Flower of the Sea (Malo-Pua-Kai)

N.pl: N.p., 1928. Very good. Paper brittle and toned with two or three minor closed short tears, offsetting to endpapers from wrappers. Spot to p. 6. Extremities chipped.. A rare privately printed book of verse by the poet Doris Durst, with with woodcut designs by M.C. Maxwell. Includes twenty (20) short poems from the perspective of an American woman falling in love with Hawaii, incorporating the Hawaiian language. Maxwell interprets the title of the volume in a poetic manner by visualizing the islands of Hawaii as leaves and petals on a blooming flower, vaguely echoing the Arts & Crafts Movement. Rare, with only 6 copies in OCLC (20 May 2023).

16mo (7" by 5.25"), pp. [6], 21, [1], with woodcut illustrations in-text, stapled in original stiff printed paper wrappers. Doris Durst (b.1897) was an Alameda, California native who attended the University of California, Berkeley. Three of her poems were published in the May 1934 issue of Poetry (ed. Harriet Monroe).