| This is a biography of Marjorie Putnam Sinclair Edel, former first lady of the University of Hawai'i, professor, translator, and writer. Chapters 1-3 show the impact of her New England ancestry upon her self-image, describe the prairie experiences that shaped her attitude toward nature and Native Americans, and explain her moves from South Dakota to Washington to California.;Chapters 4 and 5 carry Marjorie to Mills College in 1931. At Mills she majored in English, made friends, and continued to think about nature and mystical ideas. There she also learned about Asian and Polynesian cultures, and was chosen in 1935 as the University of Hawai'i's first graduate exchange student. She found Hawai'i a quiet and gentle place.;Chapters 6-11 describe her life in Hawai'i after she married Gregg Sinclair, the president of the University of Hawai'i from 1942 until 1955. During World War II Marjorie worked for the federal government's Office of Strategic Services and wrote several short stories and two novels. She and Gregg Sinclair traveled through much of the world, meeting important people. Later, while studying Asian art, Marjorie met and translated Chinese poetry with Lily Pao-Hu Chong. Interested in Hawaiian culture, Marjorie learned traditional hula from 'Iolani Luahine, and came under the influence of Luahine's spiritual beliefs. Gregg Sinclair retired in 1955, and Marjorie became an English instructor at the University of Hawai'i, where she ran head-on into conflicts between her domestic life and career.;Chapters 12-14 describe her biography of a Hawaiian chiefess, and tell of Gregg Sinclair's decline and death, Majorie's career ascent, widowhood, remarriage, and retirement. The Epilogue tells of her life in the 1990s beside the eminent biographer, Leon Edel, and about her writings, which are influenced by her aging and calm acceptance of old and new conflicts.;Marjorie Putnam Sinclair Edel is significant because she has played important public roles for more than a half-century in Honolulu, and has written extensively about what she observed of Hawaiians and Hawai'i's other ethnic groups. Her works depict an older, gentler Hawai'i, which she believes can regenerate despite mankind's vanity and depredations. |
