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David Stanley
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  • Nanaimo, British Columbia
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Something About Me and My Book:
David Stanley is the author of Moon Handbooks South Pacific, Moon Fiji, and Moon Tahiti, published by Avalon Travel Publishing of Berkeley, California. Over the years he has visited 179 of the 193 United Nations member countries.
Website:
http://www.southpacific.org/

Tahiti in Fiction and Film, By David Stanley

Over the years, Tahiti and Polynesia have provided novelists and moviemakers with colorful subject matter. Early travelers told of wanton women on tropical shores, and Fletcher Christian added drama to the plot by leading a mutiny against the tyrannical Captain Bligh.

 

In 1934 American writers Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall brought out the Bounty Trilogy. This three-part novel deals with Christian's mutiny on the Bounty, the escape of Bligh and his loyal crew members to Dutch Timor, and the colonization of Pitcairn Island by Christian and his fellow mutineers.

 

The novel was an instant bestseller, and director Frank Lloyd soon made it into a movie, Mutiny on the Bounty, starring Charles Laughton and Clark Gable. In keeping with the mood of his time, the mutiny was presented as a simplistic struggle between good and evil, and the film won an Oscar for Best Picture in 1935.

 

A generation later Marlon Brando flew down to Tahiti to star in a blockbuster remake of Mutiny on the Bounty. MGM's 1962 production is still considered the most spectacular film ever made in the South Pacific, in part due to the glorious scenery of Tahiti and Bora Bora. Thousands of Tahitian extras appeared in the film, and Brando married his first lady, Tarita Teriipaia.

 

In 1984, yet another version of The Bounty was released, with Sir Anthony Hopkins as a resolute Bligh and Mel Gibson as an ambiguous Christian. Of the three Bounty films, this is probably the most historically accurate, and it's certainly the one with the greatest psychological depth. It was largely filmed in Moorea's Opunohu Bay.

 

Another Nordhoff and Hall novel, The Hurricane, has been brought to the silver screen twice. John Hall's 1937 film portrays a young couple fleeing a despotic governor. In 1978 Dino de Laurentiis reshot The Hurricane on Bora Bora, with Mia Farrow and Trevor Howard. The resort built to house de Laurentiis' crew still exists as the Sofitel Marara.

 

British novelist W. Somerset Maugham also had close ties to the South Pacific. In 1943 Albert Lewin filmed The Moon and Sixpence, Maugham's fictionalized account of Paul Gauguin's life in Polynesia. The nonconformist painter's incompatibility with French colonial life provided Maugham with a pretext to explore the role of the artist in society. Another famous Maugham story, Rain, set in Samoa, has been made into a movie several times.

 

Other well-known authors who have popularized the legend of Tahiti include Herman Melville, Pierre Loti, Robert Louis Stevenson, Jack London, Rupert Brooke, and James A. Michener. Their stories, plays, and films have helped create the myth of a South Seas paradise. And even today, Tahiti and Polynesia beckon to romantics wishing to live their share of the dream.

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Fiji and Tahiti eBooks

Avalon Travel has released the eBook editions of Moon Fiji and Moon Tahiti, the leading travel guidebooks to the South Pacific. They are now available in the Kindle store at Amazon, in the Nook store at Barnesandnoble.com, on the Kobo at Borders, on iTunes for the Apple iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, and at the Sony Reader store.

 

Moon Fiji is the original travel guide to the Fiji Islands while Moon Tahiti covers all five archipelagos of…

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Posted on July 12, 2011 at 2:10pm — 1 Comment

Ninth Edition of Moon Fiji

Avalon Travel Publishing has launched the 9th edition of Moon Fiji, the original travel guide to the 322-island Fiji archipelago. Since 1985, Moon Fiji has been the leading travel guidebook to Fiji. Author David Stanley has been writing about the South Pacific since 1979, and over the years tens of thousands of Pacific travelers have used his guides to Fiji,…

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Posted on January 22, 2011 at 6:03pm

Moon Tahiti from Avalon Travel

Avalon Travel Publishing has launched the 7th edition of Moon Tahiti by David Stanley. Since 1989, Moon Tahiti has been the leading travel guidebook to French Polynesia and this new edition incorporates the latest restaurant, resort, and transportation news. Stanley has been covering the South Pacific for over three decades and he knows the region better than… Continue

Posted on December 28, 2010 at 6:42pm

Comment Wall (11 comments)

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At 12:03pm on August 22, 2011, Sandra said…
Thanks for your friendship fellow author! Nice to meet you :)
At 1:04pm on August 12, 2011, David Stanley said…

A new 125-page Tonga Travel Guide is now online at http://tonga.southpacific.org

 

At 8:55pm on August 5, 2011, David Stanley said…

French Polynesia's cultured pearls originate on pearl farms in the Tuamotu Islands. http://blog.southpacific.org/polynesian-black-pearls

 

At 5:19pm on May 14, 2011, J. Conrad Guest said…
Thanks, David, for adding me to your page!
At 8:14am on March 8, 2011, Fay Risner said…
Thanks for the befriend. What neat places you write about.
At 5:42pm on March 7, 2011, Shawn Lamb said…
Thanks for friend invite!  I love look at travel books.
At 10:00am on January 23, 2011, ElenaDB said…

Hi, David!

 

Thank you for the friendship.  Happy to meet you.  The South Pacific...wow!  Wishing you much success in all your endeavors.

At 8:26am on January 23, 2011, Keith E. Gerber said…
Hello, David, Nice to meet you. I wish you a million great tomorrows. I am pleased to meet you. I wish we could review your books in Fiji or Tahiti, I have never had the pleasure of either, I envy you that.
At 11:35pm on November 21, 2010, Brian L Porter said…
Hello, David,

Thanks for your friendship offer. Glad to accept. Always nice to make another Canadian connection, (the majority of my print novels are published by Double Dragon Publishing in Ontario).
At 3:16pm on July 24, 2010, Fran Orenstein said…
Delighted to be friends...Ummm Tahiti...everybody's dream.
 
 
 

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