A mystery for readers to ponder

[donheff]

I volunteer with a neighborhood organization dedicating to helping seniors "age in place." I meet a lot of fascinating people and one of them recently provided a mysterious anecdote in an interview for the organization's newsletter. In his worklife he organized materials collections at the Library of Congress. James Michener donated his papers to the Library but called back a few months later asking the Library to send someone over to pick up some papers he wanted to add. Our guy had a vacation home on the Eastern Shore near Michener's house and volunteered to go. He spent a day drinking with Michener and then brought a package of papers back to the Library. The package included an envelope sealed with wax and marked, "Not to be opened until 25 years after my death." So, Michener fans, what's the secret? The envelope is in a vault at the Library not to be opened until 2022 so we won't know for sure for a more than a decade.

 

[W2R]

I volunteer with a neighborhood organization dedicating to helping seniors "age in place." I meet a lot of fascinating people and one of them recently provided a mysterious anecdote in an interview for the organization's newsletter. In his worklife he organized materials collections at the Library of Congress. James Michener donated his papers to the Library but called back a few months later asking the Library to send someone over to pick up some papers he wanted to add. Our guy had a vacation home on the Eastern Shore near Michener's house and volunteered to go. He spent a day drinking with Michener and then brought a package of papers back to the Library. The package included an envelope sealed with wax and marked, "Not to be opened until 25 years after my death." So, Michener fans, what's the secret? The envelope is in a vault at the Library not to be opened until 2022 so we won't know for sure for a more than a decade.

Ooh!! What a neat mystery. I absolutely *love* real life mysteries to wonder about, and to ponder upon. I am still pondering the JFK assassination and wondering if Oswald was or was not a lone assassin. I remember Jackie Kennedy Onassis saying that we would know for sure in time, so often I wonder if there will be more revealed about the events and people surrounding that too, eventually.

I don't know that much about Michener except that I read a couple of his books when I was a pre-teenager, and loved them. When I lived in Hawaii, there seemed to be a lot of public and private contraversy about what was thought to be his mis-characterization of some aspects of life in that state. But given his in-depth writings, I suppose that is to be expected.

 

[CuppaJoe]

Interesting, Don, are you a Michener fan?

I haven't read all his books but "The Drifters" come to mind. Something to ponder.

 

[ls99]

Darn, Want2retire, you beat me to the punch.
I'd say he has the name of who ordered the JFK shooting in the envelope. Michener likely had a long discussion with LBJ, who imho knew.

 

[W2R]

Darn, Want2retire, you beat me to the punch.
I'd say he has the name of who ordered the JFK shooting in the envelope. Michener likely had a long discussion with LBJ, who imho knew.

I think LBJ knew the truth about the JFK assassination (whether it was lone gunman or what), and I think Jackie knew. Well, I am absolutely convinced that she thought she knew, at any rate. But I have no clue as to whether or not Michener was involved in any of that.

 

[donheff]

Interesting, Don, are you a Michener fan?

I haven't read all his books but "The Drifters" come to mind. Something to ponder.

Not really a fan boy but I read a few of his books years ago and enjoyed them.

 

[Moemg]

I read most of his books years ago so I would guess it is a new book . Since his books usually dealt with places and their history my guess is Vietnam or Iraq .

 

[Sarah in SC]

The Drifters is actually one of my all time favorite novels. I haven't read any of his other stuff, but that book--the time and place aspects of it--just fantastic.
I'll have to pull it off the shelf again now that you've reminded me all over again what a great story it is.
What a great mystery, though! I'd not be a good person to be in charge of something like that--I'm afraid I'd peek!

 

[RonBoyd]

I am a big fan of Michener. (I have a 1st edition copy of "Tales of the South Pacific.") I have read all of his books as well as the numerous articles and short stories he wrote. I miss his indepth research and the way he, for instance, began "Hawaii" with the formation of the planet we live on.

"The Drifters" came at a time in my life that made it all the more powerful than usual, I suppose. I also enjoyed "The Covenant" during that period. "Colorado" (because I live here) was the most couldn't-put-down of them all. Golly, "Space" also deserves special mention.

I miss him.

I suspect, however, that the "mystery" will be as "earth shaking" as the identity of "Deep Throat" was.

 

[calmloki]

Still like Michener's the missionaries “came to do good, and ended up doing well” from his Hawaii.

 

[freebird5825]

The only Michener book I ever finished was Space.
I started Hawaii but some 4 letter word that starts with a "w" interfered.

As for the mystery envelope, I have no clue.

 

[MichaelB]

I am still pondering the JFK assassination and wondering if Oswald was or was not a lone assassin.

Everybody knows there was a coverup. Fidel + CIA + KGB, all headed by LBJ in cahoots with RMN.

Michener’s secret: serial plagiarism, especially “The Covenant”.

 

[W2R]

I started Hawaii but some 4 letter word that starts with a "w" interfered.

I wanted to buy and read Hawaii the year it was published, but (believe it or not) my parents sternly forbade it. They had heard so many really awful things about it from all of their friends and associates, who told them Michener mischaracterized the Islands and Islanders to such an extent that they didn't want their daughter to read it.

I figured that if it was THAT contraversial, there must be a great big kernel of truth in it! But out of respect to my parents I didn't read it and haven't got around to it after their deaths.

MichaelB, I have one thing to say: ~~>

 

[CuppaJoe]

....
Michener’s secret: serial plagiarism, especially “The Covenant”.

I thought he stole his own material between "Iberia" and "The Drifters."

Here is the Library of Congress list:

James A. Michener Papers (Library of Congress)

Looks like his journals are not microfilmed (Part III Closed materials, 1906-1992, n.d.). I have no idea what that means or if it has anything to do with the sealed items.

I’m guessing the sealed pouch is personal, and imagine he did find out who is birth parents were and wrote something about it. Alternatively, it is a detailed description of an affair with the lady who died toward the end of "Hawaii." Such a vivid character.

Wow, Donheff, you’ve found a thread topic that can stay open for 13+ years.

 

[RustyShackleford]

I just read one called "Caravans", set in Afghanistan just after WWII.
Kinda lame as a novel, IMHO, but incredibly fascinating in what it had
to tell about Afghanistan, a pretty fascinating country - and of course,
"as timely as today's headlines" !

 

[donheff]

Wow, Donheff, you’ve found a thread topic that can stay open for 13+ years.

Now I will have to remember to bump it once a year. But what if we find out in 2022 that this guy's story is a hoax? You guys will come after me with pitch forks

 

[Ed_The_Gypsy]

I read The Drifters. Now I are one.

 

[Orchidflower]

This might be it: Michener did promise to reveal how he could tell psychic things. Honest...I read it somewhere that he had learned how to do this from some older lady on some island/far-off place when he was writing one of his books. I guess she taught him, and he was good at the skill.
Since Michener is on record as saying he would reveal how he did it before he died, it was disappointing that he died without telling anything . I was hoping he would. How cool would it be to be able to tell someone about their past and future? How is it done?
And now I have to wait more time to find out? Phoooooey!!!! I was really irritated when he died and didn't pass this knowledge on (whining I say, but you prooooomised, James), so I am hoping that this is what it is. Really hoping...
This Michener revelation is documented somewhere in a magazine or newspaper. I just cannot remember which one, sorry.

 

[Orchidflower]

Just remembered: I'm pretty sure I read this in The Parade magazine that they put in your Sunday newspaper. Wonder if we can find their archives?

 

[RonBoyd]

Just remembered: I'm pretty sure I read this in The Parade magazine that they put in your Sunday newspaper. Wonder if we can find their archives?

Or could it be his "Egyptian Princess" referred to on Page 2 of this issue of The James A. Michener Society Newsletter.

 

[CuppaJoe]

Now I will have to remember to bump it once a year. But what if we find out in 2022 that this guy's story is a hoax? You guys will come after me with pitch forks

Mark your calendar to batten down the hatches in 2021.

 

[Orchidflower]

Grrrr...I cannot seem to get your link to work. I really need to have someone look at this computer.
However, RonBoyd, can you give a very brief description of what that article says?
I tried pulling it up other ways, but no go. Frustrating. I am really curious what is in there.

 

[RonBoyd]

However, RonBoyd, can you give a very brief description of what that article says?

Here is the whole article: (http://webpages.charter.net/boerad/NewsletterFall2005.pdf

Michener’s Egyptian Princess
[FONT=AUVLBO+AGaramondPro-Regular,Garamond Pro][FONT=AUVLBO+AGaramondPro-Regular,Garamond Pro]by Stephen J. May[/FONT][/FONT]

[FONT=AUVLBO+AGaramondPro-Regular,Garamond Pro][FONT=AUVLBO+AGaramondPro-Regular,Garamond Pro][FONT=AUVLBO+AGaramondPro-Regular,Garamond Pro]James A. Michener can r[/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][FONT=AUVLBO+AGaramondPro-Regular,Garamond Pro][FONT=AUVLBO+AGaramondPro-Regular,Garamond Pro]ightly take his place among some of the best selling authors of the twentieth century: Agatha Christie, Taylor Caldwell, Stephen King, and more recently J.K. Rowling, who has literally transformed publishing with her exploits of a boy wizard. Unknown to many readers is that Michener followed the teachings of his own wizard—a fortune teller in actuality. [/FONT][/FONT]

[FONT=AUVLBO+AGaramondPro-Regular,Garamond Pro][FONT=AUVLBO+AGaramondPro-Regular,Garamond Pro]When I first became involved writing Michener’s biography, [/FONT][/FONT][FONT=FUEKTE+AGaramondPro-Italic,Garamond Pro][FONT=FUEKTE+AGaramondPro-Italic,Garamond Pro]Michener: A Writer’s Journey[/FONT][/FONT][FONT=AUVLBO+AGaramondPro-Regular,Garamond Pro][FONT=AUVLBO+AGaramondPro-Regular,Garamond Pro], I interviewed many people and uncovered a myriad of tales surrounding the distinguished author. Perhaps no tale was as strange as that of Michener’s relationship with a woman he referred to simply as "The Princess." He detailed this bizarre relationship in a 120-page (typed and double spaced) manuscript, which was held for many years by his agent Owen Laster. In 2003 Special Collections at the University of Northern Colorado acquired it. To a lesser degree, Michener wrote about her in his memoir, [/FONT][/FONT][FONT=FUEKTE+AGaramondPro-Italic,Garamond Pro][FONT=FUEKTE+AGaramondPro-Italic,Garamond Pro]The World is My Home [/FONT][/FONT][FONT=AUVLBO+AGaramondPro-Regular,Garamond Pro][FONT=AUVLBO+AGaramondPro-Regular,Garamond Pro](pages 407-11). [/FONT][/FONT]

[FONT=AUVLBO+AGaramondPro-Regular,Garamond Pro][FONT=AUVLBO+AGaramondPro-Regular,Garamond Pro]Jim first met The Princess in 1933 while he was a research student in Scotland. He was in his mid-thirties and she was in her sixties. Stranded in Cairo, Egypt, "awaiting the arrival of a group I was to accompany up the Nile to Luxor and Aswan," Michener found The Princess in a smoky tavern nestled close to the right bank of the river. "I could not see her well," he recalled. "Her face was in shadows but I did catch a glimpse of a tall woman … black haired, with deeply lined face and piercing eyes. I imagined that she knew exactly what she was doing and that she intended me to visit her table." [/FONT]

[/FONT][FONT=AUVLBO+AGaramondPro-Regular,Garamond Pro][FONT=AUVLBO+AGaramondPro-Regular,Garamond Pro]Michener soon became involved in her complex method of fortune telling, a method so accurate that it was to ensnare the curious student and beguile him for the rest of his life. [/FONT]
[FONT=AUVLBO+AGaramondPro-Regular,Garamond Pro]Although the gypsy woman’s system is far too lengthy to relate here, suffice to say, it took Jim several years and countless hours to figure it out and put it into practice. She told him: "You must remember that when you have mastered the system I use, you will have in [/FONT]
[/FONT][FONT=AUVLBO+AGaramondPro-Regular,Garamond Pro][FONT=AUVLBO+AGaramondPro-Regular,Garamond Pro]your hands a powerful tool. The beauty is that it’s so much subtler than the others are. It combines the best of numbers, the best of astrology, and the best of cards." [/FONT][/FONT]

[FONT=AUVLBO+AGaramondPro-Regular,Garamond Pro][FONT=AUVLBO+AGaramondPro-Regular,Garamond Pro]After I studied The Princess’s intricate and lengthy system for several hours, one question persisted: Why was a reasonable, intelligent man such as Michener so captivated by the work of a fortune teller he met in a Cairo bar? The answer came slowly: Michener loved games involving logic and mathematics. The more challenging they were, the better he liked them. The Princess’s system was probably one of the most clever and demanding he had ever encountered. [/FONT][/FONT]​

[FONT=AUVLBO+AGaramondPro-Regular,Garamond Pro][FONT=AUVLBO+AGaramondPro-Regular,Garamond Pro]Twenty years after his encounter with her and after Michener had achieved notoriety as a writer, a friend, Bill Vitarelli from George School, Newtown, Pennsylvania, suggested he use his "psychic" powers and become "Mitch the Witch" at the local arts festival in eastern Pennsylvania. "With some trepidation I reported to the festival," Michener noted, "found thirty people in line waiting for me, and at fifty cents a fortune, earned the festival some sixty dollars and myself a rasping larynx." [/FONT][/FONT]
[FONT=AUVLBO+AGaramondPro-Regular,Garamond Pro][FONT=AUVLBO+AGaramondPro-Regular,Garamond Pro]In the years that followed, as Jim became an expert on the method, a curious thing happened: what he considered entertainment, his clients viewed as deadly serious. He began to feel guilty for using such an accurate way to predict people’s tragedies and failures. "When I saw the eagerness with which otherwise sensible people sought me out to read their cards, and particularly when I began to listen seriously to the questions they wanted me to answer, I began to see that they were taking this frolic much more seriously than I, and the consequences startled me." [/FONT][/FONT]​

[FONT=AUVLBO+AGaramondPro-Regular,Garamond Pro][FONT=AUVLBO+AGaramondPro-Regular,Garamond Pro]Eventually, he gave up his role as "Mitch the Witch" at the festival and temporarily renounced fortune telling as entertainment. Over the years, however, as he traveled throughout the world writing his books, people urged Jim to tell them their fortunes. On most occasions, he good-naturedly consented. [/FONT][/FONT]​

[FONT=AUVLBO+AGaramondPro-Regular,Garamond Pro][FONT=AUVLBO+AGaramondPro-Regular,Garamond Pro]After their initial encounter, Michener never saw The Princess again. In the 1960s, while traveling through Egypt, he happened to stop into the Cairo bar and found out from the owner that she had died. [/FONT][/FONT]​

[FONT=AUVLBO+AGaramondPro-Regular,Garamond Pro][FONT=AUVLBO+AGaramondPro-Regular,Garamond Pro]As for her method, Michener remained a staunch advocate: [/FONT][/FONT][FONT=AUVLBO+AGaramondPro-Regular,Garamond Pro]​

[FONT=AUVLBO+AGaramondPro-Regular,Garamond Pro]"If there are people who illogically insist upon consulting fortune tellers for guidance that they should be getting elsewhere, I can state confidently that this is the best and most helpful system so far devised." [/FONT]​

[/FONT]

 

[Orchidflower]

That must be it and much thanks, RonBoyd!!!!!!!!! I only remembered it after reading that article in Parade because I was SO interested in learning how to do it.
When Michener died my first thought was, "Whoopie! Now I'll learn the secret of giving psychic predictions..." Alas! He didn't do what he promised. Thanks alot for nothing, James Michener....and I even read "Hawaii" when it first came out, plus, some of his other stuff, too.