James A. Michener (1907-1997), novelist
James A. Michener (1907-1997) was an American novelist. An adopted child, was raised as a Quaker in Doylestown, PA. Student at Swarthmore College and Colorado State Teachers College (now University of Northern Colorado). His first novel Tales of the South Pacific (1946), based on his personal experience while serving in the Pacific during WW2, was a smashing success, won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and was the basis for the Broadway and film musical South Pacific by Rodgers and Hammerstein. Michener became one of the most popular American writers of historical fiction of the 20th century with more than 40 titles. In 1997 was earned the Presidential Medal for Freedom.
A writer of historical novels with a special love for sagas covering the lives of many generation, Michener was attracted by the unfolding of Jewish history, which he made the subject of one oh his major novel. His sympathetic survey, from the Stone Age to the present, includes chapters on Second Temple Judaism and Christian origins.