Michener's South Pacific: From Battlefront to Bestseller to Broadway, May - B

                                              Inspired after listening to the 2008 cast album recently, I decided to tackle the book and found I couldn't get very far. Although it won a Pulitzer in 1947, it couldn't hold my attention. So, I then turned to this brief history and have found it quite enjoyable.  Michener was in his early 30's, willing to leave his NYC textbook editor's job, when he joined the Navy and was made an officer. He was assigned to what was basically a dead-end backwater job on the island Espiritu Santo, miles from the action. It was there he met a French planter, Ratard, his Vietnamese lady-in-charge, Bloody Mary, and the coast watcher on whom he based a character, the Remittance Man.  Michener also travelled around the South Pacific and was appalled by the racial bigotry that was part and parcel of the American mindset in the theater. It became an integral theme in the book, which he decided to write in 1944. He finished it in early 1945, submitted it successfully to MacMillan, where he went back to work in early 1946. The novel was moderately successful when it was published in 1947. Two wondrous and surprising events followed. Rodgers and Hammerstein bought the rights to make a musical, and the book won the Pulitzer. It premiered at the Majestic Theater on April 7, 1949. It was, and continues to be, a rousing success beloved and known around the world. The musical adaptation also won a Pulitzer, thus making 'Tales' the only work so decorated. Almost a decade later, the movie followed. Michener continued on, writing Hawaii at age fifty, and living to the age of 90. This is a fun little read. Perhaps, I should try to finish 'Tales of the South Pacific.'