Born in Paradise

I was recently visiting Maui and was invited by my brother-in-law, no, he insisted, that I come see the house he had rented. It was the Von Tempski home and he pointed out a book on the shelf that had been written by the daughter. I picked it up and started reading. I was captivated. I had been to Maui many times and my daughter had been married there, but I didn’t know Maui till I read Born in Paradise. A rich story of life on the flanks of Haleakela, written by one who experienced it deeply, you will be treated to one of the richest times in Maui’s history. You will never look at Maui the same. Take the journey. You will not regret it.

I really enjoyed this book. It's not great literature by any means but if you are one of those who have been Shanghaied by Hawaii (as Jack London put it) then you probably will enjoy it too. A large share of the appeal is dreaming about living in Maui before the strip malls, the bumper-to-bumper traffic, the golf courses, gated communities and crowded beaches turned complete paradise into paradise with strip malls, traffic and golf courses. The book covers her life from the age of about four until the age of twenty-nine.Armine von Tempski was fortunate to have been born into a family of means. Her father was manager of the 34,000 acre Haleakala Ranch and her mother was the daughter of the British minister to Hawaii (James Wodehouse). They seemed to know everyone who was anyone. A source of pride for Armine was that one of her father's best friends was Lorrin Thurston, an important figure in Hawaiian history indeed but the chief architect of the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy so, as much as Armine admired him, he is considered a villain by many today. She does not mention that Thurston was 1/3 owner of the ranch. Armine does not involve herself in politics in this book and she obviously loved the Hawaiian people, especially the paniolos who worked on her father's ranch, and she respected their beliefs and customs. But she was also a product of her times.It's a bit late to do anything about it but it is unusual for an autobiography to rarely give the author's age or the dates when events occurred. Born in Paradise was published in 1940 so the events she described were her memory of them some thirty to forty years later. Perhaps this is why some of the time lines seem confused. For example, Von Tempski recounts a trip to Haleakala with her father when she discovers what turned out to be Hawaiian burial sites inside some of the cones and she describes this as though she were perhaps a teenager at the time. In fact, a paper by the anthropologist, Kenneth Emory, gives the date that he received information from Armine as being 1920, when her father was no longer manager of the ranch (and couldn't ride) and she would have been 28 years old (could Emory's date be wrong?). She also says that her father took her mother to the ranch when they were married but they were married in 1891 and he did not manage Haleakala Ranch until 1898 or 1899 by most accounts. Likewise, she tells of many incidents on the ranch when she was four or five but it would not have been on the Haleakala ranch but perhaps the ranch her father bought in Makawao with his brother (Erehwon cattle station). It's very confusing because she goes into such detail of the ranch and its workers from that period, however, can find no references that indicate that her father was manager of the ranch before 1898. Maybe she never thought that a hundred years later anyone would care if the stories were chronologically correct.For anyone interested in examining primary and secondary sources for dates as I did, go to the Library of Congress web site called Chronicling America where you can do keyword searches of Hawaiian newpapers from 1860-1922. There are hundreds of entries for Louis von Tempski and events mentioned in the book. For example, you can see that the Wirth's Circus was in Maui in January of 1896 when Armine would have been 4 years old. Other on-line sources are Men of Hawaii, edited by Sidall (short bio on Louis), Makawao cemetery records, Our Hawaii, a book by Chairmain London (who became good friends with Armine) about her and her husband's (Jack London) 1907 visit to Hawaii with a long section on their visit with the von Tempskis (available for free from Amazon), a scathing 1916 letter from Jack London to Armine saying that of the thousands of amateur manuscripts he had read hers was the sloppiest one he had ever seen and (even though he still loved her) she should be embarrassed for sending him such rubbish.Needless to say, I would not have spent as much time as I did scouring the internet for additional information if I did not become interested in this family. Through Armine's stories, I felt as though I knew them.

This is the history of a time gone by and of a family that truly lived life to the hilt a window into the glory of a time gone by

Have loved this book for years, got this copy for a teenager growing up in today's Hawaii. Great book for her to gently learn how things were in Hawaii not too long ago.

I meant to give it 5stars not 4. A captivating true storyAbout the love of a young girl for her father and growing up in Maui. Her words create the feeling like one was right there with her growing up in paradise

Beautifully written!!

Having grown up in Hawaii in the 50's and 60's, this book of an earlier century is an absolute delight and sends the mind to the land in times before cars, electricity, efficient machines. Still, I recognize places, character of peoples; it is wonderful.

Book was great. Content was a beautiful reflection of being raised on the island of Maui.

Amazing look at the history of Maui and the upcountry families of the early years. If you are interested in Maui it is a 'must read'.