James A. Michener┬аwas one of the worldтАЩs most popular writers, the author of more than forty books of fiction and nonfiction, including the Pulitzer PrizeтАУwinning┬аTales of the South Pacific,┬аthe bestselling novels┬аThe Source, Hawaii, Alaska, Chesapeake, Centennial, Texas, Caribbean,┬аand┬аCaravans,and the memoir┬аThe World Is My Home. Michener served on the advisory council to NASA and the International Broadcast Board, which oversees the Voice of America. Among dozens of awards and honors, he received AmericaтАЩs highest civilian award, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, in 1977, and an award from the PresidentтАЩs Committee on the Arts and Humanities in 1983 for his commitment to art in America. Michener died in 1997 at the age of ninety.