| Adaptations Title Notes The Bridges at Toko-Ri 1953 film Return to Paradise 1953 film Men of the Fighting Lady 1954 film Until They Sail 1957 film based on a short story included in Return to Paradise Sayonara 1957 film nominated for 10 Academy Awards, won 4; including Best Supporting Actress, for Miyoshi Umeki the first and as of 2010, the only East Asian Actress to win an Oscar. South Pacific 1958 film Adventures in Paradise 1959–1962 television series Hawaii 1966 film The Hawaiians 1970 film Centennial 1978 TV miniseries Caravans 1978 film starring Anthony Quinn Space 1985 TV miniseries James A. Michener's Texas South Pacific 2001 television movie |
| Books — fiction Book Title Year Published Tales of the South Pacific 1947 The Fires of Spring 1949 Return to Paradise 1950 The Bridges at Toko-ri 1953 Sayonara 1954 Hawaii 1959 Caravans 1963 The Source 1965 The Drifters 1971 Centennial 1974 Chesapeake 1978 The Watermen 1978 The Covenant 1980 Space 1982 Poland 1983 Texas 1985 Legacy 1987 Alaska 1988 Caribbean 1989 Journey 1989 The Novel 1991 South Pacific 1992 Mexico 1992 Recessional 1994 Miracle in Seville 1995 Matecumbe 2007 |
| James A. Michener Society Main article: James A. Michener Society The James A. Michener Society was formed in the fall of 1998 and is composed of people who share a common interest in James Michener's life and work. The following words, excerpted from a letter by the late John Kings, James Michener's long-time friend and literary assistant, describe the purpose of the James A. Michener Society... The Purpose of the Society is to:
The Society accomplishes this through a number of activities. An electronic newsletter is published periodically. An annual meeting of members is held at locations closely associated with the life of James Michener. In the past, they have been held at the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley, home of the James A. Michener Library and Archives; Austin, Texas, where Michener was associated with the Writing School and lived the last years of his life; Doylestown, Pennsylvania, Michener's childhood home and the location of the Michener Art Museum; Easton, Maryland, where Michener lived while writing Chesapeake; Kent State University, where he reported on the tragic shooting on that college's campus in 1970; San Antonio, for his epic Texas as well as The Eagle and the Raven; and St. Petersburg, where he lived while writing Recessional. Society activities provide the occasion for sharing of memories and anecdotes that illuminate the Michener books and other writings in a special way. Eventually, the Society expects to sponsor seminars, lectures and other events that will provide opportunities for fellowship among members and a forum for the discussion of James Michener's writings and the many facets of his life. [The Society operates under the aegis of the University of Northern Colorado Foundation. All funds are deposited with the Foundation for the use of the Society and all contributions are deductible by donors since the Foundation is a 501(c)(3) organization.] For more information about the Society, a Michener photo gallery, many links related to JAM, and a membership application form, visit the Society's official website http://www. michenersociety.com. |
| James A. Michener 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 Notable work(s) Tales of the South Pacific (1946) Notable award(s) 1948: Pulitzer Prize for Fiction 1977: Presidential Medal of Freedom 2008: Honorary portrait image on a United States postage stamp |
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| World of James A. Michener -001- James A. Michener @ Wikipedia |
| James A. Michener |
| James A. Michener From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia James Albert Michener ( /ˈmɪtʃnər/;[1] February 3, 1907 – October 16, 1997)[2] was an American author of more than 40 titles, the majority of which were sweeping sagas, covering the lives of many generations in particular geographic locales and incorporating historical facts into the stories. Michener was known for the meticulous research behind his work. 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 the 1968 Iberia about his travels in Spain and Portugal, his 1992 memoir The World Is My Home, and Sports in America. Return to Paradise combines fictional short stories with Michener's factual descriptions of the Pacific areas where they take place. |
| Biography Michener wrote that he did not know who his biological parents were or exactly when or where he was born.[2] He claimed he was raised a Quaker by an adoptive mother, Mabel Michener, in Doylestown, Bucks County, Pennsylvania. After graduating Phi Beta Kappa[3] and summa cum laude in 1929 from Swarthmore College in English and psychology, he traveled and studied in Europe for two years. Michener then took a job as a high school English teacher at The Hill School in Pottstown, Pennsylvania. From 1933 to 1936 he taught English at George School, in Newtown, Pennsylvania, then attended Colorado State Teachers College (now the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley, Colorado), earned his master's degree, and taught there for several years. The library at the University of Northern Colorado is named for him. In 1935 Michener married Patti Koon. He went to Harvard for a one-year teaching stint from 1939 to 1940 and left teaching to join Macmillan Publishers as their social studies education editor. Michener was called to active duty during World War II in the United States Navy. He traveled throughout the South Pacific on various missions that were assigned to him because his base commanders thought he was the son of Admiral Marc Mitscher.[4] His travels became the setting for his breakout work Tales of the South Pacific. In 1960, Michener was chairman of the Bucks County committee to elect John F. Kennedy. In 1962, he unsuccessfully ran as a Democratic candidate for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania, a decision he later considered a misstep. "My mistake was to run in 1962 as a Democratic candidate for Congress. [My wife] kept saying, 'Don't do it, don't do it.' I lost and went back to writing books." Michener was later Secretary for the 1967–68 Pennsylvania Constitutional Convention. |
| 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 attended Colorado State Teachers College (now named the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley, Colorado), and earned his master's degree. |
| 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, published in 1947 when he was 40. It became the basis for the Broadway and film musical South Pacific by Rodgers and Hammerstein.[5] Tales of the South Pacific won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1948. Michener tried his hand at television writing as well, but found no success in that medium. Among other things, American television producer Bob Mann wanted James Michener to co-create a weekly anthology series from Tales of the South Pacific, with Michener as narrator. Rogers and Hammerstein, however, owned all dramatic rights to the novel and did not give up ownership.[6] Michener did lend his name to a different television series, Adventures in Paradise, in 1959.[7] In the late 1950s, Michener began working as a roving editor for Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature. He gave up that work in 1970. Michener was a popular writer during his lifetime; his novels sold an estimated 75 million copies worldwide.[8] His novel Hawaii (published in 1959) was based on extensive 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 and 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. Its more than 2,500 entries from 1923 to 1995 include magazine articles, forewords, and other works. Michener's prodigious output made for lengthy novels, several of which run more than 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. |
| Michener's typewriter at the Michener Museum, Doylestown, Pennsylvania |
| James A. Michener's Typewriter |
| Spouses Michener was married three times. In 1935 he married Patti Koon. 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 quasi-autobiographical. |
| Charity Michener gave away a great deal of the money he earned. Over the years, Mari Yoriko Sabusawa Michener played a major role in directing donations by her husband, totaling more than $100 million. Among the beneficiaries were the University of Texas, the Iowa Writers Workshop and Swarthmore College (stated by a New York Times' notice about her death). In 1989, Michener donated the royalty earnings from the Canadian edition of his novel Journey, published in Canada by McClelland & Stewart, to create the Journey Prize, an annual Canadian literary prize worth $10,000 (Cdn) that is awarded for the year's best short story published by an emerging Canadian writer.[9] |
| 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. He died on October 16 of kidney failure at the age of 90.[2][5] He was buried in Austin, Texas, and is honored by a monument at the Texas State Cemetery. Michener left his entire $10 million estate (including the copyrights to his works) to Swarthmore College. |
| Tributes On the evening of September 14, 1998, the Raffles Hotel in Singapore named one of their suites after the illustrious author, in memory of his patronage and passion for the hotel. Michener first stayed at the Singapore hotel just after World War II in 1949, and in an interview a decade before his death he said it was a luxury for him, a young man, to stay at the Raffles Hotel back then, and had the time of his life. It was officially christened by Steven Green, then Ambassador of United States to Singapore, who noted the writer's penchant of describing 'faraway places with strange-sounding names' to his American book readers. His last stay was in 1985 when he came to Singapore for the launch of the book Salute to Singapore, for which he wrote the foreword. He was so fond of his last stay in Raffles that he took the hotel room key home with him as a souvenir. The suite contains a selection of Michener's works, like Caribbean, The Drifters and Hawaii, as well as two photographic portraits of the author taken at the hotel and in Chinatown in 1985. After his death, the Michener estate corresponded with the hotel management to return the room key, and from there the idea to name the hotel room after him, came into fruition. The souvenir key was duly returned to the hotel, and now on display in the Raffles Hotel Museum.[5] On May 12, 2008, the United States Postal Service honored him with a 59¢ Distinguished Americans series postage stamp.[10] The Library at The University of Northern Colorado in Greeley, Colorado, his alma mater, is named The James Michener Library in his honour. |
| James A. Michener Art Museum Main article: 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 an 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 Impressionist paintings. |
| Works In addition to novels, Michener was very involved with non-fiction, movies, TV show series and radio. This is only a major part of what is listed in the Library of Congress files. The category list would be very complex to add. |
| Books — non-fiction Book Title Year Published Notes The Voice of Asia 1951 Rascals in Paradise 1957 The Future of the Social Studies ("The Problem of the Social Studies") 1939 Editor The Floating World 1954 The Bridge at Andau 1957 Japanese Prints: From the Early Masters to the Modern 1959 With notes by Richard Lane Report of the County Chairman 1961 The Modern Japanese Print: An Appreciation 1968 Iberia 1968 Travelogue Presidential Lottery 1969 The Quality of Life 1970 Kent State: What Happened and Why 1971 Michener Miscellany – 1950/1970 1973 Firstfruits, A Harvest of 25 Years of Israeli Writing 1973 Sports in America 1976 About Centennial: Some Notes on the Novel 1978 James A Michener's USA: The People and the Land 1981 Collectors, Forgers — And A Writer: A Memoir 1983 Michener Anthology 1985 Six Days in Havana 1989 Pilgrimage: A Memoir of Poland and Rome 1990 The Eagle and the Raven 1990 My Lost Mexico 1992 The World Is My Home 1992 Autobiography Creatures of the Kingdom 1993 Literary Reflections 1993 William Penn 1994 Ventures in Editing 1995 This Noble Land 1996 Three Great Novels of World War II 1996 A Century of Sonnets 1997 |
References
Hayes John Phillip, James A. Michener: A Biography, Bobbs Merril 1985 |
Further reading
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