Michael Shaara

Michael Shaara
Michael Shaara ca. 1970
Born	(1928-06-23)23 June 1928 Jersey City,New Jersey, U.S.
Died	5 May 1988(1988-05-05)(aged 59) Tallahassee,Florida, U.S.
Occupation	Novelist
Education	Rutgers University(BA)
Period	1952–1988
Genre	Science Fiction,historical fiction,sports fiction
Notable works	The Killer Angels
Notable awards	Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
Children	2, includingJeffrey Shaara

Michael Shaara(June 23, 1928 – May 5, 1988) was an Americanauthor of science fiction,sportsfiction, andhistorical fiction.He was born to an Italian immigrant father(the family name was originally spelled Sciarra, which in Italian is pronounced in a similar way) inJersey City,New Jersey,graduated in 1951 fromRutgers University,where he joinedTheta Chi,and served as a sergeant in the82nd Airborne Divisionprior to theKorean War.

Before Shaara began selling science fiction stories to fiction magazines during the 1950s, he was an amateur boxer and police officer. The stress combined with cigarette smoking led to a heart attack at the early age of 36. He managed to recover completely and later taught literature atFlorida State Universitywhile continuing to write fiction. His novel about theBattle of Gettysburg,The Killer Angels,won thePulitzer Prize for Fictionin1975.Shaara died of aheart attackin 1988 at the age of 59.

Shaara's children,Jeffreyand Lila,are also novelists. In 1997, Jeffrey Shaara established the annualMichael Shaara Award for Excellence in Civil War Fiction,awarded atGettysburg College.

Works

Novels

• The Broken Place(1968)
• The Killer Angels(1974), Winner of thePulitzer Prize for Fictionin1975.Later, used as the basis for the filmGettysburgin 1993.
• The Noah Conspiracy(1981), also known asThe Herald.
• For Love of the Game(1991), made into afilmin 1999.

Short story collections

• Soldier Boy(1982)

Short stories

• "Orphans of the Void" (1952)
• "All the Way Back" (1952)
• "Grenville's Planet" (1952)
• "Be Fruitful and Multiply" (1952)
• "Soldier Boy"(1953)
• "The Book" (1953)
• "The Sling and the Stone" (1954)
• "Wainer" (1954)
• "The Holes" (1954)
• "Time Payment" (1954)
• "Beast in the House" (1954)
• "The Vanisher" (1954)
• "Come to My Party" (1956)
• "Man of Distinction" (1956)
• "Conquest Over Time" (1956)
• "2066: Election Day" (1956)
• "Four-Billion Dollar Door" (1956)
• "Death of a Hunter" (1957)
• "The Peeping Tom Patrol" (1958)
• "The Lovely House" (1958)
• "Citizen Jell" (1959)
• "Opening Up Slowly" (1973)
• "Border Incident" (1976)
• "Starface" (1982)
• "The Dark Angel" (1982)

External links

• Michael Shaaraat theInternet Speculative Fiction Database
• Analysis ofSoldier Boy
• Biography at jeffshaara
• Michael Shaara prize details
• Works by Michael ShaaraatProject Gutenberg
• Works by Michael ShaaraatLibriVox(public domain audiobooks)