Talking With Michener

by Lawrence Grobel

James Michener's vast work has intrigued millions of readers. Popularizing history, he wrote extensively about travel and covered broad areas of America in books such as Centennial, Texas, Hawaii, Alaska, and Chesapeake. He won the Pulitzer Prize for his first book, Tales of the South Pacific, which he wrote at the age of forty, and his books were made into television mini-series, movies, and musicals. In conversations that took place between 1980 and October 1997, days before his death, Michener met with Lawrence Grobel at Michener's homes in Florida, Maine, and Texas, as well as in New York and Los Angeles. The two discussed topics of both a personal and professional nature and touched on subjects Michener avoided in his own memoir. The product of these revealing discussions is Talking with Michener, the first full-length book of in-depth interviews with the famed writer. In the thirteen chapters of the book, Michener explores sex, love, pornography, politics abortion, AIDS, plagiarism, sports, the current state of publishing, and the status of the artist in society. To Grobel, he reveals many personal milestones and struggles--his dialysis; the death of his wife Mari; his service in the war; his travels to the Antarctica and to Pearl Harbor on the 50th anniversary of the bombing; and his philanthropy totaling $120 million. Speaking of literary matters, he tells how he wrote such sweeping novels, why he chose some subjects and avoided others, and how he might write a historical novel about California. He analyzes each of his books, chooses his favorites, and discusses his strengths and weaknesses as a writer. To accompany the chapters that cover the writer's life and work, Grobel has written an intimate introduction about his long relationship with Michener, and Michener interviews himself in a revealing afterword. Through the pages of Talking with Michener, Grobel affords Michener's many fans a close portrait of unexcelled depth and discovery. Lawrence Grobel is a novelist and writer from Los Angeles. Among his honors are a fiction fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts and a P. E. N. Special Achievement Award for his book Conversations with Capote. His articles and interviews have appeared in Playboy, Rolling Stone, The New York Times, Newsday, Reader's Digest, Movieline, and Entertainment Weekly.

Unknown Binding

First published September 1, 1999

About the author

Lawrence Grobel (www.lawrencegrobel.com) is a novelist, journalist, biographer, poet and teacher. Five of his 32 books have been singled out as Best Books of the Year by Publisher’s Weekly and many have appeared on Best Seller lists. He is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship for his fiction. PEN gave his Conversations with Capote a Special Achievement Award. The Syndicat Francais de la Critique de Cinema awarded his Al Pacino their Prix Litteraire as the Best International Book of 2008. James A. Michener called his biography, The Hustons, “a masterpiece.” His The Art of the Interview is used as a text in many journalism schools. Writer’s Digest called him “a legend among journalists.” Joyce Carol Oates dubbed him “The Mozart of Interviewers” and Playboy singled him out as “The Interviewer’s Interviewer” after publishing his interviews with Barbra Streisand, Dolly Parton, Henry Fonda and Marlon Brando.
He has written for dozens of magazines and has been a Contributing Editor for Playboy, Movieline, World (New Zealand), and Trendy (Poland). He served in the Peace Corps, teaching at the Ghana Institute of Journalism; created the M.F.A. in Professional Writing for Antioch University; and taught in the English Department at UCLA for ten years. Since 2007 he has served as a jury member at the annual Camerimage Film Festival in Poland. He has appeared on CNN, The Today Show, Good Morning America, The Charlie Rose Show, NPR’s The Treatment, Marc Maron”s WTF and Adam Carolla’s podcasts, and in two documentaries, Salinger and Al Pacino’s Wilde Salome. His book, You, Talking to Me, highlights the lessons he’s learned from interviewing. His memoir, You Show Me Yours, takes him from the streets of Brooklyn to Marlon Brando’s island in Tahiti. Yoga? No, Shmoga! is his satirical take on staying healthy through stretching. His fiction includes 2 novels (Catch a Fallen Star, Begin Again Finnegan), a novella (The Black Eyes of Akbah), and 3 books of short stories (The Narcissist, Stuck, and Schemers, Dreamers, Cheaters, Believers). His most recent books are a memoir of his three years in the Peace Corps (Turquoise), and HUSTLE: The Making of a Freelance Writer. His books are all available on Amazon and on his website. He is married to the artist Hiromi Oda and they have two daughters.

Reviews

[Apryl Anderson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Will I forever wander the globe wondering how and why he used a Zarfoss as a filanderer in the Lancaster chapter of Centennial? Where'd he come up with that?!!



Anyway, no surprises here. Michener was brilliant, and this collection of interviews is a nice summary of the influences in his life and their result. Go ye and do likewise…



I'm using these questions to look into my own life. What motivates me, and how can I use that to propel me around the globe?

[Lawrence · Rating 4 out of 5]

Much more of the man came through then you would ever suspect from reading his books. Good insights and reflections throughout.