Michael Shaara

Michael Shaara was a critically acclaimed American author, best known for his science fiction and historical fiction novels. He was born in 1928 in Jersey City, New Jersey, to Italian immigrant parents. Shaara served as a sergeant in the 82nd Airborne division prior to the Korean War and later became an amateur boxer and police officer. He began selling science fiction stories to magazines while studying literature at Florida State University, where he later became a professor. Shaara's novels "The Killer Angels" and "For the Love of the Game" were adapted into film.

Shaara's writing career was marked by numerous accolades, including the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1975 for "The Killer Angels," a novel about the Battle of Gettysburg. However, his writing was not without its challenges. Shaara suffered from a heart attack at the age of 36 due to the stress of teaching and writing, and later experienced a severe brain injury from a motorcycle accident. Despite these obstacles, Shaara continued to write and publish novels, including "The Rebel in Autumn," which was written during the campus protests of the late 1960s and set in 1969.

Shaara's works have been rediscovered in recent years, with the release of a newly discovered unpublished novel, "The Rebel in Autumn," and the ebook releases of his three classic backlist titles: "The Broken Place," "The Herald," and "For Love of the Game." These releases, along with the upcoming ebook publication of 46 short stories, have brought renewed attention to Shaara's versatile and talented writing. Shaara's legacy continues through his son, Jeff Shaara, who is also a popular writer of historical fiction and established the Michael Shaara Award for Excellence in Civil War Fiction.