FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

I MYSELF HAVE SEEN IT: THE MYTH OF HAWAI'I
Novelist Susanna Moore Explores Hawai'i's Rich History and Culture

WASHINGTON (Feb. 12, 2003)—The islands of Hawai'i have often served as the backdrop for Susanna Moore's lush and haunting novels. Now, in an engaging and evocative memoir from National Geographic Books, Moore proves that the myth and mystery of these islands are every bit as compelling as her fiction suggests.

I MYSELF HAVE SEEN IT: The Myth of Hawai'i (National Geographic Books, ISBN 0-7922-6528-9, April 30, 2003, $20) combines memoir, myth and history as Moore takes her readers on a fascinating journey through Hawai'i's past and the dramatic and exotic landscape where Moore grew up in the 1950s and '60s.

Her narrative, which highlights how Polynesian and Western traditions have intertwined over the past two centuries, begins with Capt. James Cook, whose arrival on the islands in 1778 seemed to fulfill a time-honored Hawaiian legend about the return of the rain god Lono. However, this first auspicious encounter between the two cultures quickly fell victim to the first of many misunderstandings that would shape Hawaiian history.

Just 30 years after Cook was stabbed to death on Kealakekua beach, the first American missionaries arrived, bringing Christianity, colonialism and capitalism to forever change island life. The missionaries wasted no time in suppressing the Hawaiian chants and hula, most of which had been passed from generation to generation, and which contained everything Hawaiians needed to know about the world: how to worship the gods, call warriors to battle, mourn a king, celebrate a birth. It was a move that proved catastrophic to the Hawaiian people.

"The chanting of the myths constituted the core of an oral tradition, representing far more than an interest in music or history," writes Moore. The myths served to keep alive the spirit world. "The abolition of the old rituals would render the culture weak and porous, ultimately leading to a collective loss of memory, if not annihilation."

Still, even as the old chants, rituals and rhythms died out, vanished underground or transformed into quaint customs to charm tourists, their influence continued to be felt deeply on the islands. As Moore summons the memories of her idyllic Hawaiian childhood, she captures the distinct flavor of an island life still profoundly affected and influenced by traditional beliefs and practices.

Filled with delightful personal detail, telling anecdotes and many of Moore's family photographs, the book is both a sweeping, romantic tale of native kings and ritual and a vivid portrait of an extraordinary world where, even today, the bustle of modern life yields to the powerful murmur of the past, a place where ocean spirits and fire gods still cast powerful spells.

I MYSELF HAVE SEEN IT is part of National Geographic's Directions series, featuring travel memoirs by some of the world's most highly regarded literary figures.

Moore is the author of "In the Cut" (soon to be a major motion picture starring Meg Ryan), "Sleeping Beauties" and "The Whiteness of Bones." Her first novel, "My Old Sweetheart," won the PEN/Ernest Hemingway Citation and the Sue Kaufman Prize from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. Moore lives in New York City.

CONTACT: Alison Reeves
+1 202 857 7793
areeves@ngs.org