John Richard Hersey was born in Tientsin, China on June 17, 1914 where he lived until 1925 when his family went back to the United States. Hersey worked as a journalist and war correspondent during World War II for Time Magazine and became well known from those writings on the war. He was Master at Pierson College at Yale from 1965 to 1970 and spent the following year as Writer-in-Residence at the American Academy in Rome. He was a past President of the Authors League of America and was elected by the membership of the American Academy of Arms and Letters to be their chancellor. Hersey's first novel was "A Bell for Adano," which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1945. The following year he wrote… "Hiroshima," which was an account of nuclear devastation and human suffering. Hersey was outspoken against the bombing, leading the fight to reclaim humanity, and spoke out against the nuclear arms race. Hersey was also interested and involved in American public education and he published "The Child Buyer" in 1960. "Key West Tales" was published in 1993. Hersey retired from Yale University and lived between Key West, Florida and Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts. On March 24, 1993, John Hersey died at his home in Key West leaving behind his wife Barbara, five children and six grandchildren.
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.