James A. Michener, Doylestown, Bucks County

Sorry I'm late? I didn't intend to be gone for what amounts to four weeks, but upon returning from our fantastic vacation (thank you very much, parents), both my sister and I were struck with some pretty nasty sinus infections. She was much worse than I was, but I was bad enough that it was hard to concentrate on writing. My voice was also affected, so there have been no new podcast episodes because it hurt to talk that much. I'm hoping that the orange boys will help me with a new one in the next few days; we'll see if they feel like cooperating.

To get back into the swing of things, I thought I'd make a return trip to scenic Doylestown and talk about a writer who was way more productive than I'm ever likely to be. James Michener was the author of more than forty books, both fiction and non-fiction, and even if you've never read a single one of them you've probably at least heard a few of their titles.

His official birth date is given as February 3, 1907, and most sources seem to agree that he was born in New York City. Later in life, however, he would assert that he was never entirely sure exactly when, where, or to whom he had been born - nor did he particularly care. He was identified as an orphan, and was adopted as an infant by Mabel Haddock Michener. She was a young widow who already had one son, Robert; her husband Edwin had died just two years into their marriage, and she never remarried. I can't find any information on just how she came to adopt her second child, but she named him James Albert Michener and raised both of her boys in the Quaker faith.

James graduated from Doylestown's public high school in 1925 - not the current one, but the one which stood at the intersection of Court and Broad Streets, where his historical marker is located. He attended Pennsylvania's Swarthmore College on a full scholarship, where he was a basketball player, and received a bachelor's degree in English and history. From there he traveled abroad, spending two years in Scotland studying at the University of Saint Andrews. He returned to his native Pennsylvania and began teaching, starting as a high school English teacher in Pottstown. From 1933 to 1936, he taught English in Newtown, and during that time he married his first wife, Patti Koon. They relocated to Colorado, where James earned a masters degree in education at what today is the University of Northern Colorado. He taught there for a few years; the university later named their library in his honor, and maintains a permanent display of some of his personal effects.

James spent a year as a guest lecturer at Harvard University before joining the Navy to serve in World War II. He received multiple assignments to travel throughout the South Pacific Ocean, serving as a naval historian. Later in life, he confessed that he got these gigs because of a case of mistaken identity - for some reason, people thought he was the son of Admiral Marc Mitscher, and well, I guess he didn't bother to correct them at the time. I can't really blame him. At the age of 40, in 1947, his notes and recollections of these assignments became his breakout book, Tales of the South Pacific. It earned him the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1948, the same year that he and Patti divorced, and was adapted into the Broadway musical South Pacific by Rodgers and Hammerstein in 1949. 

His attempts at writing for television didn't properly pan out; the plan was to do a weekly series based on Tales From the South Pacific, but Rodgers and Hammerstein had bought all the dramatic rights to the novel and weren't willing to give them back. He later, however, assisted with the creation of the 1959 series Adventures in Paradise. He continued to churn out a prolific number of books, as well as entering politics. He chaired a committee in Bucks County to get John F. Kennedy elected President in 1960, and in 1962 he attempted himself to take one of Pennsylvania's seats in the House of Representatives. He lost, and always said it was a mistake to have even tried, though he also asserted that he learned a lot from the experience.

James was married three times. He married his second wife, Vange Nord, the same year that he divorced Patti, but divorced her in 1955 and married Mari Yoriko Sabusawa, who as a child had been forced to live in Japanese internment camps during World War II. James's novel Sayonara is somewhat autobiographical with relation to his third marriage, as it focuses on the cross-cultural romance between an Air Force pilot and a Japanese woman. James and Mari remained married until her death. He had no children with any of his wives; he and second wife Vange took in a pair of foster sons at one point, but after the marriage ended they were returned to the orphanage.

James had the happy experience of being an artist appreciated in his own lifetime. As seen here (public domain image courtesy of WikiCommons), he received the Medal of Freedom from President Gerald Ford in 1977. In his biography, it's estimated that his books sold roughly 75 million copies worldwide while he was alive to enjoy it. He was admired for his commitment to detail and extensive research into the history, culture, and geology of the places where his various novels were set and for which they were named, including Hawaii, Poland, Chesapeake, Texas, Mexico, Alaska, and Caribbean. He also wrote a novel which he humorously titled The Novel, which follows the story of a book from creation to publication. His nonfiction works include Iberia, which is a travelogue of his experiences in Spain and Portugal; Report of the County Chairman, recalling his days campaigning in Bucks County on behalf of John F. Kennedy; and William Penn, a biography of our commonwealth's beloved founding father. His final work, published in the year of his death, was A Century of Sonnets, a collection of more than one hundred poems written in his lifetime.

In addition to his writing, James is remembered for his philanthropy - he gave away the bulk of his earnings to various causes. James and Mari spent their final years in the city of Austin, Texas, and there he gave millions to the University of Texas at Austin. He also created the university's Michener Center for Writers, which provides fellowships to writing students. He bequeathed most of his estate and his book copyrights to his alma mater, Swarthmore College, and donated his papers to the University of Northern Colorado. His native Doylestown wasn't forgotten either; he helped to establish the Michener Art Museum on South Pine Street. As pictured here, it's situated in what was once the Bucks County Jail, and includes some outdoor exhibits related to the history of the site. Inside the museum are both permanent and rotating collections, and among the permanent fixtures are the James A. Michener display room (which shows off some of his personal belongings, including his typewriter) and the Nakashima Reading Room (which he established in honor of Mari's Japanese heritage). He is also remembered as a "Rainmaker" - that is, a major contributor - to the Mercer Museum, where he spent a lot of time while growing up.

Mari Michener died in 1994, by which time James had developed terminal kidney disease. He continued to receive dialysis for a few more years, but after he celebrated his 90th birthday, he decided that he had accomplished everything he wanted and didn't need to continue the difficult treatment any longer. He died on October 16, 1997; per his wishes, he was cremated and his ashes were interred with Mari in Austin Memorial Park Cemetery. Companions in death as well as life, the Micheners share a pinkish marble headstone. Mari's half identifies her as "Philanthropist, Art Lover, Wife." For James, it reads, "Traveler, Citizen, Writer." This reflects his belief, as he often stated, that "The world is my home." 

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Sources and Further Reading:

Biography of James Michener at the Pennsylvania Center for the Book

Guttridge, Peter. "Obituary: James Michener." The United Kingdom Independent, October 17, 1997.

Official website of the James A. Michener Society

Official website of the Michener Art Museum

James A. Michener at FindAGrave.com

James A. Michener at the Historical Marker Database

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Except where indicated, all writing and photography on this blog is the intellectual property of Laura Klotz. This blog is written with permission of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. I am not employed by the PHMC. All rights reserved.