Bibliography of non-indigenous literary writings on the Pacific

And the nuts grew from another branch <strong>of</strong> buds, a twisted mass <strong>of</strong> crone
fingers which in turn was protected by a brown sheath. They too grew limp and black, lying in
the moist shade, the sheath like some great diseased prepuce. (27)
In the hot salt air <strong>of</strong> the tropics there is rot. A decay, a wearing away that is evident
in everything from the verdigris on copper pipes to the palms that lean over the disintegrating
lagoon, soon to topple, becoming giant bleached noes in the shallows. The very moisture in
the air makes paper limp as fat tissue, foxed as afflicted skin. Envelopes seal by themselves>
Rust swells and disfigures all unprotected metal, like eruptions <strong>of</strong> acne, red and bubbled.
White flies, ants and termites devour channels in books, leaving a fine white dust, or burrow
into wood, casting <strong>of</strong>f tiny pellets <strong>of</strong> digested fiber. Cockroaches, prehistoric on their foul legs,
gnaw food, soap, the glue <strong>of</strong> paperback spines, the surface sheen <strong>of</strong> leather, stethoscope
tubes. Rolls <strong>of</strong> tape become puckered and warped, distorted as fun-house mirrors, and slide
<strong>of</strong>f their cardboard rings. Salt fuses into bricks. (p.87)
@Thomas, Dylan, "The Beach at Falesa", NY UH Pac radio script?
@Thomas, Leslie, The Love Beach, London: Constable, ^1968, %UK #PAC *fic
serend 246/791
@Thompson, Sir Basil Herne., South Sea Yarns, Edinburgh(London?): Blackwood,^1894 ,
%UK #PAC *stories search
also a novel, probably not Pacific, The Indiscretions <strong>of</strong> Lady Asenath, London: A.D.
Innes, 1898.
@Thürk, Harry, Amok. Roman (East) Berlin: Das Neue Berlin, 1974 %GM #Malekula, New
Hebrides *novel
@Thwaites, Frederick J. Whispers in Tahiti, Sydney: F.J. Thwaites, ^1940 %AUS #Tahiti
*Fic
The fourteenth work by a prolific popular romancer.
John Merrick, novelist and scholar disappears from a happy marriage and London fame. His
shift to social crusading about slum conditions adversely affects his <strong>literary</strong> career and he has
a supposedly incurable disease. Years later, when the courts declare John dead, his actress
wife marries a clothing magnate and they publish John’s final manuscript as a tribute, giving
the unexpected pr<strong>of</strong>its to the poor.
Meanwhile Merrick as Weston arrives in Tahiti, is nursed to health by a young and devoted
Tahitian. Weston learns all he can about the Tahitians (from books) and teaches them
English and Christianity, earning their undying affection. The beautiful (and pale-skinned)
Raitere, daughter <strong>of</strong> a royal line, returns from studies in Paris. She becomes Weston’s
assistant and, after he learns <strong>of</strong> his wife’s remarriage, they fall in love, though she
conveniently dies <strong>of</strong> congenital heart disease.
Weston/Merrick writes A Tahitian Tragedy and is discovered by a <strong>literary</strong> agent. His wife
hears <strong>of</strong> the news and travels to Tahiti to reclaim him.
Jingoistic in an anti-fascist manner. Tahiti is “a sad and tragic place” that only “practical
Christianity” can brighten. The people are “loveable, childlike” and doomed to disappear. The
garden islands is beset by miscegenation and impending world war. Lots <strong>of</strong> fanciful names,
tiresome internal flashbacks and everyone seems to eat sandwiches!
@Tissot, Jan, Keiki, Seattle WA?: Parhelion Press, ^2002/3, %US #Hawaii *Fic Law mystery
search
Law Pr<strong>of</strong> from Seattle. Also has an Indian novel in same genre.
@Toland, John, Gods <strong>of</strong> War, Garden City: Doubleday, ^1985, %? #PAC *Fic War search
@Torrey, William, Torrey's Narrative, Boston, ^1848, %US #Pol Marquesas *Fic
cited in Pearson, p.,43