Michael Shaara

Born in Jersey City, New Jersey, Michael Shaara was an American novelist best remembered for The Killer Angels, his 1974 historical novel about the Battle of Gettysburg. The book won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and became his most enduring work.

Shaara also wrote other novels and taught literature during his career. Readers often praise his writing for making military history feel immediate and personal, balancing battlefield decisions with the inner lives of the people involved.

He died in 1988. His literary legacy continued through renewed interest in The Killer Angels and through the writing career of his son, novelist Jeff Shaara.