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James A. Michener
James Albert Michener ( or ; February 3, 1907 – October 16, 1997) was an American writer. He wrote more than 40 books, most of which were long, fictional family sagas covering the lives of many generations in particular geographic locales and incorporating detailed history. Many of his works were bestsellers and were chosen by the Book of the Month Club; he was known for the meticulous research that went into his books. Michener's books include ''Tales of the South Pacific'', for which he won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1948; ''Hawaii''; ''The Drifters''; ''Centennial''; ''The Source''; ''The Fires of Spring''; '' Chesapeake''; '' Caribbean''; '' Caravans''; ''Alaska''; ''Texas''; ''Space''; ''Poland''; and ''The Bridges at Toko-ri''. His non-fiction works include ''Iberia'', about his travels in Spain and Portugal; his memoir, '' The World Is My Home''; and ''Sports in America''. '' Return to Paradise'' combines fictional short stories with Michener's factual descriptio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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Family Sagas
The family saga is a genre of literature which chronicles the lives and doings of a family or a number of related or interconnected families over a period of time. In novels (or sometimes sequences of novels) with a serious intent, this is often a thematic device used to portray particular historical events, changes of social circumstances, or the ebb and flow of fortunes from a multitude of perspectives. The word ''saga'' comes from Old Norse, where it meant "what is said, utterance, oral account, notification" and "(structured) narrative, story (about somebody)", and was originally borrowed into English from Old Norse by scholars in the eighteenth century to refer to the Old Norse prose narratives known as ''sagas''. , ''OED Online'', 1st edn (Oxford: Oxford University Press, December 2019). The typical family saga follows generations of a famil ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Poland (novel)
''Poland'' is a historical novel written by James A. Michener and published in 1983 detailing the times and tribulations of three interconnected Polish families (the Lubonski family, the Bukowski family, and the Buk family) across eight centuries, ending in the then-present day (1981). The Lubonski family is one of the princely houses of Poland, its wealthy patriarchs generally ruling over their region; the Bukowski family are petty nobles, with a well-known and respected name but typically little money; and the Buk family are impoverished peasants. Despite their drastically different social standings, members of the families interact frequently throughout the generations, sometimes as allies and sometimes as adversaries. Overview Michener was hired by a television company to travel to a foreign country to shoot a documentary. He was offered support to go anywhere in the world and Michener decided to make the trip to Poland. Following this, Michener made several trips back to Po ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Space (Michener Novel)
''Space'' is a novel by James A. Michener published in 1982. It is a fictionalized history of the United States space program, with a particular emphasis on human spaceflight. Michener writes in a semi-documentary style. The topics explored in the novel include naval warfare in the Pacific Ocean, air combat in the Korean War (something Michener had already explored in ''The Bridges at Toko-Ri''), test pilot life at ' Pax River', astronaut selection and training, the role of the media in promoting the space program as a national achievement, and the development of the Gemini and Apollo spacecraft, the rise of the military-industrial complex and the evolution of NACA into NASA. Plot summary The story begins in 1944 and covers more than 30 years in the lives of four men and their families: Dieter Kolff, a German rocket engineer who worked for the Nazis; Norman Grant, a World War II hero turned U.S. Senator from the fictional Midwestern state of Fremont; Stanley Mott, an aeronauti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Texas (novel)
''Texas'' (1985) is a novel by American writer James A. Michener (1907-1997), based on the history of the Lone Star State. Characters include real and fictional characters spanning hundreds of years, such as explorers, Spanish colonists, American immigrants, German Texan settlers, ranchers, oil men, aristocrats, Chicanos, and others, all based on extensive historical research. Background Michener did extensive research on the novel in Texas, receiving much support from the state government. Governor Bill Clements offered him access to numerous state archives and research staff at the University of Texas at Austin. Michener rented 3506 Mt. Bonnell Road for $1 per year to write the manuscript. At 1,076 pages, it was the longest Michener novel published by Random House. Given the success of his previous novels, the company did a first printing of 750,000 copies, 'the largest in the company's history.' [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alaska (novel)
''Alaska'' is a 1988 historical novel by James A. Michener. Like other Michener titles, ''Alaska'' spans a considerable amount of time, traced through the gradual interlinking of several families. Plot introduction ''Alaska'' is 868 pages long. Along with the reading, Michener provides a table of contents, a list of acknowledgements, and a ''Fact and Fiction'' section. The third item offers the reader an insight into what occurred in real life and what the author invented. Plot summary Chapter I: The Clashing Terranes A sweeping description of the formation of the North American continent. The reader follows the development of the Alaskan terrain over millennia. The city of Los Angeles is now some twenty-four hundred miles south of central Alaska, and since it is moving slowly northward as the San Andreas fault slides irresistibly along, the city is destined eventually to become part of Alaska. If the movement is two inches a year, which it often is, we can expect Los Angeles ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Caravans (novel)
''Caravans'', a novel by James A. Michener, was published in 1963. The story is set in Afghanistan immediately following World War II. The protagonist, Mark Miller, is stationed in Kabul at the American embassy and is given the assignment of an investigation to find a young woman, Ellen Jasper, also from the United States, who has disappeared after her marriage to an Afghan national thirteen months previously. During his journey through Afghanistan, Miller comes to a deeper understanding of the complexities and nuances of contemporary Afghan life. His travels also reveal the similarities of human nature across cultural and social boundaries. The novel was the basis of a 1978 film with the same title starring Anthony Quinn and Jennifer O'Neill Jennifer O'Neill (born February 20, 1948) is a Brazilian-born American actress, model, author, and activist. She is known for her modeling and spokesperson work for CoverGirl cosmetics starting in 1963, and her starring role in the O ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Caribbean (novel)
''Caribbean'' (1989) is an historical novel written by James A. Michener, which describes and explores the history of the Caribbean region from the pre-Columbian period of the native Arawak tribes until about 1990. The author mixes fact and fiction, as he notes in the foreword. For example, the story about the island of All Saints is purely fictional, though the book's map shows it as an island in the location of Saint Lucia.The island of All Saints bears almost identical history to that of St Lucia and has many landmarks in common, with similar names. In other examples, Michener has taken well-known sites and placed them on the Atlantic side of "All Saints' instead of the Caribbean. In researching the book, Michener traveled the Caribbean for three years and consulted over 400 books. Chapter Summary #A Hedge of Croton: the invasion of the Caribs in the Arawak homelands. #Death of Greatness: the classic Mayan Period. #Christopher Columbus in Hispaniola: the trial of Christo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chesapeake (novel)
''Chesapeake'' is a novel by James A. Michener, published by Random House in 1978. The story deals with several families living in the Chesapeake Bay area around Virginia and Maryland, from 1583 to 1978. Plot summary The story-line, like much of Michener's work, depicts a number of characters within family groups over a long time period, richly illustrating the history of the area through these families' timelines. It starts in 1583 with American Indian tribes warring, moves with English settlers through the 17th century (land appropriation, tobacco farming, indentured servitude, religious persecution, etc.), slavery, pirate attacks, the American Revolution and the Civil War, Emancipation and attempted assimilation, to the final major event being the Watergate scandal of 1972-1974. The last voyage, a funeral, is in 1978. Chapters The book is divided into 14 separate chapters with two sections each. The first part provides a key date and describes the background behind the ar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Fires Of Spring
''The Fires of Spring'' (1949) is the second book and first novel published by American author James A. Michener. Usually known for his multi-generational epics of historical fiction, ''The Fires of Spring'' was written as a partially autobiographical bildungsroman in which Michener's proxy, young orphan David Harper, searches for meaning and romance in pre-World War II Pennsylvania. The book ''Spring Fire'' (by Marijane Meaker Marijane Agnes Meaker (May 27, 1927 – November 21, 2022) was an American writer who, along with Tereska Torres, was credited with launching the lesbian pulp fiction genre, the only accessible novels on that theme in the 1950s. Under the name ..., under the pseudonym "Vin Packer") was titled that by an editor in order to confuse potential readers with ''The Fires of Spring''. 1949 American novels Novels by James A. Michener Random House books Novels about orphans Novels set in Pennsylvania American bildungsromans 1949 debut novels ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Source (novel)
''The Source'' is a historical novel by James A. Michener published in 1965. It is a survey of the history of the Jewish people and the land of Israel from pre-monotheistic days to the birth of the modern State of Israel. ''The Source'' uses, for its central device, a fictional '' tell'' (mound/hill) in northern Israel called "Makor" ( he, "source"). Prosaically, the name comes from a freshwater well just north of Makor, but symbolically it stands for much more, historically and spiritually. Unlike most Michener novels, this book is not in strict chronological order. A parallel frame story set in Israel in the 1960s supports the historical timeline. Archaeologists digging at the ''tell'' at Makor uncover artifacts from each layer, which then serve as the basis for a chapter exploring the lives of the people involved with that artifact. The book follows the story of the Family of Ur from a Stone Age family whose wife begins to believe that there is a supernatural force, which ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Centennial (novel)
''Centennial'' is a novel by American author James A. Michener, published in 1974. It traces the history of the plains of north-east Colorado from prehistory until the mid-1970s. Geographic details about the fictional town of Centennial and its surroundings indicate that the region is in modern Weld County. ''Centennial'' was made into a popular twelve-part television miniseries, also titled ''Centennial'', that was broadcast on NBC from October 1978 through February 1979 and was filmed in several parts of Colorado. NBC Universal released a six volume DVD set in 2008. Overview Michener lived in Greeley during the late 1930s and was familiar with the area. He used a variety of source material for his fictional town taken from various areas in eastern Colorado, and Centennial is not meant to represent a single settlement. His description of the town's location places it at the junction of the South Platte River and the Cache la Poudre River. This is roughly halfway between the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
