Jim's Pond - Exploring the Universe of Ideas
"Beware when the great God lets loose a thinker on this planet. Then all things are at risk. It is as when a conflagration has broken out in a great city, and no man knows what is safe, or where it will end." --Ralph Waldo Emerson
Sunday, February 23, 2003

Sunday - Big Picture

Mikey left for Idaho at about 3:00 this afternoon. I have a few Audio Books and one of the last things we did was pick several for his drive to Boise. It makes the time go by faster. Mikey pointed to one of the tapes and said, "I tried to read the book but couldn't get into it. He starts with a discussion of plates." This book he referred to was Alaska by James A. Michener. I understood.

Michener can be a challenging read. But I was able to get through Alaska and a bunch of other Michener books over the past 25 years. In fact, Michener has been one of my favorite authors since I read The Source back in the late 1970s. After Mikey left I took my dogs for a long walk in the hills above my home and I thought of Michener and his unusual llife.

What I know about Michener I learned by reading his autobiography,The World is My Home several times over the past few years. His story is remarkable and unexpected. I always assumed that Michener must have started young. How else could his prolific volume of work be explained. I was amazed to discover otherwise.

The following facts are found in The World is My Home:

- Michener was 36 years old, newly divorced, out of work and enlisted in the U.S. Military.

- Michener spent 4 years in military service, in the South Pacific.

- Michener served 2 two-year tours of duty in the military. He began writing his book, Tales of the South Pacific during the second tour. By his 40th birthday he had not been published.

- Tales of the South Pacific was published in 1947. Michener's publisher originally considered a 1946 publication date. In fact, Michener had a copy of the book with 1946 as the publication date.

- Michener received the 1947 Pulitzer Prize for Tales of the South Pacific.

- Michener admits that receiving the Pulitzer was a miracle. If published, as planned, in 1946 his little book would have gone up against Robert Penn Warren's All the King's Men, a sure winner. If held until 1948, then the competition would have been Guard of Honor by James Gould Cozzen. Either way Michener believed that Tales of the South Pacific would not have prevailed. Its only chance was to be published in 1947.

- Since Tales of the South Pacific was published early in 1947 it was all but forgotten by the time the Pulitzer was awarded for that year. (The award was given in 1948 for the best work published in 1947) The award revived interest in the book.

- Michener felt that his career was saved because of these circumstances.

I've aspired to be a writer for most of my life. Blogging helps me to fill my dreams. Michener gives me the inspiration to realize that odd, even miraculous, circumstances can change a person's life. Michener may sell himself short. He may have been successful as a writer even without a few lucky breaks. Still, it's fun to know how it happened.

Michener was a facsinating man. He tells many other good stories about himself. I highly recommend The World is My Home. It's a good read.

That's all for now........
6:26:13 PM    comment []






© 2005 Jim Stewart
Last Update: 2/16/05; 2:40:44 PM

Click here to visit the Radio UserLand website.

 











February 2003
Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
            1
2 3 4 5 6 7 8
9 10 11 12 13 14 15
16 17 18 19 20 21 22
23 24 25 26 27 28  
Jan   Mar

Subscribe to "Jim's Pond - Exploring the Universe of Ideas" in Radio UserLand.
Click to see the XML version of this web page.
Click here to send an email to the editor of this weblog.

Jim's Links


Look Here



Current Reading Shelf