket