American · 1907–1997
James A. Michener won the 1948 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction with "Tales of the South Pacific," which Rodgers and Hammerstein adapted into a Broadway musical. The American author went on to write massive novels about places—Hawaii, Texas, Alaska, Poland—selling millions of copies while critics debated whether his doorstop researched books qualified as literature. Michener donated much of his fortune to charitable causes.