James A. Michener

James Albert Michener ( / ? m ? t? ? n ?r / or / ? m ? t? n ?r / ; ^[1] February 3, 1907 ? October 16, 1997) was an American writer . His books include Tales of the South Pacific , Hawaii , The Drifters , Texas , and Poland . Most of his 40 books are very large sagas . They are about the lives of many generations in a particular place. His non- fiction writings include the 1992 book The World is My Home and Sports in America .

Michener wrote that he did not know who his parents were or exactly when and where he was born. He was raised by an adoptive mother, Mabel Michener, in Doylestown , Pennsylvania . Some have argued that Mabel was his birth mother. He graduated from Swarthmore College , where he played basketball , in 1929. He later studied at the Colorado State Teachers College . He taught there for several years. He also taught at Harvard University .

His writing career began during World War II . He was assigned to the South Pacific Ocean as a naval historian . He used his time there as the basis for Tales of the South Pacific , his first book. This book was the basis for the musical South Pacific .

Michener met his wife Mari while in Japan . His novel Sayonara is autobiographical .

On January 10, 1977, he was given the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Gerald R. Ford .

In his final years, he lived in Austin, Texas , where he died of kidney failure on October 16, 1997 at the age of 90.

Books by James A. Michener [ change | change source ]

↑ "Michener" . The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (Fourth ed.). Houghton Mifflin. 2004.