For many years, The Killer Angels has been celebrated by its readers as Michael Shaara’s definitive masterpiece, but from the eyes of his family, this achievement came at a great cost. Continue reading to learn more about Michael, Jeff, Lila, and Helen Shaara and how the writing of Michael’s “Gettysburg Book” unduly impacted their household.
Jeff Shaara was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey in 1952, and grew up in Tallahassee, Florida. He is the son of Michael and Helen Shaara, and brother of Lila Shaara. Today, Jeff is an award-winning historical fiction novelist, with 22 publications and 15 New York Times Bestsellers. His work primarily focuses on American military history, exploring battles and historical figures across multiple centuries.
Lila Shaara was born in Tallahassee, Florida in 1958, and grew up there as well. She is the daughter of Michael and Helen Shaara, and sister of Jeff Shaara. Today, Lila is a professor of anthropology and lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She is happily married with two children. She has published two novels and has recorded multiple albums of alternative music. Her son, Max Rayshich, composed music for the film. The various musical recordings of Lila, her husband Rob, and both her children may be found on Bandcamp.
Helen Shaara was born in New York City, New York in 1928, and grew up in New Jersey. She was the wife of Michael Shaara, and mother of Jeff and Lila Shaara. She moved to Tallahassee in the mid-1950s and lived there for the rest of her life. She retired from the Florida Department of Health and Human Services after 37 years as a Social Worker. She passed away in 2016 at the age of 88.
Michael Shaara was born in Jersey City, New Jersey in 1928, and grew up there as well. He was the husband of Helen Shaara, and father of Jeff and Lila Shaara. He moved to Tallahassee in the mid-1950s and lived there for the rest of his life. He began publishing short stories in 1952, continuing to do so for the next 30 years. He spent 12 years as an associate English, literature, and creative writing professor at Florida State University before focusing on his writing career full-time. During his lifetime, Michael published 3 novels (The Broken Place, The Killer Angels, and Herald), and a short story collection (Soldier Boy). 2 additional novels of his were published posthumously (Love of the Game, Rebel in Autumn). He passed away from a heart attack in 1988 at the age of 59.
Once he began to write The Killer Angels, Michael became what the Shaara household had to revolve around. His writing schedule became erratic, and so did his behavior. Helen, Jeff, and Lila became accustomed to treading around Michael’s irrationalities, with verbal and physical brutality being the consequence of impeding his process.
After The Killer Angels was completed, a constant stream of rejections by publishers worsened Michael’s mental state. Tensions then grew due to the shifting care and financial responsibilities brought upon by a motorcycle accident that severely worsened Michael’s physical health. Helen would become the sole caretaker of the home to compensate for Michael’s inability to return to his Florida State University teaching position. This cacophony of issues would result in Jeff making the decision to cut all contact with Michael and live independently. Despite its necessity, this action created a large rift between him and Helen as well, breeding a long-lasting and complicated contempt over what Michael viewed as Jeff’s betrayal.
Eventually, household friction became insurmountable and Michael and Helen divorced. They remained in contact, with Lila still in the picture as well, but often kept their distances. The family’s ever-growing estrangement deeply impacted all parties, with a proper reunion only occurring after Michael’s passing in 1988.
Throughout his life and career, Michael Shaara faced many setbacks that resulted in an extremely destructive decline in both his mental and physical health. He obsessed over his work and pushed himself in ways that became extreme, with one of the first major instances of this being the heart attack he experienced in 1965 that left him clinically dead for 54 minutes. His miraculous recovery put him on medical leave from teaching creative writing but allowed him to focus on his own writing. He published his first novel, The Broken Place, in 1968 and then turned his sights to The Killer Angels.
By this period, it became undeniably clear to both Michael and the rest of the Shaara family that he was being affected by severe depression. Decades down the line, this would be recognized by the family as bipolar disorder (a diagnosis that was not medically classified until 1980). Years of writer’s block and creative frustrations immediately followed by several rejections of the manuscript from publishers exacerbated these mental struggles, putting a permanent strain on his relationships with Helen, Jeff, and Lila; one that would lead to their estrangement.
In the midst of The Killer Angels’ completion, Michael was involved in a life-threatening motorcycle accident in Italy. He was unconscious for five weeks and was brought back to the United States where he awoke from the coma with permanent brain damage. He struggled with articulation and dyslexia-like mental impairments, but still continued writing.
Despite this life-changing setback, the 1974 publication of The Killer Angels and its unexpected Pulitzer Prize win were major triumphs for Michael. The optimism that came with these successes, however, soon fizzled when there was no substantial uptick in commercial sales for the novel. This combined with Ron Maxwell’s failure to get his film adaptation produced, once again sent Michael into a declining mental state. He went on to publish two more works before his death, but would not see any significant attention for them either. The success that brought his name into the public eye would all come posthumously.