Who was James Albert Michener?
Q: Who was James Albert Michener?
A: James Albert Michener was an American writer. He wrote 40 books, most of which were large sagas about the lives of many generations in a particular place.
Q: Where did he grow up?
A: He was raised by an adoptive mother, Mabel Michener, in Doylestown, Pennsylvania. Some have argued that Mabel was his birth mother.
Q: What did he study at college?
A: He graduated from Swarthmore College and later studied at the Colorado State Teachers College.
Q: What did he teach?
A: He taught at both Colorado State Teachers College and Harvard University.
Q: How did his writing career begin?
A: His writing career began during World War II when he was assigned to the South Pacific Ocean as a naval historian. He used his time there as the basis for Tales of the South Pacific, his first book.
Q: Who did he meet while in Japan?
A: While in Japan, Michener met his wife Mari. His novel Sayonara is autobiographical and based on their relationship.
Q: When and where did he die? A: In his final years, he lived in Austin, Texas where he died of kidney failure on October 16th 1997 at the age of 90.
