Which novel by James Michener won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1948?

The James Michener work that won the 1948 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction is Tales of the South Pacific.

Published in 1947, the book is a collection of 19 sequentially related short stories based on Michener’s experiences and observations while serving in the U.S. Navy during World War II. The stories are set around the Coral Sea and Solomon Islands and portray military life, cultural encounters, romance, prejudice, and combat preparation.

Although it is often casually called a novel, Tales of the South Pacific is more precisely an interconnected short-story collection. Its Pulitzer win helped change the award itself: in 1948, the prize’s definition was broadened from a “novel” to distinguished fiction published in book form, and the name became the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.

The book later inspired Rodgers and Hammerstein’s South Pacific, which opened on Broadway in 1949. The musical and its films adapted selected characters and storylines rather than reproducing the entire book.