Sailing into the Twenty-First Century: Revisiting Scott O’Dell's Island of the Blue Dolphins

Scott O’Dell's Island of the Blue Dolphins (1960) has been widely translated, internationally circulated, and globally prized. Praised as ‘historically accurate’, its fictionalisation of people, places, and events draws on nineteenth-century accounts that circulated widely and are steeped in literary tropes. Like its sources, Island of the Blue Dolphins reflects settler colonial logic. In the 2010s, the historical figure central to the tale has become an object of archaeological study, repatriation claims, and literary reimagination that helpfully informs discussion of the novel's touchstone status.