TALES OF THE SOUTH PACIFIC

'''Tales of the South Pacific''' is a Pulitzer Prize winning collection of sequentially-related short stories about World War II, written by James A. Michener in 1946. The stories were based observations and anecdotes he acquired while stationed as a lieutenant commander in the US Navy on the island of Espiritu Santo in the New Hebrides Islands (now known as Vanuatu). The skipper of PT-105 met Michener while stationed at the PT boat base on Tulagi in the Solomon Islands.
The stories take place in and surrounding the Coral Sea and the Solomons. Michener gives a first-person voice to several as an unnamed "Commander" performing duties similar to those he performed himself. The stories are interconnected by recurring characters and several loose plot lines (in particular, preparations and execution of a fictitious amphibious invasion code-named "Alligator") but focus on interactions between Americans and a variety of colonial, immigrant and indiginous characters. The chronology of the stories takes place from before the Battle of the Coral Sea in 1942 to early 1944. Although primarily about the U.S. Navy, most of the action is shore-based, and none concerns ships larger than an LCI.
The musical play ''South Pacific'' (which opened on Broadway on April 7, 1949), by Rodgers and Hammerstein, was based on these stories. While the coastwatcher in the musical was cast as an American, these were actually a network of Australians and native scouts, some of whom helped save the crew of John F. Kennedy's PT-109. The musical was produced as a feature film in 1958. ''South Pacific'' was also followed by a series of movies and TV shows about sailors in the Pacific who were stranded on islands, including the pilot and TV series ''McHale's Navy'', the film ''PT-109'', and ''Gilligan's Island''.

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★ Photos of the first edition of Tales of the South Pacific