Novelist James Michener could have retired anywhere. The world traveler could have picked his own “Bali Ha’i” inspired by the island on the horizon that hypnotized him as a Naval Officer in the South Pacific during World War II. (Michener’s “Bali Ha’i” was later immortalized as a show tune in the musical South Pacific, based on his book Tales of the South Pacific, which won the 1948 Pulitzer Prize in Fiction. The hit song was written by  Rodgers and Hammerstein, both honorary Mainers.)

Read the full story in the digital magazine above.