Michael Shaara

Michael Shaara was interested in the Civil War but found the dry historical descriptions unsatisfying. As a remedy, he wrote The Killer Angels, focusing on the four days of the Battle of Gettysburg. Seven publishing houses rejected the novel before it was finally published in 1974. The book earned him the Pulitzer Prize for fiction the next year. The film Gettysburg (1993), directed by Ronald Maxwell, was based on Shaara’s book, which also inspired Ken Burns’ PBS television documentary The Civil War (1990). Shaara wrote The Broken Place (1968) about a Korean War veteran who has problems adjusting when he returns home. He also wrote science fiction thrillers and more than 70 short stories. Shaara had a varied career as a paratrooper, merchant seaman, and police officer before settling down as a teacher, serving Florida State University as an English literature professor. Shaara died in 1988. His book, For Love of the Game, published posthumously, tells the story of a legendary baseball pitcher nearing the end of his career. In 1999, Universal Studios made the book into a movie, starring Kevin Costner and Kelly Preston, which was filmed in Yankee Stadium.