European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - February 21, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Chiti Iii to Frt tin Pii to to is the devoted keeper of Michner s daytime Calendar. Left to his own devices Michener describes himself As a loner. With the exception of Mari and Kings who is also his biographer there Are probably Low people who would claim to know him Well. Ii you be lived in All the countries i be lived in one of the and Cost aspects of it in you keep moving  says Michner. I Jot correspondence which would imply that i was  As interested in Hawaii and Israel and spam As i was 30 years ago. Obviously you can t do that so you not Only lose your expertise but you re also losing  nevertheless Michener has a Long list of acquaintances. He counts Walter Cronkite a Friend. Knew Pope John Paul ii before he was Pope and in Austin socialize with lady Bird Johnson the former first lady. One of the reasons Michener lives outside big cities is to avoid the social whirl. Even Austin is a problem he says because it is More social than his former Pennsylvania Home. When those who know Michener describe him they usually talk of a coldness aloofness or distance something Michener does t deny. It s that Quality they say thai makes him stare silently into space at a social lunch. I m quite different from the average person in hardness of Central character i guess he says. The key reason he suggests is his childhood of brutal poverty followed by the devastation of the depression. Normally ii it is poverty from childhood by the time you re 18 you re out of it says Michener. I mean you know at least what the parameters Are. Hit 18 and then the whole thing Falls  when Michener applied Lor his first passport at age 18 or 19, he was traced Back to the age of 2. That he says substantiated his existence but not the identity of his parents. Says John Kings they created a birth certificate that said his Mother was Mabel Michener and his lather was Edwin Michener who we know without question had died five years  moreover Mabel Michener ran a boarding House Lor wayward youth she was on the Philadelphia City Rolls As a suitable Foster Mother so Michener was often in the company of other children whom he would watch being adopted out of the Home. The Early poverty also helps explain Michener s obvious Lack of Comfort with Money. He won t discuss his income. As a hint however it is known that he has Given $13 million Over 20 years to charities including his Alma mater Swarthmore College and the willing program at the University of Iowa. He has sponsored a Range of scholarships including one Lor children of american correspondents in Asia. He also still receives ample royalties from South Pacific the musical based on his first and shortest Book tales Olathe South Pacific. He owns a Brick ranch House on eight Shore front acres of Chesapeake Bay in fashionable St. Michael a md., bought As he finished Chesapeake and a Small Condo in Juno Beach Fla. At the moment Michener has one car a 1984 Oldsmobile station Wagon that he and Mari share. Marl admits quietly their Austin Home is too Small but the one in Alaska a Cabin is apr smaller. During the depression a lot of my friends could t get a Job he says. I got a Job for $1,200 a year teaching. I remember just As Clear As if it were yesterday walking Down the Road and thinking would t it be wonderful if i had $3,600, that s 300 Bucks a month i was More or less locked into that. That was More or less what i wanted and adjusted for the value of the Dollar it s still pretty much  there it an ultimate rootless news to Michener s life a social isolation and wanderlust that fills his books. His wanderlust he says began during High school when he and a Friend Ted Johnson hitchhiked thousands of Miles during vacations across the country sometimes to visit his aunt in Detroit often with 35 cents in his pocket. He got into Swarthmore College on a basketball scholarship and graduated with the highest grades the school had Given to Date he says. From 1929 to 1936 he taught in private schools and travelled Between nine colleges ranging from St. Andrews University in Scotland to Ohio state to the University of Northern Colorado where he finally received a master s degree in social studies and Michener with hit third and current wife Mari after their marriage in 1955. Education in 1936. He was nearly 30 by then. Just Why Michener is so popular is a question he won t answer himself although he agrees with a much quoted dictum that he often appeals to those who Don t usually read fiction. His Long tales Are a palatable popular Way to learn history. He has never been very popular with the literary fail i 191 Yei by he pc i As an Michener a makeup cheeked before a performance of South Pacific in 1960. Page 14 the stars and stripes establishment at least since his pulitzer prize Lor South Pacific. He admits he is not very Good at plot. You can Tell that by the Way my books end he says. They just end when the typewriter  he also admits his characters Are one or two dimensional because he s just not interested in their psychological aspects. What interests him he says is geography and politics. Thus the term he chooses for himself is  indeed Michener ran for Congress in Pennsylvania in 1962 and lost. He ran As a Democrat against Willard s. Curlin a powerful Republican incumbent. Nothing irritates me More than to hear some Clown who s had every advantage speak against Aid Lor dependent children or Aid for widowed mothers. What else should society be Lor he Calls the Reagan Era a Down trough in american  As for his literary geopolitics a number of texans complained that Texas did t capture their state As it should be captured. In the source Michener says people in Israel Felt it was an intrusion Lor a Gentile to come in. I had the same thing on the drillers. Why is somebody your age even presuming. So i Haven t had a Iree ride at  he wishes he had written a collection of Short stories or moved into a More artistic end of the literary world. On the Touchy Issue of whether his novels rank As literature he says with characteristic pragmatism i sort of beg the question. I think that in the years ahead the books will be on the shelf and at what level they will be used i Don t know. I would think that Iberia his Spanish novel would be a useful Book into the next  if Michener seems insecure Lor a Man of accomplishment one explanation is that he did t Start writing until he was nearly 40. While in the Navy in world War ii stationed on the Island of Espiritu Santo in the South Pacific he wrote fates of the South Pacific. However his first Book to hit the bestseller lists was Hawaii published in 1959 when he was past 50. Even when i was 401 was afraid of stepping out As a freelance says Michener who worked at Macmillan publishers in new York As an editor both before and alter the War. I think that somebody like me. The very fact that i Friday february