1. James A. Michener By Matthew Margolin

2. James A. Michener was an American author of more than 40 titles, the majority of which were sweeping sagas, covering the lives of many generations in particular geographic locations and incorporating historical facts into the stories.

3. James Michener was born February 3, 1907 in Doylestown, Pennsylvania. He was raised a Quaker and graduated in 1929 from Swarthmore College, majoring in English and psychology. After travelling through Europe, Michener taught English at several schools including George School in Newtown, PA and Colorado State Teachers College. The library there is named after him. He was later called to active duty in WWII in the U.S. Navy. His travels began to give him inspiration for his writing works, specifically his missions in the South Pacific which later became the setting for his breakout work Tales of the South Pacific.

4. Tales of the South Pacific won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1948. He later wrote for television, specifically for the series Adventures in Paradise in 1959. His many writing projects sold an estimated 75 million copies worldwide. His work, Centennial, was made into a popular twelve-part television miniseries that aired on NBC from October 1978 through February 1979.

5. Michener was married three times. He was very charitable, donating more than $100 million, mostly to benefit universities. In his final years, he lived in Austin, Texas. There, he founded an MFA program now names the Michener Center for Writers. Other notable awards in his lifetime were the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1977 and in 2008, he was given the Honorary Portrait Image on a United States Postage Stamp.

6. In 1997, Michener died of kidney failure at the age of 90. He left his entire $10 million estate, including the copywrite to his works, to Swarthmore College. Several tributes were given to him after his death, including The James A. Michener Society, 1998, preserving the intellectual legacy of Michener. The Raffles Hotel in Singapore named one of their suites after him – 1998 The James A Michener Art Museum in Doylestown, PA - 1998