Michael Shaara
Born 23 Jun 1928 · Died 5 May 1988
From Jersey City, New Jersey, United States · Nationality: United States · Writes fiction
Michael Shaara (June 23, 1928 – May 5, 1988) was an American author of science fiction, sports fiction, and historical 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) in Jersey City, New Jersey, graduated in 1951 from Rutgers University, where he joined Theta Chi, and served as a sergeant in the 82nd Airborne Division prior to the Korean War.
Before Shaara began selling science fiction stories to fiction magazines during the 1950s, he was an amateur boxer and police officer. He later taught literature at Florida State University while continuing to write fiction. The stress of this and his cigarette smoking caused him, at the early age of 36, to have a heart attack, from which he recovered completely. His novel about the Battle of Gettysburg, The Killer Angels, won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1975. Shaara died of a heart attack in 1988 aged fifty-nine.
Shaara's children, Jeffrey and Lila, are also novelists. In 1997, Jeffrey Shaara established the annual Michael Shaara Award for Excellence in Civil War Fiction, awarded at Gettysburg College.
Source: Michael Shaara on Wikipedia.
Quotes
“Some of us volunteered to fight for Union. Some came mainly because we were bored at home and this looked like it might be fun. Some came because we were ashamed not to. Many of us came... because it was the right thing to do.”
The Killer Angels, Part I “That’s different. Generals can do anything. Nothing quite so much like God on earth as a general on a battlefield.”
The Killer Angels, Part I “He moved closer to the wall up there, past mounds of bodies, no line any more, just men moving forward at different speeds, stopping to fire, stopping to die, drifting back like leaves blown from the fire ahead.”
The Killer Angels, Part IV “Honor without intelligence is a disaster. Honor could lose the war.”
The Killer Angels, Part II “And if it all has no meaning, if there really is Nobody Above who really gives a damn, if there are really no rules, still, a man can make his own rules and with luck he can get by.”
p. 23
Quotes from Wikiquote (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Books by Michael Shaara in order
Books by Michael Shaara in the order they were published, from The Broken Place (1968) to Vanisher and Orphans of the Void (2024).
- 1The Broken Place
The Broken Place1968 - 2The Killer Angels
The Killer Angels1974 - 3The Herald
The Herald1981 - 4Soldier Boy
Soldier Boy1982 - 5Conquest Over Time
Conquest Over Time2011 - 6Wainer
Wainer2011 - 7BookBook2014
- 8What Is Best MarketingWhat Is Best Marketing2014
- 9Amazing Stories Volume 56Amazing Stories Volume 562021
- 10Soldier Boy and Five More StoriesSoldier Boy and Five More Stories2024
- 11Vanisher and Orphans of the VoidVanisher and Orphans of the Void2024
- 12For Love of the Game
For Love of the Game - 13The Noah Conspiracy
The Noah Conspiracy