James A. Michener

James Albert Michener was an American writer. He wrote more than 40 books, most of which were long, fictional family sagas covering the lives of many generations in particular geographic locales and incorporating detailed history. Many of his works were bestsellers and were chosen by the Book of the Month Club; he was known for the meticulous research that went into his books.

Michener's books 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; Space; Poland; and The Bridges at Toko-ri. His non-fiction works include Iberia, about his travels in Spain and Portugal; his memoir, 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 occur.

His first book was adapted as the popular Broadway musical South Pacific by Rodgers and Hammerstein, and later as eponymous feature films in 1958 and 2001, adding to his financial success. Several of his other stories and novels were adapted for films and TV series. He also wrote Presidential Lottery: The Reckless Gamble in Our Electoral System, condemning the United States Electoral College system. It was published in 1969 and republished in 2014 and 2016.

Michener was born in Doylestown, Pennsylvania. He later wrote that he did not know who his biological parents were or exactly when or where he was born. He was raised a Quaker by an adoptive mother, Mabel Michener, in Doylestown, Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Michener graduated from Doylestown High School in 1925. He attended Swarthmore College in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, where he played basketball and was a Phi Delta Theta fraternity member. 

After graduating summa cum laude in 1929 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and History, he traveled and studied in Scotland at the University of St Andrews in the medieval town of St. Andrews, Fife, on the coast of the North Sea for two years. Michener talks about hoboing (riding freight trains for free) during the Great Depression, as mentioned in the 1998 Great Depression documentary on the History Channel.

Michener took a job as a high school English teacher at The Hill School in Pottstown, Pennsylvania. From 1933 to 1936, he taught English at George School in Newtown, Pennsylvania. He attended Colorado State Teachers College in Greeley, Colorado (in 1970, renamed the University of Northern Colorado), where he earned a Master of Arts degree in education. After graduation, he taught at the university and College High School (the University Lab School) for several years. The University of Northern Colorado library was named after him in October 1972.

In 1935, Michener married Patti Koon. He accepted a Guest Lecturer position at Harvard from 1939 to 1940 but left to join Macmillan Publishers as their social studies education editor. Although, as a Quaker, he could have qualified as a conscientious objector and not been drafted into the military, Michener enlisted in the United States Navy during World War II (1941–1945). He traveled throughout the South Pacific Ocean on various assignments which he gained because his base commanders mistakenly thought his father was Admiral Marc Mitscher. 

His experiences during these travels inspired the stories published in his breakout work Tales of the South Pacific. In 1960, Michener was chairman of the Bucks County committee to elect Democrat John F. Kennedy as the 35th President. In 1962, he unsuccessfully ran as a Democratic Party candidate for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania, a decision he later considered a misstep. "My mistake was to run in 1962 as a Democratic candidate for Congress. [My wife] kept saying, 'Don't do it, don't do it.' I lost and went back to writing books."

In 1968, Michener served as the campaign manager for the U.S. Senator Joseph S. Clark of Pennsylvania, who was running for reelection to a third term. Clark ultimately lost the race to Richard Schweiker, a moderate Republican. Michener later served as Secretary for the 1967–1968 Pennsylvania Constitutional Convention. Also that year, Michener was a member of the Electoral College, serving as a Pennsylvania Democrat. 

He wrote about that experience in a political science text, Presidential Lottery: The Reckless Gamble in Our Electoral System, which was published the following year. In it, he suggested alternate systems, including using a direct popular vote by the majority for the office of President of the United States and other more creative solutions.