SOURCE: "Writer James Michener Dies at 90," in the Atlanta Journal and Constitution, October 17, 1997, p. A16.

[In the following obituary, Elizondo calls Michener's works entertaining and inspiring.]

James Michener's second novel tells of a poor Pennsylvania boy who becomes a writer—an autobiographical touch from the Pulitzer Prize-winning author who went from the Bucks County Poorhouse to the far reaches of the globe.

He spent decades wandering from Japan and Korea to Hungary, Hawaii, Afghanistan, Spain, South Africa, Colorado, Israel, Chesapeake Bay, Poland, Texas, Alaska and the Caribbean.

Every step of the way, through 40 best-selling novels, Michener's readers were entertained and inspired as he argued for universal ideals: religious and racial tolerance, hard work and self-reliance.

Michener, who once admitted that he wasn't very good at composing dialogue but he sure knew how to hold the reader's interest with a good narrative, died of kidney failure Thursday at age...