Michener began his life as a foundling and was raised by a woman who took in laundry to survive. That coming-of-age novel spotlights “a young man who has had a hard time,” says Laster, something Michener has chosen not to dwell upon in his life story. Says Owen Laster, Michener’s literary agent for the 24 years, “I think there is a consistency in the memoir (and) the man in that he is a fairly private person in terms of his personal life.” Readers seeking to learn more about Michener might better turn to “The Fires of Spring,” his agent suggests. Rather, this examination of the people, places and events that have shaped his life is organized by subject with chapters titled “Travel,” “People,” “Politics,” “Ideas,” and, more playfully, “Intellectual Equipment.”Īt 84, he wrote the book only “because I have been asked to do this again and again.” And yes, says Michener, as if the question were so obvious that it barely requires a response, “the fact that I delayed it so long would indicate that I was uncomfortable about writing it.”
Right in the first sentence of Chapter 1, Michener warns, “This will be a strange kind of autobiography”-and he eschews the traditional chronological structure.
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