James A. Michener

He married thrice in his life. First was to Patti Koon in 1935. However, the unison did not work for long and he married his second wife Vange Nord in 1948. His second marriage was annulled in 1955.

Same year, he married his third wife, Mari Yoriko Sabusawa. She died in 1994.

Towards the end of his life, he stayed at the University of Texas in Austin. In October, he put an end to the daily dialysis treatment that had been continuing for four years. Eventually, he breathed his last on the sixteenth of the month due to kidney failure.

Not much is known of James Albert Michener’s early life and his childhood except for the fact that he was raised by an adoptive mother, Mabel Michener as a Quaker in Doylestown, Bucks County, Pennsylvania. He is reported to have been born on February 3, 1907.

Young Michener gained his early education from Doylestown High School from where he graduated in 1925. Thereafter, he enrolled at the Swarthmore College where he indulged in playing basketball.

At the college, he was part of the Phi Delta Theta fraternity. He studied English and psychology at the college. Graduating with the highest honors from the college summa cum laude in 1929, he moved to Europe and studied there for a couple of years.

His first ever vocation was as a high school English teacher at The Hill School in Pottstown, Pennsylvania. He thereafter moved to George School in Newtown Pennsylvania in 1933 and continued with the same profile for three years until 1936.

In 1936, he enrolled at the Colorado State Teachers College to earn his master’s degree. Upon completing his degree, he taught at the university for some time before taking up a teaching position at Harvard for a year from 1939 to 1940. He served as an Assistant Visiting Professor of History at the Harvard

In 1940, he left Harvard to join Macmillan Publishers for the profile of social studies education editor. He could not continue in the position for long as he was called for military service during World War II and was drafted into the United States Navy as a lieutenant.

While serving the US Navy, he was entrusted with the profile of a naval historian that allowed him to travel across the South Pacific Ocean. It were these travels that later formed the base and setting for his novel, ‘Tales of the South Pacific’.

The novel, ‘Tales of the South Pacific’ was published in 1947 to much acceptance and critical acclaim. It later served as the base for the Broadway and film musical, ‘South Pacific’ by Rodgers and Hammerstein. The following year, the book was felicitated with a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.

He was awarded with a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1948.

He was twice recognized by the National Association of Independent Schools in 1954 and 1958.

In 1967, he won the Einstein Award. Following year, he was presented with the Bestsellers paperback of the Year Award.

In 1970, he was presented with the George Washington Award from the Hungarian Studies Foundation.

In 1977, he was conferred with the prestigious US Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian award.