James A. Michener. First edition, fourth printing (stated). Dust Jacket: Very Good. An unclipped jacket with original price $3.50 on inside flap. In a mylar protective wrapper. Jacket has some chipping on top/bottom of spine otherwise, in very good condition. Jacket design by H. Lawrence Hoffman. Has the publication code, "1/54" on bottom flap of jacket. Hardcover: Very Good+ NY: Random House, 1954. No writing or markings in the book, 243 pp. Brown cloth with black spine, silver and red lettering on cover and spine.
From author Pearl Buck (on rear jacket), "I have just finished James Michener's new novel, Sayonara. It is a (Japanese-American) love story, set in Japan, the characters are valid and the hero and heroine are attractive and true to life."
Basis, for the immensely popular 1957 Joshua Logan-directed film adaptation by Paul Osborn which starred Marlon Brando, Myoshi Umeki, Red Buttons, Ricardo Montalban, Martha Scott and James Garner. With the theme song by Irving Berlin, the film won Academy Awards for Art Decoration, for Buttons, and for Umeki.
This was Michener's sixth novel, his first first, Tales of the South Pacific, won him a Pulitzer Prize.
