James A. Michener: Personal Life

James Michener rarely spoke about his upbringing, but biographers have speculated that he was the illegitimate son of Mabel Michener and that she staged the adoption to hide an out of wedlock pregnancy.  In Michener’s memoir, The World is My Home, he reflected:

 I was raised in an atmosphere of love, responsibility, and service, but what I remember the most is the constant laughter in my home… Despite the anguish we suffered at times, we did not live tragic lives; laughter, not tears, surrounded me.

Though Michener was never sure whether Mabel was his biological parent, he loved her dearly.  Mabel, in turn, cared fiercely for James and all the other children in her home.

Herman and Ann Silverman counted James and Mari Michener among their dearest friends.  Both couples were longtime Bucks County, Pennsylvania residents spending time together whenever the Micheners were not abroad.  Herman Silverman recalled his fifty-year friendship with the author fondly:

It was the kind of friendship where something was always going to happen, it was always going to be fun.  Something was going to happen, it was going to be a discussion, an argument… I miss him a lot because we had so much good times, he was just great to be with.

Still, Herman and Ann Silverman recognized that Michener was intensely private and there were areas of his life he did not wish to share with others.  Ann Silverman remembers that Michener rarely talked about his early life and would "brush it off" if questioned.

After his divorce from Vange Nord in 1955, James Michener remarried within the year.  He met Mari Yoriko Sabusawa, his third wife, in Chicago at an American Libraries Association (ALA) meeting.  He was instantly enamored with Mari, a liberal Antioch College graduate, and editor of the ALA Bulletin.  He admired her intellect and warm personality, and she, in turn, was attracted to his wit, hardworking demeanor, and worldly perspective.  It was quickly apparent that the two were a great match, and their friend Ann Silverman recalled:

She loved going with him and being with him, wherever.  They spent more of their life together on ships and airplanes. And they loved it.

Mari and James’ long partnership was filled with travel and adventure.  They remained married until Mari's death in 1994. 

Michener and his second wife, Vange Nord, were married in 1948 not long after his divorce from Patti Koon.  In some respects, the two were similar - Nord was an architecture student and writer, much closer to Michener’s intellectual personality than Koon.  Michener’s relationship with his second wife, however, was fraught with conflict.

The two were initially smitten with each other, marrying shortly after they met.  Over time, Michener’s constant traveling and Nord’s frustrations that her writing career did not take off started to strain their marriage (May, 2005).  They reconciled several times, even adopting two boys, but ultimately their marriage ended with a dramatic, contentious divorce.  After their divorce in 1955, Michener had no further contact with his ex-wife and the children were returned to the custody of the adoption agency (May, 2005).  Vange eventually returned to her home state of Michigan where she died in 2004 at the age of 82 (SSDI, 2004).

James Michener and photographer Robert Vavra first met in the 1960s while Michener was traveling through Spain researching Iberia.  On many successive trips to Spain, Vavra served as a guide, photographer, and traveling companion, accompanying Michener to bullfights, meeting famous toreros, and touring the Spanish countryside. In their almost forty year relationship, Vavra grew to be one of Michener’s closest friends.  In his book, Vavra recalled:

He said, ‘Bob, I’m really glad we’re friends.’  Coming from someone else, this declaration would hardly have been noticed, but from James Michener, it almost had the impact of a marriage proposal.

Vavra photographed Michener many times throughout his lifetime, creating a strikingly candid record of the author’s life.  Vavra’s collection of Michener photographs is available for online viewing at Digital UNC. 

Michener met his first wife, Patti Koon, in 1935 while studying at the University of Virginia.  Biographer Stephen May described the two as “terribly mismatched” - Patti, the gregarious daughter of a Lutheran minister a foil to Michener’s reserved, intellectual persona.

Their marriage lasted almost 13 years, though much of it was spent apart.  Both Patti and James Michener enlisted in the military during World War II.  While he was in the South Pacific, Patti served in the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps in Europe analyzing intelligence reports.  Upon returning home in 1948, the two divorced, having grown apart over the past few years.  After their divorce, Patti went on to have a long and successful career, first in advertising and then as a civil servant in Fort Lee, Virginia (“Patti K. Michener Obituary”, 2004).  She died in 2007 in Prince George, Virginia at the age of 93.