James A. Michener, 1907 - 1997 James Albert Michener was born on February 3, 1907 in Doylestown, Pa. He earned an A.B. from Swarthmore College, an A.M. from Colorado State College of Education, and an M.A. from Harvard University. He taught for many years and was an editor for Macmillan Publishing Company. His first book, "Tales of the South Pacific," derived from Michener's service in the Pacific in World War II, won the 1947 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and was the basis for the Rodgers and Hammerstein Broadway musical South Pacific, which won the 1950 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Michener completed close to 40 novels. Some other epic works include "Hawaii," "Centennial," "Space," and… "Caribbean." He also wrote a significant amount of nonfiction including his autobiography "The World Is My Home." Among his many other honors, James Michener received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1977. He was married to Patti Koon in 1935; they divorced in 1948. He married Vange Nord in 1948 (divorced 1955) and Mari Yoriko Sabusawa in 1955 (deceased 1994). He died in 1997 in Austin, Texas.Jacques Cousteau, 1910 - 1997 French marine explorer, writer, and film producer, Cousteau has popularized the undersea world for people of all ages. In 1943, he was partially responsible for the invention of the Aqua-lung, making it possible to extend the duration of underwater swimming. After World War II, he persuaded the French naval minister to create a marine study center at Toulon. Several years of study dramatized the need for application research, so with a 25-million-franc gift, the ferry Calypso was purchased. Its voyage to the Red Sea resulted in a film that won the Grand Prix at the Paris documentary film festival. It was followed in 1956 by The Silent World, an Oscar winner. Ensuing explorations resulted in over 36 films. The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau (1967) documented a scientific world cruise from the Red Sea through the Indian Ocean to the Pacific Ocean, as far north as Alaska. A 1972 television series filmed the expedition in the Antarctic and along the Chilean coast, and a 1975 archaeological expedition took Cousteau and his team to Greek waters. Cousteau has also written over 15 books, including a 20-volume encyclopedia, The Ocean World of Jacques Cousteau. He has produced numerous videotapes and has written a column, "Pulse of the Sea," for the Saturday Review, in addition to numerous articles for National Geographic magazine from 1952 to 1966. In 1974, he founded the Cousteau Society to preserve the oceans. He estimates that in his lifetime he has spent over seven years underwater, and that "during that time I have observed and studied closely, and with my own two eyes I have seen the oceans sicken."