Oswald Andrew "Ozzy" Bushnell (1913-2002), the distinguished historical novelist and professor of medical microbiology and medical history at the University of Hawai'i-Manoa, was a third-generation kama'aina born in Kaka'ako the son of an Italian-Portuguese father and a Norwegian mother. He was educated at the UH and the University of Wisconsin, where he earned his Ph.D. in bacteriology.
Upon his return to Hawai'i in 1940, he worked on Kaua'i with the Territorial Department of Health. Following service in the Army during WWII, Bushnell began his professorship at UH, retiring in 1970.
His pioneering first historical novel, "The Return of Lono" (1955) was published when practically all Hawai'i literature had been written by visitors like Mark Twain, Robert Louis Stevenson, Jack London, W. Somerset Maugham and James Jones. It won the Atlantic Monthly's fiction award in 1956.
Over the years, O. A. Bushnell provided encouragement and advice to many authors, playwrights, and filmmakers.
Private and retiring, he and his wife, Elizabeth, had two sons and a daughter. One son is Andrew "Andy" Bushnell, a Kaua'i resident and longtime professor of history at Kaua'i Community College, now retired.
AOS Naval Fiction |
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| Series: n/a | ||
| Year | Book | Comment |
| The Return of Lono | A novel is about Captain Cook from the point of view of midshipman Forrest of the Resolution. | |
| The Last Days of Captain Cook | A novel of Captain Cook's last days | |