James A. Michener
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| James A. Michener | |
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| Born | February 3, 1907 - Doylestown, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, United States |
| Died | October 16, 1997 (aged 90) - Austin, Texas, United States |
| Occupation | Novelist Short story writer |
| Genres | Historical Fiction |
James Albert Michener (February 3, 1907 – October 16, 1997) was an American author of more than 40 titles, the majority of which are novels of sweeping sagas, covering the lives of many generations in a particular geographic locale and incorporating historical facts into the story as well. Michener was known for the meticulous research behind his work. Because his books tend to be fairly long, it is sometimes said that "Michener tends to write by the pound."
Michener's major books include Tales of the South Pacific (for which he won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1948), Hawaii, The Drifters, Centennial, The Source, The Fires of Spring, Chesapeake, Caribbean, Caravans, Alaska, Texas, and Poland. His nonfiction works include his 1968 Iberia about his travels in Spain and Portugal, his 1992 memoir The World is My Home, and Sports in America.
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[edit] History
Michener wrote that he did not know who his parents were or exactly when and where he was born. He was raised a Quaker by an adoptive mother, Mabel Michener, in Doylestown, Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Some people later argued that Mabel was in fact his biological mother but he refused to talk about that.
In 1960, Michener was chairman of the Bucks County committee to elect John F. Kennedy, and subsequently, in 1962, ran for the United States Congress, a decision he later considered a misstep. "My mistake was to run in 1962 as a Democrat candidate for Congress. [My wife] kept saying, "Don't do it, don't do it." I lost and went back to writing books."
[edit] Education
Michener graduated from Doylestown High School in 1925. He attended Swarthmore College, where he played basketball, and joined the Phi Delta Theta fraternity. He graduated with highest honors. He taught English at George School, in Newtown, Pennsylvania, 1933-36, then attended Colorado State Teachers College (in Greeley, Colorado), earned his master's degree, and then taught there for several years. He also taught at Harvard University. The library at the University of Northern Colorado is named for him.
[edit] Writing career
Michener's writing career began during World War II, when, as a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy, he was assigned to the South Pacific Ocean as a naval historian; he later turned his notes and impressions into Tales of the South Pacific, his first book, which was the basis for the Broadway and film musical South Pacific. It was published when he was 40.
In the late 1950s, Michener began working as a roving editor for Readers Guide. He gave up that work in 1970.
Michener was a very popular writer during his lifetime and his novels sold an estimated 75 million copies worldwide [1]. His novel Hawaii (published in 1959) was based on extensive historical research. Nearly all of his subsequent novels were based on detailed historical, cultural, and even geological research. Centennial, which documented several generations of families in the West, was made into a popular twelve part television miniseries of the same name that aired on NBC from October 1978 through February 1979.
In 1996, State House Press published "James A. Michener: A Bibliography" compiled by David A. Groseclose. It contains over 2,500 entries from 1923 to 1995 including magazine articles, forewords, books, and other works.
His prodigious output made for lengthy novels several of which run over 1,000 pages. The author states in My Lost Mexico that at times he would spend 12 to 15 hours per day at his typewriter for weeks on end and that he used so much paper his filing system had trouble keeping up.
[edit] Spouses
He was married three times. His second wife was Vange Nord (married in 1948). Michener met his third wife Mari Yoriko Sabusawa at a luncheon in Chicago and they were married in 1955 (the same year as his divorce from Nord). His novel Sayonara is pseudo-autobiographical.
[edit] Charity
Michener gave away a great deal of the money he earned, contributing more than $100 million to universities, libraries, museums, and other charitable causes.
[edit] Awards
In 1948, Michener won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for Tales of the South Pacific.
On January 10, 1977, Michener was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Gerald R. Ford.
[edit] Final years and death
In his final years, he lived in Austin, Texas, and, aside from being a prominent celebrity fan of the Texas Longhorns women's basketball team, he founded an MFA program now named the Michener Center for Writers.
In October 1997, Michener ended the daily dialysis treatment that had kept him alive for four years and as a result he died not long after. He was 90 years old.
He was buried in Austin, TX, and is also honored by a monument at the Texas State Cemetery.
[edit] James A. Michener Art Museum
Opened in 1988 in Michener's hometown of Doylestown, Pennsylvania, the James A. Michener Art Museum houses collections of local and well-known artists. The museum, constructed from the remains of the old prison, is a non-profit organization, with both permanent and rotating collections. Two prominent permanent fixtures are the James A. Michener display room and the Nakashima Reading Room, constructed in honor of his third wife's Japanese heritage. The museum is known for its permanent collection of Pennsylvania Impressionistic Paintings.
[edit] Works
- A Century of Sonnets (1997)
- About Centennial: Some Notes on the Novel (1978)
- Alaska (1988)
- The Bridge at Andau (1957)
- The Bridges at Toko-Ri, movie (1953)
- Caravans (1963)
- Caribbean (1989)
- Centennial, TV miniseries (1974)
- Chesapeake (1978)
- Collectors, Forgers - And A Writer: A Memoir (1983)
- The Covenant (1980)
- Creatures of the Kingdom (1993)
- The Drifters (1971)
- The Eagle and The Raven (1990)
- The Fires of Spring (1949), semi-autobiographical novel
- The Floating World (1954)
- The Future of the Social Studies ("The Problem of the Social Studies") (1939) Editor
- Hawaii (1959)
- Iberia (1968) travelogue
- Journey (1989)
- Kent State: What Happened and Why (1971)
- Legacy (1987)
- Literary Reflections (1993)
- Matecumbe (2007)
- Mexico (1992)
- Miracle in Seville (1995)
- My Lost Mexico (1992)
- The Novel (1991)
- Pilgrimage: A Memoir of Poland and Rome (1990)
- Poland (1983)
- Presidential Lottery (1969)
- The Quality of Life (1970)
- Rascals in Paradise (1957)
- Recessional (1994)
- Report of the County Chairman (1961)
- Return to Paradise (1951)
- Sayonara (1954)
- Six Days in Havana (1989)
- The Source (1965)
- Space (1982)
- Sports in America (1976)
- Tales of the South Pacific, South Pacific musical (1947), film (1958)
- Texas (1985)
- This Noble Land (1996)
- Ventures in Editing
- The Voice of Asia (1951)
- William Penn (1994)
- The World is My Home (1992) Michener's autobiography.
[edit] See also
- Michener and Me: A Memoir by Herman Silverman; hardcover 1999, paperback 2003. Memoir by a long-time friend of Michener.
- List of bestselling novels in the United States
- Edward Rutherfurd
[edit] External links
- Published books with covers
- James A. Michener Library at the University of Northern Colorado
- James A. Michener Society
- James A. Michener Special Collection: David A. Groseclose
- James A. Michener Art Museum, Doylestown, PA
- Michener Center for Writers
- 1989 audio interview with James Michener by Don Swaim at Wired for Books.
- Michener: His Influence and Ethics by Edward Rutherfurd
- Working with James A. Michener - The Making of The Covenant
- Biographical Entry at the Texas State Cemetery
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