The World is My Home: A Memoir by James A. Michener

Having loved many of the author's works, I was eager to read the events and adventures which propelled him to write more than thirty novels, many so epic and enchanting they were turned into stage plays, musicals and movies.

I was not disappointed.

Rather, I am tempted to report that his own life is more interesting than those he created to entertain us. After twenty two years, it is time you all were made aware of the matter.

Considering his origins, those of an orphan, he was, despite his accomplishments, wealth and renown, a very controversial member of the clans which claim the name Michener. About half disown him. The other half welcomed him with open arms, even before his worldwide fame. Considering this uproar, it may be proper to say that the character of the author is his own best creation.

Much of the book is devoted to the art of writing, of which he credits editing and more editing as the secret of success. His relationships with wife, editors and publishers are a revelation to anyone interested in the writing life as it was until very recently. Nothing is more important to him than research and those who assist him with it. He labors over a word, the correct word. Is it of Germanic, Old English or Latin origin? Which to use. His brief explanation of the correct use of the words bring and take is classic. Failing to understand them, Michener asserts, is not to know whether one is coming or going. It is also instructive to understand his views about wealth and its purpose, how it should be amassed and bequethed.

He discusses his life in politics, theater and as the darling of the American Right and Reader's Digest, a light dimmed after Hawaii, The Bridges at Toko-Ri and his criticisms of Richard Nixon and the Vietnam War. But I found the most compelling adventure to be the one which turned him to writing in the first place and set him on the road to fame and fortune.

He was an engineer in his mid-thirties working around mines in Colorado when the war began. Commissioned a navy lieutenant, he and several younger officers embarked on a troop ship bound for the southwest Pacific. Except for being shunned and ignored by the ship's merchant crew the voyage was uneventful. So much so that the officers, mostly college pranksters, began harrassing the crew. Eventually they were confined to quarters. There one of the bright ensigns set about making up and forging orders for the rest of them. As senior officer, Michener was given first choice, a dream assignment.

Since it was all good fun, the future best-selling writer chose Admiral Halsey's staff. Arriving in Australia, it turned out that these were the only orders any of them really had, so he presented them to Halsey's headquarters.

Duely impressed, the fleet commander sent his newest officer on a fact-finding, personal investigation of rumors that several U.S. Navy and Marine Corps outposts had mutinied. Armed with real orders and all the country's air and naval transport at his whim, Michener spent the rest of the war traveling remote islands, backwater jetties and obsolete repair depots. There he found an actual mutiny, several commands which had 'gone native' and some of the most memorable Americans to come out of World War II. He wrote volumes of reports back to Halsey's headquarters, and the notes became the basis for Tales of the South Pacific, which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1948, became a beloved Broadway musical, two films, a television series, mini-series, two more books and launched a fabulous literary career.

Michener's memoir is a fine read and highly recommended for anyone interested in actual people, the guts of the American Century, and a real life.

5 Stars ...