Last Paradise Novel by Houston James (2 results)

Hardcover. Condition: USED_FINE. Dust Jacket Condition: Fine. 1st Edition. A part of the University's Literature of the American West series.

Paperback. Condition: Near Fine. First Edition Thus; Second Printing. Very Near Fine: shows a hint of curl at the upper front corner tip; else flawless; the binding is square and secure; the text is clean. Free of creases to the panels. Free of creases to the backstrip. Free of any creased or dog-eared pages in the text. Free of any underlining, hi-lighting or marginalia or marks in the text. Free of any ownership names, dates, addresses, notations, inscriptions, stamps, plates, or labels. A handsome, very nearly-new copy, structurally sound and tightly bound, showing a minor, unobtrusive imperfection. Bright and clean. Corners sharp. Virtually "As New". NOT a Remainder, Book-Club, or Ex-Library. 8vo. (8.8 x 5.85 x 1.1 inches) . Language: English. Weight: 15.9 Ounces. First Edition Thus (1998) ; Second Printing. Paperback. James D. Houston (1933 2009) was an American novelist, poet and editor. He wrote nine novels and a number of non-fiction works. Houston co-authored his wife's autobiographical memoir, Farewell to Manzanar, about her family's experiences in the Manzanar internment camp during World War II. The book became a bestseller after it was published in 1973. Houston was born in San Francisco, where his parents had migrated from Quanah, Texas, a small town named for the noted last Comanche war chief, Quanah Parker. The story behind the town's name kindled Houston's interest in treks and history. He graduated from Lowell High School and did college studies at San José State University and Stanford University. At San José State, Houston met Jeanne Wakatsuki, his future wife. Her family had immigrated to California from Japan. Houston was the winner of two American Book Awards, a Joseph Henry Jackson Award for Fiction and the Humanitas Prize. His historical novel Snow Mountain Passage (2001) was inspired by a personal link to the ill-fated Donner Party of early Californian history. A second historical novel, Bird of Another Heaven (2007) , explores California's beginnings, based on the history of Nani Keala, daughter of a Native American mother and Native Hawaiian father. She was one of a small group who went up the Sacramento River with John Sutter in 1839 and helped build the eponymous fort. 'The Last Paradise' resonates with ancient themes of quest and transformation. The story follows Travis Doyle, a Vietnam veteran working as an insurance claims adjuster, from California to Hawaii. Doyle is dispatched to investigate fire damage to outbuildings, equipment, and vehicles at a geothermal drilling site located in volcanic lava fields believed by the local inhabitants to be the home of Pele, the fire goddess. The writing is lyrically beautiful and authentic-feeling, and the characters Travis Doyle and Evangeline "Angel" Sakai are three-dimensional and vital. The book well deserved be the Winner of the 1999 American Book Award, which indeed it did. ; The Literature of the American West; Vol. 2; 8vo 8" - 9" tall; 364 pages.