Subsequently, he found himself editing textbooks for a New York publishing firm, a position that was interrupted by World War II, when Michener joined the U.S. There followed two years of “teaching others how to teach,” first at Colorado State Teachers College, and then as Assistant Visiting Professor of History at Harvard University. Andrew’s University in Scotland and then returned to teach at the George School in Bucks County. Michener entered Swarthmore College as a scholarship student and graduated with highest honors. He traveled across the land by boxcar, worked in carnival shows, and before he was 20 years old, had visited all but three of the States in the Union. The great variety of odd jobs and experiences that followed formed an important part of his early education. Reading fed his wanderlust, and as a teenager, he hitchhiked from coast to coast. His mother and aunt valued books and education, and young Michener immersed himself in the novels of 19th-century masters, Dickens and Balzac. His adopted mother was a hardworking woman who opened her home to many foster children, but life was hard, and James Michener learned early to work hard and do without material possessions. He was born in New York City in 1907, but over the course of a long life, he was never able to learn who his birth parents were. Michener was adopted by a widow in Doylestown, Pennsylvania. OctoJames Michener as a child in Doylestown, Pennsylvania.Īs an infant, James A.

Hawaii by james michener summary