He was sent to the South Pacific in 1944, where he traveled from island to island, learning about local culture and history and hearing stories from the residents.

He had enlisted as an apprentice seaman in the United States Naval Reserve when World War II broke out and, in 1943, was called to active duty.

In 1943, an event occurred that would drastically change Michener's life, although perhaps not in the way he expected. In 1940, he began a nine-year stint as a social studies editor at Macmillan. His next move was to Harvard University's School of Education, where he was a visiting professor from 1939 to 1940. He also obtained his master's degree in English in 1937. The following year, Michener was offered an associate professorship at the Colorado State College of Education in Greeley, where he taught until 1939. While there he met Patti Koon they were married in 1935. Upon returning to the United States in 1933, Michener accepted a teaching position at George School in Doylestown. His studied in Scotland, England, and Italy, worked on a Mediterranean cargo ship, and toured Spain with a troupe of bullfighters. He then received a Lippincott Travel Fellowship and, for the next two years, traveled in Europe. His first job was as an English teacher at Hill School in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, where he worked from 1929 to 1931. He graduated from college summa cum laude in 1929 with a bachelor's degree in English and history. Upon graduation in 1925, he won a scholarship to Swarthmore College. That fall he entered Doylestown High School, where his chief interest was sports, especially basketball. In 1921, Michener began what would become a lifelong inclination toward travel when he went on a hitchhiking tour that took him through 45 states.

They were so worn his toes stuck out of the holes at the end, and the laces were so knotted you wondered how he ever got them on in the morning.' At times, Michener was even sent to the local poorhouse to live temporarily while his foster mother struggled to make ends meet. He was the only boy who wore sneakers the rest wore shoes. As Michener told Steve Wartenberg of the Intelligencer-Record, 'We never had a sled, a baseball glove, or a bicycle.' In the same article his boyhood friend Lester Trauch noted that 'he was the poorest boy in school, but the brightest boy. His foster mother made a scant living by taking in laundry and sewing. Mabel Michener, a poor widow, took him in. He was born in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, on February 3, 1907, and abadoned by his parents. James Michener could be said to represent the classic 'rags-to-riches' story.

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