"Damien: The Making of a Saint" (Mutual, $22.95)
There is no author or editor credited for this handsome, illustrated biography of Father Damien, the Belgian priest who contracted leprosy while serving in the islands, who suffered nobly and died here, and who recently became a saint, thanks to enough documented "miracles" to satisfy Catholic Church elders.
The book is essentially assembled rather than written, a kind of scrapbook approach that uses quotations, photographs, illustrations and clippings to show the arc of Damien’s life and subsequent saintliness. It works well as a keepsake but not as an in-depth study of the man. The volume seems to be aimed at those interested in venerating Damien, not in lots of scholarship. Even so, there’s a lot of interesting material here, unearthed from Hawaii and Belgian archives.
The book is well designed by Jane Gillespie and has a fading, sepia tone that suits the Victorian-era subject.
In an age when religious zealotry is looked upon with distrust, Damien’s life reminds us that much good also comes from belief in higher powers and love of fellow man.
"The Queen’s Medical Center," by Jason Y. Kimura (The Queen’s Medical Center, $39.95)
This would be the sort of slick, glossy, self-congratulatory coffee-table tome that corporations commission to pat themselves on the back, except that Queen’s actually has a fascinating history stretching back a century and a half, and author Kimura, the hospital’s publication specialist, is a canny, organized writer with a keen eye for the right anecdotes and assembling archival pictures.
This book is just soup to nuts for anyone interested in Honolulu’s medical history.
The photographs, ranging from overwhelmed nurses to doctors proudly showing off the latest in medical technology, is terrific and well chosen.
The book is organized along thematic, rather than historical, lines. The hospital clearly has a good sense of its lineage, apparent in the rich archives of historical matter that provided material — including scary pictures of old-fashioned syringe "kits" right out of a mad-scientist lair.
As a self-published work — albeit a polished, highly professional one — the book can be difficult to find outside of the usual Internet sources.
"Richard Smart of the Legendary Parker Ranch," by William C. Bergin, D.V.M., and Dexter Keawe‘ehu Vredenburg (Island Heritage, $39.95)
The ironic thing about Smart, the cattle-ranching scion with stars in his eyes, is that he found true happiness playing heroes in theater when his own life could have become a Broadway musical. Here is a great cast of characters, ranging from flighty Carol Channing and Hollywood moguls to tough Big Island paniolo to the book’s authors — the ranch veterinarian and the family genealogist.
The portrait they create of Smart is affectionate but unvarnished. The Hawaii rancher bounced back and forth between two worlds, and it took a toll on his marriage to beautiful actress and socialite Patricia Monteagle. Well, that and Smart’s homosexuality.
"The fact that he was open about his sexual preference made him a man who could be trusted, so in popular opinion, what was there to talk about?" muse the authors. In that regard, Smart’s worlds were cosmopolitan Hawaii and musical theater, two havens for gays. He was lucky that way.
When Smart inherited control of Parker Ranch in the late ’40s, he had to acquire a whole new skill set, that of corporate czar and well-loved boss. He managed to make Parker Ranch survive and thrive in an age when family ranches were being broken up. Parker Ranch is still around today, a large, charitable trust that still contributes to the Waimea community. Not a bad legacy.
This book might just inspire a musical comedy. Smart would have loved that.
