KA HELE MALIHINI ANA MAI KEIA AO AKU A HIKI I KELA AO; HE OLELONANE I HOOHALIKEIA ME HE MOEUHANE LA

Honolulu: Mea paipalapala a na Misionari, 1842.. 418pp. plus eight woodcut plates (including frontispiece). 12mo. Contemporary Hawaiian sheep, boards and backstrip tooled with triangular and diamond-shaped pattern; rebacked with original spine neatly laid down. Very clean and fresh internally. Presentation inscription from Elias Bond to E.S. Hopkins on front free endpaper. Very good. A significant association copy of the rare first edition in Hawaiian of Bunyan's PILGRIM'S PROGRESS, and the first printing in Hawaiian of an English literary classic. This copy bears a presentation inscription on the front free endpaper to the Rev. E.S. Hopkins from the Rev. Elias Bond, dated at Kohala, Sandwich Islands, June 12, 1844. Reverend Bond translated at least seven books for the Mission Press between 1859 and 1868.

The Hawaiian title translates as THE TRAVELER FROM THIS WORLD TO THAT WHICH IS TO COME. In 1840 the American Tract Society in Honolulu hoped to publish an abridged edition of Bunyan if a translator could be found, and in 1841 Artemas Bishop took on the task, promising the Society that "it will prove one of the most popular works in the Hawaiian Language." Unfortunately for Artemas and the Society, the book flopped and the 10,000 copies that were printed were remaindered in unbound sheets, most of which were disposed of to Chinese vegetable peddlers for wrapping produce. For copies that survived this, the rate of attrition, as with all early Hawaiian works of this type, remained very high, and the book is quite scarce today. The work failed to impact the Hawaiians, as the English allusions lost all meaning when translated. The names of the extensive cast of characters became incomprehensible: Mr. Lechery became Kekowale (literally, lust + only), and Mrs. Filth became Pelapela (decayed flesh).

Some of the surviving unbound sheets of this book were bound into limp suede in 1910. This copy, on the other hand, is in a contemporary Hawaiian sheep binding of the mid-19th century (complete with its distinctive triangular and diamond-shaped tooling), which is most unusual and notably rare. See David Forbes' BUNIANA (San Francisco, 1984) for an extensive discussion of the book. An important association copy in a handsome contemporary binding. FORBES 1351. JUDD 237. DAB IX, p.381.