Michener, James A(lbert) (1907-1997)

US writer. He made a vast fortune from writing epic novels and gave away much of this money. His Pulitzer prize-winning Tales of the South Pacific (1947) was adapted as the musical South Pacific.

He began his career as a teacher and writer on social studies. In 1944 he went to the South Pacific as a naval historian, where he gathered much of the background detail for his first work, Tales of the South Pacific (1947). This collection became the template for Michener's working method thereafter: his approach being to fictionalize a detailed and well-researched groundbase of historical and geographical material gathered on a grand scale and over a period of several years. Other novels include The Bridges of Toko-ri (1953), Sayonara (1954), Hawaii (1959), The Source (1965), and The Covenant (1980).

His Democratic sympathies prompted him to stand, unsuccessfully, for Congress in 1962; in 1971 he conducted an investigation into the killings of students during a demonstration at Kent State University. In 1996 he received one of the last of a string of honours - which included 30 doctorates - when he was nominated Outstanding Philanthropist by the National Society of Fund Raising Executives.