Talk:James A. Michener

dated
It would have been useful had Michner's books been dated. --K D F
 * Looks like they're dated now, but they are in alphabetical order. I think they'd be better served to be in published order.130.111.63.89 18:07, 9 August 2007 (UTC)
 * Added a table so now you can have it both ways. -- Esemono (talk) 13:19, 2 April 2009 (UTC)

graduating honors
Swarthmore doesn't give Latin honors to graduates. The honors program was introduced at the college in 1922, before Michener graduated; the honors given to graduates of the program are "honors", "high honors", and "highest honors". These, of course, translate to their familiar Latin equivalents, but the college is pretty insistent that they're not actually the same. I assume this has something to do with the fact that the honors signify something other than a GPA, since honors candidates have to complete a separate set of requirements from other grads. So, what Michener's diploma actually says is "with highest honors". --Cantara 02:50, 8 February 2006 (UTC)

A true story
We lived in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, in the period 1947-1952, and James Michener lived there at the same time. My parents knew him. In 1948, when I was eight years of age, the elementary school that I had attended and which my sister was then attending, had a fund raiser. Michener set up a tent with a sign on it, advertising himself as "Mitch the Witch." My parents gave me a dime -- in those days, they were made of silver, and you could actually buy something with just a dime -- and told me to go get my fortune told by James Michener. Which I did. Someone else was in the tent with him and admonished Michener to "give me a good fortune." He dealt out the cards, and gave me a good fortune.

Many years later, when I was a professor at the University of Texas, I reminded Michener of this incident (he had moved to Austin by that time).

In his autobiography, The World is My Home, Michener recounts his experiences with fortune-telling. Apparently, the accuracy of his predictions unnerved him, and he abandoned the enterprise.

Bill Jefferys 00:26, 19 July 2006 (UTC)


 * What a neat story. Would you consider adding an anecdote to the history section? Johnlogic 16:58, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

WikiProject class rating
This article was automatically assessed because at least one WikiProject had rated the article as start, and the rating on other projects was brought up to start class. BetacommandBot 08:13, 10 November 2007 (UTC)

The Floating World
mention needs to be made of this book, and michener's notability as a major collector and scholar of ukiyo-e. i think he willed his entire collection to the uiniversity of hawaii.Toyokuni3 (talk) 16:14, 26 April 2008 (UTC)

Michner's books have been date ordered
This has been a long overdue task. I see that not all of Michener's books are listed and that will be my next step. Ekotkie (talk) 00:11, 24 June 2008 (UTC)

Works has now been divided
Works now has a majority of non-fiction, movies, TV shows and radio added. This is all reference data from the LoC. The data in LoC is quite complex for this author as it includes many additional categories. I will be researching some of this area as I suspect some additional books have not been picked up.Ekotkie (talk) 17:28, 24 June 2008 (UTC)

A few of the books in the "Works" section of the article don't match up w/ the list of books in the "Works of James Michener" template. In particular, the books aren't in the same order (although both claim to date the books chronologically) and some books that are listed as fiction on one list are listed as nonfiction on the other.Soojmagooj (talk) 16:23, 23 June 2009 (UTC)

Pronunciation of Surname
I'm curious if someone know how Michener pronounced his surname. I'd grown accustomed to pronouncing it like a Frenchman in my mind, but I've heard someone say 'missioner'. Does anyone know how the author himself pronounced it? If so, can you please provide a source and annotate the phonetic transcription in the article? Thanks! Doctorcolossus (talk) 21:51, 14 April 2009 (UTC)
 * Well, I found an entry from American Heritage dictionary here. American Heritage's pronunciation is listed as (mĭch'ə-nər, mĭch'nər).  Only the former pronunciation is given in the audio, and I therefore take it to be correct.  My own transcription into the International Phonetic Alphabet (standard on Wikipedia) is (/ˈmɪtʃʌnɜr/), and I've added this to the article.  I'm not an expert with the IPA, but I believe my transcription is correct.  Please revise it if you find it in error, or if you dispute this source's information. Doctorcolossus (talk) 22:32, 14 April 2009 (UTC)
 * The TV series 'Adventures in Paradise' always opened with an announcer who said 'James A. MITCH-ener's Adventures in Paradise'.... 2001:44B8:3102:BB00:8C0E:4EED:C29B:FFE3 (talk) 01:38, 13 August 2020 (UTC)

Society
This read like an advertisement for the Society, "For more information about the Society, a Michener photo gallery, many links related to JAM, and a membership application form, visit the Society's official website http://www.michenersociety.com". This is against Wikipedia policy. I tried to correct the section into a NPOV wiki style. Nick Beeson (talk) 12:55, 24 February 2012 (UTC)


 * I think that entire section should be deleted. It has an EL; that is all that is appropriate.


 * Some may argue it shouldn't even be an EL given WP:FANCLUB, but it appears to satisfy EL requirements independently of its fan club status. TJRC (talk) 16:23, 24 February 2012 (UTC)

Nothing about Texas Western?
So in his "Sports in America" book, Michener goes on a racist tirade against 1966 Texas Western, including calling them loose-jointed ragamuffins and hopelessly outclassed by Rupp's all-white Kentucky program and describing their win as one of the most wretched (stories) in the history of American sports. Wikipedia shouldn't be allowed to gloss over racism, even if Michener was a famous dead author. Agreed. His racism and Sports in America need to be disclosed. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 161.202.78.181 (talk) 06:48, 11 September 2015 (UTC)

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