"I was hoping," Michener told Steve Wartenberg of the
Intelligencer-Record, "I could write a series of stories that would tell men who were drafted into the military in those difficult years what life was like. I gambled that when they returned home and demobilized, they would remember their experiences as the most vital of their lives, and they would want to read about it, and my book would be there." Michener's gamble paid off---
Tales of the South Pacific won a Pulitzer Prize in 1948 and was adapted by Rogers and Hammerstein into the popular musical comedy,
South Pacific in 1949.
The Epic Novels
In 1948, Michener and his first wife were divorced and he married Vange Nord, an aspiring writer. The couple bought some property and built a new house, and Michener proceeded to publish several more books, including The Fires of Spring (1949), Return to Paradise (1951), The Bridges at Toko-Ri (1953), and Sayonara: The Floating World (1954). In addition, Michener began working as a roving editor for Readers Guide, an endeavor he continued until 1970. In 1955, he and his second wife divorced and Michener married Mari Yoriko Sabusawa. Although they had no children of their own, throughout their 39-year marriage Michener and his third wife housed and cared for many underprivileged children.
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