Life and Times of Mrs. Lucy G. Thurston..Pioneer Missionary to the Sandwich Islands by Thurston, Lucy

Ann Arbor; (1934): S.C. Andrews. Octavo. 307p. index. 3rd and best edition. Includes new images and engravings. Facsimile documents, illustrations. Cover notes: Pioneer Missionary in Kona, Hawaii. One of the problems was that while the children of the missionaries learned the native languages and often became wonderful translators they also saw bodily functions and sex practiced openly. When the Thurstons learned from a Presbyterian missionary that one time he found three local Samoans being entertained in bed with his three daughters, he returned home to the U.S and tried to undo the damage. The Thurstons build a special mission compound to sequester their children from the people. It is interesting to read of the deep personal piety but also how they could not see the subtle attempt to Americanize their converts. One of the more interesting missionary biographies from the era. A very nice copy bound in rust pictorial cloth lettered and decorated in dark brown, off-setting and toning to endpapers, internally fresh.