James A. Michener Bio/Wiki, Net Worth, Married 2018
James Albert Michener (/?m?t?n?r/; February 3, 1907 – October 16, 1997) was an American author of more than 40 titles, the majority of which were family 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 fiction novels 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 Iberia about his travels in Spain and Portugal; his memoir entitled 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.
"I think it's remarkable that a man could write the kind of thing I do
lengthy, intricate, not dependent on sex or violence - and acquire
the readership I have." (1980)
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Fact
1
He had survived three near-fatal plane crashes.
2
The Library of the University of Northern Colorado, in Greeley, Colorado, his alma mater, is named the James Michener Library in his honor.
3
He left his entire estate, including the copyrights to his works, to Swarthmore College.
4
He ran as a Democratic candidate for Congress in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, in 1962. Although his campaign was well-fought, he was defeated by his Republican opponent.
5
Abandoned as an infant in Doylestown, Pennsylvania.
6
He was raised with other abandoned children by a poor Quaker widow named Mabel Michener.
7
He knows nothing about his birth parents.
8
Pictured on a 59¢ USA definitive postage stamp in the Distinguished Americans series, issued 12 May 2008.
9
He was awarded the American National Medal of the Arts by the National Endowment of the Arts in Washington, DC.
10
Biography in: "American National Biography". Supplement 1, pp. 410-412. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.
11
He had no children. "Not by design, but because that's the way it worked out."
12
In 1956, he wrote a pilot about a sailboat plying the South Seas, called "James Michener Presents a South Pacific Adventure," which starred Lyle Bettger. The pilot wasn't picked up by any of the networks, but three years later the concept was reworked and became Adventures in Paradise (1959) starring Gardner McKay and ran from 1959-1962.
13
His popular 1971 novel The Drifters was never made into a movie, but the movie rights for the book were among the highest ever paid up to that time.