The Pulitzer winner who had a love affair with Dundee United

Tales of the South Pacific author became a supporter while at St Andrews

He was the Pulitzer Prize-winning author whose Tales of the South Pacific inspired a Broadway classic and Hollywood movie, but it was an adventure across the River Tay in 1931 which started a love affair with Dundee United for one of America’s most beloved storytellers.

James A Michener’s talents were honed by studying at St Andrews University in the 1930s and his love of Dundee United blossomed when he took a shuttle train from St Andrews to watch them.

Michener’s support for United is being remembered after a letter he sent to The Final Hurdle was published on social media.

The popular fanzine received correspondence from Michener in August 1994 in which he wrote: “Dundee United was my kind of team, brash, brawling and brave.

“I exulted when they won, was desolated when they lost and I knew great moments of delight as I stood behind the railing in drizzling rain or even flurries of snow and cheered as the game progressed.”

Michener told how he remained a United fan throughout his life and used to follow United’s fortunes in the 1960s in the “better newspapers” in America.

“Once, after a long absence from the good newspapers, I chanced to look at a New York Times and cried: ‘They’ve made a boo-hoo! They have United ahead of Dundee and in the top division!’.

“But when I checked subsequent weekend issues I found that my tough old team had truly vaulted into the premier division.

“How elated I was, and, when, recently, I learned that United had actually won the Scottish Cup, beating all the other teams, I cheered. “What a transformation!” Michener wrote 40 best sellers including Tales of the South Pacific which won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1948.

In his best-selling biography he later wrote: “I was a loyal partisan of Dundee United who, in those days, were the nothing team of the league!”

Michener, who died in 1997 in Texas, was pictured on a commemorative US postal stamp in 2008.

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Dundee United was my kind of team – brash, brawling and brave. I exulted when they won, was desolated when the lost. JAMES A. MICHENER

James Michener remained a United fan his whole life and followed their exploits in US newspapers.