Pacific Passages

A thousand years after Hawaiians first paddled long wooden boards into the ocean, modern surfers have continued this practice, which has recently been transformed into a global industry. Pacific Passages brings together four centuries of writing about surfing, the most comprehensive collection of Polynesian and Western perspectives on the history and culture of a sport currently enjoyed by millions of people around the world. The stories begin with Hawaiian legends and chants and are followed by the journals of explorers; the travel narratives of missionaries and luminaries such as Herman Melville, Mark Twain, and Jack London; and the contemporary observations of Tom Wolfe, William Finnegan, Susan Orlean, and Bob Shacochis. Readers follow the historical transformation of surfing’s image through the centuries: from Polynesian myths of love to Western accounts of horror and exoticism in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, to modern representations of surfing as a character-building activity in pre-World-War II California and the quintessential expression of disaffected youth. They explore the sport’s most recent trends by writers and cultural critics, whose insights into technology, competition, gender, heritage, and globalism reveal how surfing impacts some of today’s most pressing social concerns. Aided by informative introductions, the writings in Pacific Passages provide insight into the values and ideals of Polynesian and Western cultures, revealing how each has altered and been altered by surfing—and how the sport itself has shown an amazing ability throughout the centuries to survive, adapt, and prosper.

"Travel writer Hans-Christof Wachter sails to Vanuatu, Ovalau, Fiji, Rarotonga and the Cook islands looking to find the rhythms of the lives of the islands and their inhabitants and discovers that the South Sea islands were never the paradise the first European travellers imagined them to be."--BOOK JACKET.

A thousand years after Hawaiians first paddled long wooden boards into the ocean, modern surfers have continued this practice, which has recently been transformed into a global industry. Pacific Passages brings together four centuries of writing about surfing, the most comprehensive collection of Polynesian and Western perspectives on the history and culture of a sport currently enjoyed by millions of people around the world. The stories begin with Hawaiian legends and chants and are followed by the journals of explorers; the travel narratives of missionaries and luminaries such as Herman Melville, Mark Twain, and Jack London; and the contemporary observations of Tom Wolfe, William Finnegan, Susan Orlean, and Bob Shacochis. Readers follow the historical transformation of surfing’s image through the centuries: from Polynesian myths of love to Western accounts of horror and exoticism in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, to modern representations of surfing as a character-building activity in pre-World-War II California and the quintessential expression of disaffected youth. They explore the sport’s most recent trends by writers and cultural critics, whose insights into technology, competition, gender, heritage, and globalism reveal how surfing impacts some of today’s most pressing social concerns. Aided by informative introductions, the writings in Pacific Passages provide insight into the values and ideals of Polynesian and Western cultures, revealing how each has altered and been altered by surfing—and how the sport itself has shown an amazing ability throughout the centuries to survive, adapt, and prosper.

When Thomas J. Watson, Jr. retired as chief executive officer of IBM in 1971, he began to pursue sailing, flying and exploring adventures he had dreamed about during his successful decades in business. One of the sailing and exploring adventures was a Panamato-Fiji passage through the South Pacific, and in this book he writes a charming, candid, erudite account of that sojourn in a part of the world we all dream about. A book for sailors and travelers, Pacific Passage takes us to Cocos Island, the Galapagos, Easter Island, Pitcairn, the Gambiers and Mangareva, the Tuamotus, Tahiti and Moorea, the Cook Islands, Samoa, Tonga and Fiji. And 72 color illustrations bring the lush, exotic South Seas to this book's oversize pages with great impact.

Spanning 200 years, Northwest Passages brings together thoughts on the region and its people from such notable writers and personalities as George Vancouver, Chief Seattle, Rudyard Kipling, Raymond Carver, Mary McCarthy, Jack Kerouac, and Sallie Tisdale. Northwesterners, surmises editor Bruce Barcott, are loners and individualists. The lives and writings of these people are inextricably tied to the land and its natural forces. Through historical and contemporary fiction, essays, poetry, and journals, Northwest Passages reveals the underlying spirit that shapes the Northwest identity, and the beauty of both its inner and outer landscapes.

Racing Through Paradise is the third entry in Bill Buckley’s now classic sailing trilogy. Here the irresponsible, eloquent, enjoyable Buckley guides us through his beloved Azores, and through the Galapagos (“the Bronx Zoo at the Equator”), about which he inclines more to Melville’s view than to Darwin’s, and through places such as Johnston Atoll, where mysteries and hostilities await. On a hilarious side adventure, we have a memorable encounter with “The Angel of Craig’s Point.” Along the way, Buckley navigates among pleasant diversions as well as unforeseen navigational and philosophical shoals. He adroitly excerpts the candid journals of his shipmates, notably that of his son, Christopher, himself a best-selling novelist. The fine photographs by Christopher Little illustrate throughout. When Buckley’s Sealestial sails, finally, into New Guinea, we have shared a unique experience with a special breed of sailor, skipper, host, friend, and human being.

Comparing and contrasting the diverse experiences of Asian and Pacific Islander subjectivities across a shared sea

Her stunning bestsellers Passages and New Passages brilliantly mapped the changes we live through from youth to maturity. Now Gail Sheehy guides contemporary men through the turbulent challenges and surprising pleasures that begin at forty. As a man crosses that threshold, he is bound to ask midlife's most troubling question: Now what? Work anxieties, concerns over sexual potency, marital and family stress, issues of power, all take on new urgency as men contemplate the decades ahead. But as Gail Sheehy reveals in this major new book, midlife is precisely the period when men are most likely to reinvent themselves and become masters of their fate. In Understanding Men's Passages, Sheehy offers all men--and the women in their lives--an essential guide to self-discovery. Hundreds of bold, imaginative men--celebrities as well as everyday heroes--share here their most intimate desires, deepest fears, and most fervent cravings for renewal. Decade by decade, Sheehy uncovers the real issues facing men today: finding new passion and purpose to invigorate the second half of their lives, dealing with "manopause," surviving job change, enjoying post-nesting zest, defeating depression, and learning what keeps a man young. Informative and inspiring, grounded in fact and full of fascinating life stories, Understanding Men's Passages is a landmark that will take its place beside Gail Sheehy's epoch-making Passages and New Passages.