Michener : a writer's journey / by Stephen J. May ; foreword by Valerie Hemingway.

Format:

• Book

Author/Creator:

• May, Stephen J. (Stephen James), 1946-

Contributor:

• Gotham Book Mart Collection (University of Pennsylvania)

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

• Michener, James A. (James Albert), 1907-1997.
• Novelists, American--20th century--Biography.
• Novelists, American.

Genre:

• Biographies.

Penn Provenance:

• Gotham Book Mart (former owner) (Gotham Book Mart Collection copy)

Physical Description:

xx, 339 pages : illustrations, portraits ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Norman : University of Oklahoma Press, [2005]

Summary:

James A. Michener was one of the most beloved storytellers of our time, captivating readers with sweeping historical plots that educated and entertained. In this first full-length biography of the private as well as the public Michener, Stephen J. May reveals how an aspiring writer became a best-selling novelist. It is the only book to draw on Michener's complete papers as well as interviews with his friends and associates. The result conveys much about Michener never before revealed in print. May follows the young Michener from an impoverished Pennsylvania childhood to the wartime Pacific, where he found inspiration for Tales of the South Pacific, a book that led to a string of best sellers, including The Source, Centennial, Chesapeake, and The Covenant. May provides insights into Michener's personal life: his three marriages, his unique working methods, and his social and political views. He also reveals the author's hypersensitivity to criticism, his egotism, and his failure on some occasions to acknowledge the contributions of his assistants. Examining Michener's body of writing in its biographical and cultural contexts, May describes the creation of each novel and assesses the book's strengths and shortcomings. His close readings underscore Michener's innovativeness in presenting mountains of historical and cultural research in an engaging literary form. This probing biography establishes Michener's place in twentieth-century letters as it offers an unprecedented view of the man behind the typewriter.

Contents:

• The foundling, 1907-1939
• The boy
• The young drifter
• The mind's journey
• Sojourn in the Rockies
• A tale of the South Pacific, 1940-1949
• The amateur hero
• Nobody shouted "author!"
• The page and the stage
• The world in his arms, 1950-1969
• The occasional husband
• The writer at large
• Islands in the sun
• A different drummer
• "Noiseless, patient spider"
• A traveler in Spain
• Shine, perishing Republic
• Homecoming, 1970-1997
• One man's America
• The covenant
• The great ennobler
• New frontiers
• Portrait of the artist
• The tough old bird.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [329]-331) and index.

Local Notes:

Gotham Book Mart Collection copy has dustjacket retained.

ISBN:

0806136995

OCLC:

57637580