"I wrote only what came to mind, with no goal and little income, always for the joy of it, and it has been a great joy." To Michael Shaara, the joy of carefully crafting a great story meant more than a mass-market audience or a lot of money. What hooked him was the fun of the story "waiting to be told."
Michael Shaara was born in Jersey City, New Jersey, on June 23, 1929. His father, Michael Joseph Sr., was an Italian immigrant active in local unions and politics. Shaara described his father as being similar to Shakespeare: "political, but no good with money." His mother, Alleene Maxwell Shaara, provided the opposite perspective in life. She was from the South, with family roots going back to Thomas Jefferson and "Light-Horse Harry" Lee. The diversity in his parents brought him in touch with both worlds, North and South, a factor that probably allowed him to understand both sides in the Civil War.
Shaara did extremely well in school, winning more awards in high school than any other student in the history of the school. He received letters for basketball and track and excelled as a baseball pitcher. His father also taught him to box, something that remained a passion in his life and figured in his writing. Of the 18 matches Shaara fought as a young man, he won 17. The one loss would serve as the basis for a later short story, "Come To My Party."
