Biography Monographs

The Biography Monographs scholarly book series features both reference works with broad appeal to generalists, and volumes by specialists in biographical studies. Edited and produced by the Center for Biographical Research, the monographs are published and distributed by the University of Hawai‘i Press.

via UH Press

The following monographs are available through UH Press. Please click through each link for more information.

The Value of Hawai‘i 2: Ancestral Roots, Oceanic Visions (2014), edited by Aiko Yamashiro and Noelani Goodyear-Ka‘ōpua. More information can also be found at The Value of Hawai‘i website and you can view the Table of Contents here.

Praise for The Value of Hawaii 2:

The contributors to The Value of Hawai‘i 2 show us our capacity to restore abundance, opening up a welcoming space for ‘Ōiwi, settlers, and those who identify otherwise to share their stories and ideas, their commitments to abundance through building social relationships…One of the striking contributions of The Value of Hawai‘i 2 is that of understanding the ways that as islanders, people in Hawai‘i must reach out to all of Oceania. — Candace Fujikane, American Quarterly

Locating Life Stories: Beyond East-West Binaries in (Auto)Biographical Studies, edited by Maureen Perkins (September 2012)

The Value of Hawai‘i: Knowing the Past, Shaping the Future (2010), edited by Jon Osorio and Craig Howes. More information can also be found at The Value of Hawai‘i website.

On Diary (2009), by Philippe Lejeune, edited by Jeremy D. Popkin and Julie Rak.

Talking Hawai‘i’s Story: Oral Histories of an Island People (2009), edited by Michiko Kodama-Nishimoto, Warren S. Nishimoto, and Cynthia J. Oshiro.

via Center for Biographical Research

The following monographs are available via Center for Biographical Research. Click on the title of the work to visit its page on ScholarSpace. Please contact us for more information.

The Visitable Past: A Wartime Memoir (2000), by Leon Edel.

This work is an account of the late Pulitzer-Prize winning biographer’s experience as a member of a psychological warfare unit during the liberation of France. It is not only an account of France recovering from its years of occupation, but also a memoir of Edel’s days as a young man of letters.

Praise for The Visitable Past: A Wartime Memoir:

This beautifully written work by renowned Henry James scholar Edel (1907-1997), prepared for publication by his widow, Marjorie, is everything a fine memoir should be: graceful, vivid, moving and relevant…True to life, this memoir offers no simple closure. Edel may be going home, but the war is far from over and his troubled first marriage awaits him in New York. Louis Auchincloss provides a foreword praising Edel’s “symphony of motifs, some blaring and triumphant, some soft and sad, some with terrible discords.” — Publisher’s Weekly

Seasoned with glimpses of Hemingway, Joyce, de Gaulle, and composer Arthur Honegger, this perceptive memoir should appeal to lovers of literature and history buffs alike. — Booklist

From Kona to Yenan: The Political Memoirs of Koji Ariyoshi (2000), edited by Alice M. and Edward D. Beechert.

Born on a Kona coffee plantation in 1914, Koji Ariyoshi saw the importance of unions and strikes after witnessing labor clashes as a boy. In the 1930s he worked as a stevedore and wrote a series of articles about life on the docks for the Honolulu Star-Bulletin. After World War II broke out, Ariyoshi used his language skills in the U.S. Army and was assigned to China, where he met several of China’s future leaders, including Mao Zedong.

After returning to Hawai‘i, Ariyoshi became the editor of the Honolulu Record, the voice of labor during the turbulent postwar conflicts between unions and Hawaii’s ruling elites. Following his 1951 arrest on charges of being a Communist, Ariyoshi spent the next years writing “My Thoughts for which I Stand Indicted” for the Record. The present volume draws from this series of weekly articles to create an energetic and thoughtful work chronicling a life lived at the center of events that transformed Hawai‘i, America, China and the world.

Life-Writing: A Glossary of Terms in Biography, Autobiography, and Related Forms (1995), by Donald J. Winslow. Second edition.

Like its predecessor, this second edition of he Glossary fills a need for a succinct, lucidly written reference list of British and American terms used in connection with biography, autobiography, and other branches of life-writing. Donald Winslow has altered or added to the two hundred or so earlier definitions while including more than a hundred new terms. Since the publication of the first edition in 1980, the field of life-writing has grown at a rapid rate. Accordingly Winslow has expanded the bibliography to include many carefully chosen works on life-writing.

John Reinecke: The Autobiography of a Gentle Activist (1993), edited by Alice M. and Edward D. Beechert.

John Reinecke’s story deals with matters that were central to some of the greatest social and political struggles in Hawaii in the 1940s and 1950s. This autobiography reveals the thoughts of a gentle and principled man destined to play a major role in furthering First Amendment rights. The introduction by the Beecherts sets the articles within the broader national political climate of the McCarthy Era. It also tells us about Reinecke’s contributions as a linguist and expert on pidgin and creole languages.

Called from Within: Early Women Lawyers of Hawaii (1992), edited by Mari Matsuda.

The seventeen women of the Hawai‘i bar whose biographies comprise this book lived through, and were involved in, the dramatic changes that brought Hawai‘i from monarchy to independent Republic to Territory and, finally, to statehood. From a diversity of ethnic backgrounds and allegiances, each of them is characterized by a daring, a sense of adventure, an original personality, and a creative response to the restrictions society placed on women’s professional opportunities.

Hawai‘i’s early women lawyers included politicians, judges, and community activists who helped shape the legal system. These women lived through some of the most significant events in Hawai‘i’s history – many were involved in the turmoil of union organizing on the plantations, the imposition of martial law during World War II, and the development of the postwar government and state constitution. Their activities helped change the law, both locally and nationally.

These biographies advance our understanding of the changing position of professional women. Managing their careers in the face of gender bias and limitations on their personal and professional lives, these women found creative ways to resist male-centered assumptions. Their stories add insight to some of the major themes in the emerging field of feminist historiography.

The substantial introduction by the editor places the lives of these early women lawyers in the context of Hawai‘i history, women’s history, legal history, and professional history. Called from Within will interest a broad audience: lawyers and law students, historians and students of history, and readers of biography.

The Autobiographical Writings of Lewis Mumford: A Study in Literary Audacity (1988), by Frank Novak, Jr.

Essaying Biography: A Celebration for Leon Edel (1986), edited with a Foreword by Gloria Fromm. Essays by Sir Rupert Hart-Davis, Leon Edel, Adeline Tintner, Muriel Shine, Harvena Richter, Gay Wilson Allen, Viola Hopkins Winner, John Tytell, Jean Strouse, Gavan Daws, and William Laskowski, Jr.

New Directions in Biography (1981), edited with a Foreword by Anthony Friedson. Essays by Phyllis Auty, Michael Holroyd, Noel Manganyi, Gabriel Merle, Margot Peters, and Shoichi Saeki.