James A. Michener: Biography

James Albert Michener was born in 1907 to unknown parents and raised as an orphan in the care of Mabel Michener of Doylestown, Pennsylvania.

His love of travel and literature were apparent early in his life – by the time he graduated from high school in 1925, he had hitchhiked through much of the US and read most of Honore de Balzac’s works (May, 2005).  He attended Swarthmore College on scholarship and, after graduating summa cum laude in 1929, he traveled and continued his education, studying abroad in Scotland and teaching in the United States.  Between 1929 and 1941, Michener taught in Pennsylvania, Colorado, and Massachusetts.

During World War II, he joined the Navy, making use of his knowledge of history to carry out sensitive assignments in the South Pacific.  It was this experience that inspired Tales of the South Pacific in 1947, which won a Pulitzer Prize. Building on the success of Tales of the South Pacific, Michener went on to write almost 50 books in the next 50 years, including Sayonara, Hawaii, The Source, Iberia, Caravans, The Covenant, Sports in America, and Poland.

Many of Michener’s written works were eventually adapted for film, stage, and television.  Most notably, Tales of the South Pacific was adapted by Rodgers and Hammerstein and the resulting musical, South Pacific, was awarded the Pulitzer Prize and won ten Tony Awards in 1950. 

In addition to his prolific career as a writer, Michener was also interested in politics.  He ran for a seat in the Pennsylvania state legislature in 1962 and held positions on several committees, including the Pennsylvania Constitutional Convention, the U.S. Postal Service Stamp Committee, and a NASA advisory council.  He also spoke often at congressional hearings and at functions of those organizations in which he held particular interest.

James A. Michener died at the age of 90 on October 16, 1997 in Texas, three years after his third wife, Mari Yoriko Sabusawa. 

Photo credit: Robert Vavra