'The swirl of words tangling with human emotions'

 

“I love writing. I love the swirl and swing of words as they tangle with human emotions.” – James A. Michener

A native of Pennsylvania, Michener was born on this date in 1907 and during his long life (he died at age 90), he wrote 40-plus books, hundreds of essays and short stories, and several screenplays and radio pieces.  The majority were fictional, lengthy family sagas covering generations in particular geographic locales while incorporating solid history.   

 

I first got tuned in to both Michener and my own itch to become a writer when my high school English teacher Clarke Hoover  handed me a copy of Hawaii and said, “Read this and maybe some day you can write like he does.  You have it in you.” 

Trained as a historian, Michener started writing while serving in the Navy during World War II.   His first novel was Tales of the South Pacific.  The book won the Pulitzer Prize and became the foundation for Rodgers and Hammerstein’s long-running award-winning Broadway show and movie South Pacific.

 His novels have sold 80 million copies, almost all based on detailed historical, cultural, and even geological research.

Another of my Michener “favorites” was Centennial,   

set in my adopted state of Colorado and written to coincide with the state’s 100^th birthday in 1976.   Like Hawaii, it documented generations of families whose lives and cultures shaped the history of the state. 

“I think," Michener said, "the crucial thing in writing is to find what you want to do and how you fit in.    What somebody else does is of no concern whatever except as an interesting variation.”