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Michael Shaara
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Michael Shaara (June 23, 1928 - May 5, 1988) was an American writer of science fiction, sports fiction, and historical fiction. He was born to Italian immigrant parents (the family name was originally spelled Sciarra) in Jersey City, New Jersey, graduated from Rutgers University in 1951, and served as an airborne infantry officer in the Korean War.
Before Shaara began selling science fiction stories to fiction magazines in the 1950s, he was an amateur boxer and police officer. He later taught literature at Florida State University. 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.
Shaara's son, Jeffrey Shaara, is also a popular writer of historical fiction; most notably sequels to his father's best-known novel. His most famous is the prequel to The Killer Angels, Gods and Generals.
- The Broken Place (1968); a novel involving boxing; Shaara had been an amateur boxer.
- The Killer Angels (1974); adapted into the film Gettysburg, 1993
- The Noah Conspiracy (1981); originally titled "The Herald", a science fiction novel.
- For Love of the Game (1991); a baseball novella published posthumously and adapted for film, released in 1999.
- Soldier Boy, a science fiction novel, a collection of short stories.