Michener, James A(lbert)

(US, 1907–98) Michener was a Lieutenant Commander in the US Navy Pacific fleet during the Second World War, and afterwards worked in publishing and lecturing. His first work, Tales of the South Pacific (1947), won a Pulitzer Prize and was the inspiration for the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical South Pacific. His fiction is based on fact, and is on an epic scale: many of his books, for example, Mexico (1992) and Alaska (1988), are histories of whole countries or states told through the fortunes of several families: the plot passing like a relay race from generation to generation. To read Michener's books is not just to be entertained by his characters but to be educated—in subjects ranging from archaeology to shipbuilding and cookery.

Leon Uris, Herman Wouk  EC