Shaara died of another heart attack in 1988. His novel about the Battle of Gettysburg, The Killer Angels, won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1975. The stress of this and his smoking caused him to have a heart attack at the early age of 36 from which he fully recovered. He later taught literature at Florida State University while continuing to write fiction. He was born to Italian immigrant parents (the family name was originally spelled Sciarra, which in Italian is pronounced the same way) in Jersey City, New Jersey, graduated from Rutgers University in 1951, and served as a sergeant in the 82nd Airborne division prior to the Korean War.īefore Shaara began selling science fiction stories to fiction magazines in the 1950s, he was an amateur boxer and police officer. Michael Shaara's The Killer Angels is the basis for the motion picture "Gettysburg.Michael Shaara was an American writer of science fiction, sports fiction, and historical fiction. Ordering his men to dig in, waiting for the inevitable assault from Longstreet's troops, the former college professor realizes that this is his destiny, commanding soldiers on a hill known as Little Round Top. Leading a regiment to the far end of the line, Colonel Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain is told he must hold the flank, that his small command is the key to the entire Union position. On the Northern side, Cavalry General John Buford is the man on the spot, and heroically holds Lee's army back while the rest of the Union troops move into position on the valuable and crucial high ground of Cemetery Ridge. By his side, James "Pete" Longstreet does not share Lee's optimism, and understands that this great fight could be the South's Waterloo.
Lee leads the Confederate troops on an invasion of Pennsylvania, believing it is the only way the South can still force Washington to accept peace, and a Southern victory.
The Killer Angels details the events around four days in late June and early July, 1863, the story follows four men as they march into the field for what will become the bloodiest three days in American history.
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