THE AUTHOR
Newly born Baby Boy James entered the world via Doylestown, Pennsylvania, in 1907, courtesy of parents who showed little interest in the infant. At least, that’s how one story goes. His parents, according to legend, abandoned their son at birth, and he was adopted by a poor young widow named Mabel Michener. Other stories cite biological mother Mabel Michener adopting the story, if not the actual child, because she'd given birth out of wedlock and wanted to shield young James from shame.
Whatever the reason, the boy grew up poor, often wearing second-hand clothes and tattered shoes to school. But that didn't mean he was unhappy. His mother cared for orphaned children as a living, so the house buzzed with caring and activity.
"I grew up in a bundle of love, always seven or eight kids around," Michener recalled. "Great yakkity-yakking and laughter all the time. I grew up maybe the best way a kid could if he wanted to be a writer, just surrounded by excitement."
Because he had been poor, young James longed to see the world. He took various jobs as a teenager, traveling with carnivals and theatrical companies. He rode the rails as a hobo and hitchhiked cross-country--sometimes with a friend and other times alone. By the time he was twenty years old, he had already seen most of the lower forty-eight states.
"Those were years of wonder and enchantment ... some of the best years I would know. I kept meeting American citizens of all levels who took me into their cars, their confidence and often their homes." - from The World Is My Home (1992)
Although the author-to-be planned to go to college to get a PhD so that he could teach history, he joined the Navy when World War II broke out. He had already done some nonfiction writing when he began experimenting for the first time with the world of make believe. While stationed in the South Pacific, he wrote a fictional account of a military man. His first book, called Tales of the South Pacific, won the Pulitzer Prize in 1948. It wasn't much of a money maker, but it was optioned off and turned into the Broadway musical, South Pacific, and the proceeds from that and the spin-off movie made him financially comfortable enough to devote the rest of his life to writing.
His major works consist primarily of a series of sprawling historical novels, most of them about physical places he had been. The books include Hawaii; The Drifters; Centennial; The Source; The Fires of Spring; Chesapeake; Caribbean; Caravans; Alaska; Texas; Space; Poland, and The Bridges at Toko-ri.
Michener wrote more than forty books in all, most of which were long family sagas covering the lives of many generations in various geographic locales, all incorporating detailed history. Many of his works were bestsellers and Book of the Month Club selections. He was known for the meticulous research that went into his works, often front-loading his stories with historical facts, geographical details, and gripping action. When asked how he conducted his research, he replied, "What I need is very simple. A good library and access to an airport." He believed he couldn't write effectively until he had visited the setting for his book, listened to the weather forecasts, and viewed the local sporting events. He also read a lot. For his saga about Texas, he consumed more than four hundred books.
Most of Michener's novels turned into bestsellers. With total sales of more than seventy-five million copies worldwide, the works appealed to a wide range of people. Even though he made a fortune writing, Michener lived an extraordinarily frugal life. He never bought shaving cream, for instance, because he learned that he could shave with leftover slivers of soap. Since he spent so little money on himself, he had plenty left over to give away, and he did just that, donating more than $117 million to various institutions, including the University of Texas, during his lifetime.
Suffering from terminal kidney disease throughout the late 1990s, Michener ended the daily dialysis treatments that had kept him alive for four years. He said he had accomplished what he wanted and did not wish to undergo further physical complications. James A. Michener died of complications from kidney failure at the age of ninety on October 16, 1997.
THE ETHICIST
Michener was married three times: to Patti Koon in 1935 (divorced in 1948) and Vange Nord, whom he married that same year. He met his future third wife, Mari Yoriko Sabusawa, at a luncheon in Chicago. An American citizen, she and her Japanese parents had been interned in western camps that the U.S. government established during the early years of World War II to reduce the threat of potential espionage. Michener married Sabusawa the same year he divorced Nord.
Never one to let a memorable experience escape his grasp, the author penned his novel Sayonara in 1954. It’s a semi-autobiographical work set during the early 1950s, featuring Major Lloyd Gruver, a United States Air Force ace jet pilot stationed in Japan during the Korean War. Gruver falls in love with Hana-Ogi, a Japanese woman, as the author follows the couple’s cross-cultural romance while illuminating the racism common during the post-World War II era. In 1957, the book was adapted into the highly successful movie Sayonara, starring Marlon Brando, James Garner, Miiko Taka, Miyoshi Umeki, and Red Buttons. Umeki and Buttons won the 1958 Academy Award "Oscar" for best supporting actor/actress for their performances.
Writing about his real-life experience in marrying a Japanese-American was Michener’s first public condemnation of racism. He continued his battle for worldwide journalistic and literary integrity by donating more than $100 million to educational, cultural, and writing institutions, such as his alma mater, Swarthmore College, where he earned his bachelor’s degree, the Iowa Writers Workshop, and the James A. Michener Art Museum. He also pledged more than $37 million to the University of Texas at Austin. By 1992, his gifts made him UT Austin's largest single donor to that date. The Center provides three-year Michener Fellowships in fiction, poetry, playwriting, and screenwriting to a small number of students.
In 1989, Michener donated the royalty earnings from the Canadian edition of his novel Journey (1989), published in Canada by McClelland & Stewart, to create the Journey Prize, an annual Canadian literary award worth $10,000 (CDN) for the year's best short story published by an emerging Canadian writer. He donated his papers to the University of Northern Colorado, where he earned his master's degree. He lived with his wife in Texas.
Among the honors the author received during his lifetime were the 1971 Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement; the 1981 St. Louis Literary Award from the Saint Louis University Library Associates in St. Louis, Missouri, and the1993 U.S. Navy Memorial Foundation "Lone Sailor Award" for the author’s naval war service and literary achievements.
The following year, the author endorsed the use of his name for a restaurant named Michener’s at Iririki Island Resort, Port Vila, Vanuatu. He explained why:
“Many of the fondest memories of my travels stem back to my years of military service in the New Hebrides – (now Vanuatu) – during the Pacific War years of the early 1940s ... While those beautiful islands have changed much with progress in the ensuing years, I know from subsequent visits that the friendliness of the peoples, their infectious smiles and their open-heartedness will remain forever one of life's treasures.”
An optimist by nature, Michener left behind a score of reasons for other people to be grateful for his legacy--from the author’s endless acts of kindness throughout his world travels and the remarkably detailed and complete sagas of his fiction to his generosity in donating funds for the continuing benefit of others. James A. Michener will long be remembered as a writer/journalist extraordinaire as well as a philanthropist who wanted nothing more in return for his generosity than to leave these earthly bonds, knowing he did his best to contribute to humanity.
And, he did just that.
The Author’s Offer: If you’d like a complimentary review copy of one of my latest books, check out my Website at www.djherda.org, as well as my current publisher at Elektra Press. I’ll look forward to hearing your thoughts. Until then, happy reading!