An accomplished artist, author and poet with a keen sensitivity to everyday lives, Don Blanding lived all over the world but always found a home in Hawai'i.
Blanding was born in the town of Kingfisher in what was then, in 1894, still the Oklahoma Territory. His father, Hugh, was a lawyer and one of the original settlers of Cherokee lands in the territory.
Blanding studied at the Art Institute of Chicago. While there, he joined a literary group that included authors Sherwood Anderson and Ben Hecht. He spent a year in the Canadian army's American 97th Battalion but left before deployment in Europe.
A theater lover, Blanding was enthralled by the play "The Bird of Paradise," and soon after made plans to move to Hawai'i. He stayed a year, working as a cartoonist for The Honolulu Advertiser, before joining the Army and moving to Illinois for officer training. After his discharge, he studied art in Paris and London, then spent several years traveling through Central America and the Yucatan.
Blanding returned to Hawai'i in 1923 and worked as a commercial artist and copy writer for an advertising agency. His most popular works at the time were a series of short poems he wrote for Aji-No-Moto ads that featured local people and events. Blanding collected the poems for his self-published book, "Leaves from a Grass House." It was the first of a series of poetry collections that would include his best-known work, "Vagabond House."
Blanding also wrote and illustrated several prose books, including "Hula Moons" and "Stowaways in Paradise."
In 1928, Blanding suggested that the Hawaiian tradition of lei-giving be recognized with its own designated day. His suggestion would eventually lead to May Day serving as Lei Day in Hawai'i.
Blanding's affinity for the Islands also took the form of patriotism. Partially in response to the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Blanding enlisted in the Army in 1942, at the age of 47. He spent a year in the infantry.
Blanding, an active lecturer, bounced around Hawai'i, California and New Mexico for years before settling in Los Angeles in 1955. He died in 1957 at the age of 62.
