Max Freedom Long
{{short description|American writer (1890–1971)}}
Max Freedom Long (October 26, 1890 – September 23, 1971) was an American novelist and New Age writer.{{cite journal|last=Chai |first=Makana Risser |title=Huna, Max Freedom Long, and the Idealization of William Brigham |journal=The Hawaiian Journal of History |volume=45 |year=2011 |pages=101–121}}
Early life and career
Max Freedom Long was born on October 26, 1890, in Sterling, Colorado to Toby Albert Long and his wife Jessie Diffendaffer.{{cite book|author= |title=Passport Applications Filed at U.S. Territories and Possessions, 1907–1925 |volume=8 |location=Honolulu, HI |publisher=Department of State |page=2525 |date=1924}} At the time of the 1910 census he was working as a photographer in his hometown, and was living in his grandfather's household with his parents.{{cite census|url=https://archive.org/stream/13thcensus1910po0122unit#page/n691/mode/2up |title=Thirteenth Census of the United States |year=1910 |location=Sterling, Logan County, CO |page=159 |line=5 |enumdist=245 |filmnum=0112 |accessdate=23 May 2016}} He attended Los Angeles State Normal School from September 1914 to June 1916, and graduated with an Associate of Arts (two-year) degree in general education.Chai, p. 102 After graduating, he worked briefly as an auto-mechanic in Los Angeles.{{cite book|author= |title= U.S. World War I Draft Registration Cards |location=Los Angeles |publisher=National Archives and Records Administration |date=1917}}
In 1917, Long moved to the island of Hawaii to teach in elementary schools around the big island.Chai, p. 102 He moved to Honolulu in 1920 and lived there until 1932, while he worked in, and later owned, a photography store. In 1920, he married an English woman named Jane Jessie Rae, the proprietor of the Hotel Davenport in Honolulu. When he arrived in Hawaii, he claimed that some Native Hawaiians were practicing what he called magic.
In the mid-1930s, Long relocated to Orange County, California and began to focus on writing books inspired by his experiences in Hawaii. He married a second time while in California.{{Explain|reason=What happened to his first wife? |date=June 2020}}
Invention of Huna
Long decided to call his compilation of teachings Huna, because one meaning of the word is "hidden secret".Pukui and Ebert Hawaiian Dictionary (University of Hawaii, 1986) He wrote that he derived it from the word kahuna, meaning "priests and master craftsmen who ranked near the top of the social scale".{{cite web|url=http://www.nps.gov/history/history/online_books/kona/historyg.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121103164618/https://www.nps.gov/history/history/online_books/kona/historyg.htm |archive-date=November 3, 2012 |title=A Cultural History of Three Traditional Hawaiian Sites on the West Coast of Hawai'i Island Glossary |publisher=National Park Service |date=November 15, 2001}} Long published a series of books on Huna starting in 1936, and founded an organization called the Huna Fellowship in 1945.
There are no accepted Hawaiian sources – Malo,David Malo, Hawaiian Antiquities (Bishop Museum, 1951) Kamakau,Samuel Kamakau, The People of Old (Bishop Museum, 1991) 'I'i,John Papa 'I'i, Fragments of Hawaiian History (Bishop Museum, 1959) or KepelinoMartha Beckwith, Kepelino's Traditions of Hawaii (Bishop Museum, 1932) – that refer to the word Huna as a tradition of esoteric learning.
Max Freedom Long wrote that he obtained many of his case studies and his ideas about what to look for in kahuna magic from the Director of the Bishop Museum in Honolulu, William Brigham. There is no credible evidence that the two men met. Even if they did, Brigham was not an expert on kahunas and did not document in his own writings any of the incidents Long ascribed to him, including walking on hot lava. In his letters and manuscripts, Brigham stated that Hawaiians were "an inferior race", and implied they were lazy. He referred to Queen Lili'uokalani as a "she devil", "squaw", and "nigger".
Native Hawaiian scholar Charles W. Kenn, a Living Treasure of Hawai'i recognized in the Hawaiian community as a kahuna and expert in Hawaiian history and traditions,{{cite book |last=Stone |first=Scott S. C. |title=Living Treasures of Hawaii 25th Anniversary of the Selections of Outstanding Persons as Honored by The Honpa Honwanji Mission of Hawai'i |publisher=Island Heritage |year=2000 |location=Honolulu |page=24}} was friendly with Max Freedom Long but said, "While this Huna study is an interesting study, … it is not, and never was Hawaiian."{{cite book|last=Lee |first=Pali Jae |title=Ho'opono |publisher=Night Rainbow Publishing |year=1999 |location=Honolulu |page=56 |oclc=43454305}}
Later life
Max Freedom Long stopped issuing bulletins in late 1970 due to poor health. He died at his home in Vista, California on September 23, 1971, from a self-inflicted shotgun wound to his head. He had been suffering from a bone cancer for a few years at that time, and was in constant pain in his final months.{{cite web|url=http://www.maxfreedomlong.com/articles/max-freedom-long-died/ |title=Max Freedom Long Died Sept. 23, 1971 |author= |date= 2009 |website= Maxfreedomlong.com |access-date= 23 May 2016}} He was a believer in voluntary euthanasia.{{cite web |url= http://www.maxfreedomlong.com/articles/remembering-max-freedom-long/ |title=Remembering Max Freedom Long (1971)|author= |date= 2009 |website=Maxfreedomlong.com |access-date= 23 May 2016}}
Max Freedom Long Library and Museum
Prior to his death, Long's papers and library became part of the Max Freedom Long Library and Museum at the Huna Research Center at Fort Worth, Texas. It was established by a student named Dolly Ware, who inherited Long's library. After Dolly Ware's death in 2012, parts of the collection were sold to antiquarian book dealers. Other parts became the possession of E. Otha Wingo, who was a direct successor of Long's Huna tradition. Parts of the collection of the original Library and Museum have since been reconstituted at Valdosta State University's Archives and Special Collections as part of their New Age Movements, Occultism, and Spiritualism Research Library. The remaining pieces are being sought by the curator of the collection, Guy Frost of Valdosta State University's Odum Library.
Works by Max Freedom Long
=Hawaiian Detective Komako novels=
- Murder Between Dark and Dark, 1939
- The Lava Flow Murders, 1940
- Death Goes Native, 1941
References
{{Reflist}}
Further reading
- Jensen & Jensen, Daughters of Haumea (Pueo Press, 2005)
- June Gutmanis, Kahuna La'au Lapa'au: Hawaiian Herbal Medicine (Island Heritage, 1976)
- E. S. Craighill Handy, Polynesian Religion (Kraus Reprint, 1971)
- Pali Jae Lee and Koko Willis, Tales From the Night Rainbow
- Makana Risser Chai, Na Mo'olelo Lomilomi: Traditions of Hawaiian Massage & Healing (Bishop Museum, 2005)
External links
- [http://www.maxfreedomlong.com/ Official website]
- [http://archives.valdosta.edu/archon/?p=collections/controlcard&id=3765 Max Freedom Long Library and Museum] – Description of the collection held at Valdosta State University's Archives and Special Collections
- [http://archives.valdosta.edu/archon/?p=collections/classifications&id=511 New Age Movements, Occultism, and Spiritualism Research Library] – Collection held at Valdosta State University's Archives and Special Collections
{{New Age Movement}}
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Category:20th-century American philosophers
Category:People from Sterling, Colorado