James A Michener: 1907-1997

James A Michener was born in New York on February 3, 1907 and taken as an orphan to Doylestown, Pennsylvania. He was raised by Mabel Michener, a Quaker widow. He started to write a sports column at the age of fifteen for the local newspaper and edited the high school student paper.

From his early youth, Michener listened to opera and to collect reproductions of paintings.

From 1929 to 1931 Michener was a master at the Hill School in Pottstown and from 1934 to 1936 at the George School in Newtown. He was a professor at the University of Northern Colorado, and then visiting professor of history at Harvard's School of Education.

When the United States entered World War II Michener decided to enlist in the Navy. From 1944 to 1946 he served as a naval historian in the South Pacific and traveled widely in the area. His early fiction is based on his experiences in the Pacific.

From 1950 through 1953, he reported on the Korean War. He operated in 1956 behind Russian lines during the Hungarian Revolution. In 1972 he accompanied President Nixon on his visit to Moscow, Iran, Poland, and China.

Michener won the Pulitzer Prize in 1948 for the collection "Tales of the South Pacific."

During his career as a writer Michener wrote some 40 books, which sold about 75 million copies. Many of his works have also been adapted for film and television.

Michener was married three times.

He died on October 16, 1997.