Talk:James A. Michener

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It would have been useful had Michner's books been dated. --K D F

[edit] graduating honors

Swarthmore doesn't give Latin honors to graduates. The honors program was introduced at the college in 1922, before Michener graduated; the honors given to graduates of the program are "honors", "high honors", and "highest honors". These, of course, translate to their familiar Latin equivalents, but the college is pretty insistent that they're not actually the same. I assume this has something to do with the fact that the honors signify something other than a GPA, since honors candidates have to complete a separate set of requirements from other grads. So, what Michener's diploma actually says is "with highest honors". --Cantara 02:50, 8 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] A true story

We lived in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, in the period 1947-1952, and James Michener lived there at the same time. My parents knew him. In 1948, when I was eight years of age, the elementary school that I had attended and which my sister was then attending, had a fund raiser. Michener set up a tent with a sign on it, advertising himself as "Mitch the Witch." My parents gave me a dime -- in those days, they were made of silver, and you could actually buy something with just a dime -- and told me to go get my fortune told by James Michener. Which I did. Someone else was in the tent with him and admonished Michener to "give me a good fortune." He dealt out the cards, and gave me a good fortune.

Many years later, when I was a professor at the University of Texas, I reminded Michener of this incident (he had moved to Austin by that time).

In his autobiography, The World is My Home, Michener recounts his experiences with fortune-telling. Apparently, the accuracy of his predictions unnerved him, and he abandoned the enterprise.

Bill Jefferys 00:26, 19 July 2006 (UTC)

What a neat story. Would you consider adding an anecdote to the history section? Johnlogic 16:58, 2 February 2007 (UTC)