John Michael Crichton (/ˈkraɪtən/; October 23, 1942 – November 4, 2008) was an American author, screenwriter and filmmaker. His books have sold over 200 million copies worldwide, and over a dozen have been adapted into films. His literary works heavily feature technology and are usually within thescience fiction,techno-thriller, andmedical fiction genres. Crichton's novels often explore human technological advancement and attempted dominance over nature, both with frequently catastrophic results; many of his works arecautionary tales, especially regarding themes ofbiotechnology. Several of his stories center on themes ofgenetic modification,hybridization,paleontology and/orzoology. Many feature medical or scientific underpinnings, reflective of his own medical training.
John Michael Crichton[1] was born on October 23, 1942, in Chicago, Illinois,[2][3][4][5] to John Henderson Crichton, a journalist, and Zula Miller Crichton, a homemaker. He was raised onLong Island, inRoslyn, New York,[1] and he showed a keen interest in writing from a young age; at 16, he had an article about a trip he took toSunset Crater published inThe New York Times.[6][7] Crichton later recalled, "Roslyn was another world. Looking back, it's remarkable what wasn't going on. There was no terror. No fear of children being abused. No fear of random murder. No drug use we knew about. I walked to school. I rode my bike for miles and miles, to the movie on Main Street and piano lessons and the like. Kids had freedom. It wasn't such a dangerous world... We studied our butts off, and we got a tremendously good education there."[8]
Crichton had always planned on becoming a writer and began his studies atHarvard University in 1960 as an English major.[6] During his freshman year, he conducted an experiment to expose a professor whom he believed was giving him abnormally low marks and criticizing his literary style.[9]: 4 Informing another professor of his suspicions,[10] Crichton submitted an essay byGeorge Orwell under his own name. The paper was returned by his unwitting professor with a mark of "B−".[11] He later said, "Now Orwell was a wonderful writer, and if a B-minus was all he could get, I thought I'd better drop English as my major."[8] His differences with the English department and a desire to gain a more scientifically grounded education led Crichton to switch his major tobiological anthropology. He graduated with a Bachelor of Artssumma cum laude in 1964,[12] and was initiated intoPhi Beta Kappa society.[12]
Crichton received a Henry Russell Shaw Traveling Fellowship from 1964 to 1965, which allowed him to serve as a visiting lecturer inanthropology at theUniversity of Cambridge in the United Kingdom.[12][13] Crichton later enrolled atHarvard Medical School.[13] Crichton later said "about two weeks into medical school I realized I hated it. This isn't unusual since everyone hates medical school – even happy, practicing physicians."[14]
Crichton used the pen-name "Jeffrey Hudson", a reference to a 17th-century court dwarf and his own "abnormal" height.
In 1965, while atHarvard Medical School, Crichton wrote a novel,Odds On. "I wrote for furniture and groceries", he said later.[15]Odds On is a 215-page paperback novel which describes an attempted robbery at an isolated hotel on theCosta Brava in Spain. The robbery is planned scientifically with the help of acritical path analysis computer program, but unforeseen events get in the way. Crichton submitted it to Doubleday, where a reader liked it but felt it was not for the company. Doubleday passed it on to New American Library, which published it in 1966. Crichton used the pen name John Lange because he planned to become a doctor and did not want his patients to worry that he would use them for his plots. The name came from cultural anthropologistAndrew Lang. Crichton added an "e" to the surname and substituted his own real first name, John, for Andrew.[16] The novel was successful enough to lead to a series of John Lange novels.[14] Film rights were sold in 1969, but no movie resulted.[17]
The second Lange novel,Scratch One (1967), relates the story of Roger Carr, a handsome, charming, privileged man who practices law, more as a means to support his playboy lifestyle than a career. Carr is sent toNice, France, where he has notable political connections, but is mistaken for an assassin and finds his life in jeopardy. Crichton wrote the book while traveling through Europe on a travel fellowship. He visited theCannes Film Festival andMonaco Grand Prix, and then decided, "any idiot should be able to write apotboiler set in Cannes and Monaco", and wrote it in eleven days. He later described the book as "no good".[16] His third John Lange novel,Easy Go (1968), is the story of Harold Barnaby, a brilliantEgyptologist who discovers a concealed message while translatinghieroglyphics informing him of an unnamed pharaoh whose tomb is yet to be discovered. Crichton said the book earned him $1,500 (equivalent to $13,563 in 2024).[15] Crichton later said: "My feeling about the Lange books is that my competition is in-flight movies. One can read the books in an hour and a half, and be more satisfactorily amused than watchingDoris Day. I write them fast and the reader reads them fast and I get things off my back."[18][16]
Crichton's fourth novel wasA Case of Need (1968), a medical thriller. The novel had a different tone from the Lange books; accordingly, Crichton used the pen name "Jeffery Hudson", based on SirJeffrey Hudson, a 17th-century dwarf in the court ofqueen consortHenrietta Maria of England.[19] The novel would prove a turning point in Crichton's future novels, in which technology is important in the subject matter, although this novel was as much about medical practice. The novel earned him anEdgar Award in 1969.[20] He intended to use the "Jeffery Hudson" pseudonym for other medical novels but ended up using it only once. The book was later adapted into the filmThe Carey Treatment (1972).[21]
Crichton says after he finished his third year of medical school: "I stopped believing that one day I'd love it and realized that what I loved was writing."[14] He began publishing book reviews under his name.[22][23] In 1969, Crichton wrote a review forThe New Republic (as J. Michael Crichton), critiquingKurt Vonnegut's recently publishedSlaughterhouse-Five.[24] He also continued to write Lange novels:Zero Cool (1969), dealt with an American radiologist on vacation in Spain who is caught in a murderous crossfire between rival gangs seeking a precious artifact.The Venom Business (1969) relates the story of a smuggler who uses his exceptional skill as a snake handler to his advantage by importing snakes to be used by drug companies and universities for medical research.[14]
The first novel that was published under Crichton's name wasThe Andromeda Strain (1969), which proved to be the most important novel of his career and established him as a bestselling author. The novel documents the efforts of a team of scientists investigating anextraterrestrialmicroorganism that clots human blood, causing death within two minutes. Crichton was inspired to write it after readingThe IPCRESS File byLen Deighton while studying in England. Crichton says he was "terrifically impressed" by the book – "a lot ofAndromeda is traceable toIpcress in terms of trying to create an imaginary world using recognizable techniques and real people."[16] He wrote the novel over three years.[16] The novel became an instant hit, and film rights were sold for $250,000.[21] It was adapted into a1971 film by directorRobert Wise.[25]
During his clinical rotations at theBoston City Hospital, Crichton grew disenchanted with the culture there, which appeared to emphasize the interests and reputations of doctors over the interests of patients.[9][page needed] He graduated from Harvard, obtaining an MD in 1969,[26] and undertook a post-doctoral fellowship study at theSalk Institute for Biological Studies inLa Jolla, California, from 1969 to 1970.[27] He never obtained alicense to practice medicine, devoting himself to his writing career instead.[28] Reflecting on his career in medicine years later, Crichton concluded that patients too often shunned responsibility for their own health, relying on doctors as miracle workers rather than advisors. He experimented withastral projection,aura viewing, andclairvoyance, coming to believe that these included real phenomena that scientists had too eagerly dismissed asparanormal.[9][page needed]
Three more Crichton books under pseudonyms were published in 1970. Two were Lange novels,Drug of Choice andGrave Descend.[29]Grave Descend earned him an Edgar Award nomination the following year.[30] There was alsoDealing: or the Berkeley-to-Boston Forty-Brick Lost-Bag Blues written with his younger brother Douglas Crichton.Dealing was written under the pen name "Michael Douglas", using their first names. Michael Crichton wrote it "completely from beginning to end". Then his brother rewrote it from beginning to end, and then Crichton rewrote it again.[16] This novel wasmade into a movie in 1972. Around this time Crichton also wrote and sold an original film script,Morton's Run.[16] He also wrote the screenplayLucifer Harkness in Darkness.[31]
Crichton's first published book of non-fiction,Five Patients, recounts his experiences of practices in the late 1960s atMassachusetts General Hospital and the issues of costs and politics within American health care.
Aside from fiction, Crichton wrote several other books based on medical or scientific themes, often based upon his own observations in his field of expertise. In 1970, he publishedFive Patients, which recounts his experiences of hospital practices in the late 1960s atMassachusetts General Hospital in Boston.[21][32][33] The book follows each of five patients through their hospital experience and the context of their treatment, revealing inadequacies in the hospital institution at the time. The book relates the experiences of Ralph Orlando, a construction worker seriously injured in a scaffold collapse; John O'Connor, a middle-aged dispatcher suffering from fever that has reduced him to a delirious wreck; Peter Luchesi, a young man who severs his hand in an accident; Sylvia Thompson, an airline passenger who suffers chest pains; and Edith Murphy, a mother of three who is diagnosed with a life-threatening disease. InFive Patients, Crichton examines a brief history of medicine up to 1969 to help place hospital culture and practice into context, and addresses the costs and politics of American healthcare. In 1974, he wrote a pilot script for a medical series, "24 Hours", based on his bookFive Patients, however, networks were not enthusiastic.[34]
As a personal friend of the artistJasper Johns, Crichton compiled many of Johns' works in acoffee table book, published asJasper Johns. It was originally published in 1970 by Harry N. Abrams, Inc. in association with theWhitney Museum of American Art and again in January 1977, with a second revised edition published in 1994.[35] The psychiatrist Janet Ross owned a copy of the paintingNumbers by Jasper Johns in Crichton's later novelThe Terminal Man. Thetechnophobic antagonist of the story found it odd that a person would paint numbers as they were inorganic.[36] In 1972, Crichton published his last novel as John Lange:Binary, relates the story of a villainous middle-class businessman, who attempts to assassinate the President of the United States by stealing an army shipment of the two precursor chemicals that form a deadly nerve agent.[37]
The Terminal Man (1972), is about apsychomotor epileptic sufferer, Harry Benson, who regularly suffers seizures followed by blackouts, and conducts himself inappropriately during seizures, waking up hours later with no knowledge of what he has done. Believed to be psychotic, he is investigated and electrodes are implanted in his brain. The book continued the preoccupation in Crichton's novels with machine-human interaction and technology.[31] The novel was adapted into a1974 film directed byMike Hodges and starringGeorge Segal.[38] Crichton was hired to adapt his novelThe Terminal Man into a script by Warner Bros. The studio felt he had departed from the source material too much and hadanother writer adapt it for the 1974 film.[39] ABC TV wanted to buy the film rights to Crichton's novelBinary. The author agreed on the provision that he could direct the film. ABC agreed provided someone other than Crichton write the script. The result,Pursuit (1972) was a ratings success.[40] Crichton then wrote and directed the 1973 low-budget science fiction western-thriller filmWestworld about robots that run amok, which was his feature film directorial debut. It was the first feature film using 2Dcomputer-generated imagery (CGI). The producer ofWestworld hired Crichton to write an original script, which became the erotic thrillerExtreme Close-Up (1973). Directed byJeannot Szwarc, the movie disappointed Crichton.[41]
In 1975, Crichton wroteThe Great Train Robbery, which would become a bestseller. The novel is a recreation of theGreat Gold Robbery of 1855, a massive gold heist, which takes place on a train traveling throughVictorian era England. A considerable portion of the book was set in London. Crichton had become aware of the story when lecturing at theUniversity of Cambridge. He later read the transcripts of the court trial and started researching the historical period.[42]
In 1976, Crichton publishedEaters of the Dead, a novel about a 10th-century Muslim who travels with a group of Vikings to their settlement.Eaters of the Dead is narrated as a scientific commentary on an old manuscript and was inspired by two sources. The first three chapters retellAhmad ibn Fadlan's personal account of his journey north and his experiences in encountering theRus', a Varangian tribe, whilst the remainder is based upon the story ofBeowulf, culminating in battles with the 'mist-monsters', or 'wendol', a relict group ofNeanderthals.[43][44]
Crichton wrote and directed the suspense filmComa (1978), adapted from the 1977 novel of the same name byRobin Cook, a friend of his. There are other similarities in terms of genre and the fact that both Cook and Crichton had medical degrees, were of similar age, and wrote about similar subjects. The film was a popular success. Crichton then wrote and directed an adaptation of his own book,The Great Train Robbery (1978), starringSean Connery andDonald Sutherland.[45] The film would go on to be nominated for Best Cinematography Award by theBritish Society of Cinematographers, also garnering anEdgar Allan Poe Award for Best Motion Picture by the Mystery Writers Association of America.
In 1979, it was announced that Crichton would direct a movie version of his novelEaters of the Dead for the newly formedOrion Pictures.[46] This did not occur. Crichton pitched the idea of a modern dayKing Solomon's Mines to20th Century Fox who paid him $1.5 million for the film rights to the novel, a screenplay and directorial fee for the movie, before a word had been written. He had never worked that way before, usually writing the book then selling it. He eventually managed to finish the book, titledCongo, which became a best seller.[47] Crichton did the screenplay forCongo after he wrote and directedLooker (1981).[48][47]Looker was a financial disappointment. Crichton came close to directing a film ofCongo withSean Connery, but the film did not happen.[49] Eventually, a film version was made in 1995 byFrank Marshall. In 1984,Telarium released agraphic adventure based onCongo. Because Crichton had sold all adaptation rights to the novel, he set the game, namedAmazon, in South America, and Amy the gorilla became Paco the parrot.[50] That year Crichton also wrote and directedRunaway (1984), a police thriller set in the near future which was a box office disappointment.[51]
Crichton had begun writingSphere in 1967 as a companion piece toThe Andromeda Strain. His initial storyline began with American scientists discovering a 300-year-old spaceship underwater with stenciled markings in English. However, Crichton later realized that he "didn't know where to go with it" and put off completing the book until a later date. The novel was published in 1987.[52] It relates the story of psychologist Norman Johnson, who is required by the U.S. Navy to join a team of scientists assembled by the U.S. Government to examine an enormous alien spacecraft discovered on the bed of the Pacific Ocean, and believed to have been there for over 300 years. The novel begins as a science fiction story, but rapidly changes into a psychological thriller, ultimately exploring the nature of the human imagination. The novel was adapted into the1998 film directed byBarry Levinson and starringDustin Hoffman.[53]
Crichton's novelJurassic Park, and its sequels, were made into films that became a major part of popular culture, with related parks established in places as far afield asKletno, Poland.
In 1990, Crichton published the novelJurassic Park. Crichton used the presentation of "fiction as fact", of his previous novels,Eaters of the Dead andThe Andromeda Strain. In addition,chaos theory and its philosophical implications are used to explain the collapse of anamusement park in a "biological preserve" on Isla Nublar, a fictional island to the west of Costa Rica. The novel had begun as a screenplay Crichton had written in 1983, about a graduate student who recreates a dinosaur.[56] Reasoning that genetic research is expensive and that "there is no pressing need to create a dinosaur", Crichton concluded that it would emerge from a "desire to entertain", which led him to set the novel in awildlife park of extinct animals.[57] The story had originally been told from the point of view of a child, but Crichton changed it because everyone who read the draft felt it would be better if told by an adult.[58]
Steven Spielberg learned of the novel in October 1989 while he and Crichton were discussing a screenplay that would later be developed into the television seriesER. Before the book was published, Crichton demanded a non-negotiable fee of $1.5 million as well as a substantial percentage of the gross.Warner Bros. andTim Burton,Sony Pictures Entertainment andRichard Donner, and20th Century Fox andJoe Dante bid for the rights,[59] but Universal eventually acquired the rights in May 1990 for Spielberg.[60] Universal paid Crichton a further $500,000 to adapt his own novel,[61] which he had completed by the time Spielberg was filmingHook. Crichton noted that, because the book was "fairly long", his script only had about 10% to 20% of the novel's content.[62] Thefilm, directed by Spielberg, was released in 1993.[63]
A mosquito preserved in amber. A specimen of this sort was the source of dinosaur DNA inJurassic Park.
In 1992, Crichton published the novelRising Sun, an internationally bestselling crime thriller about a murder in the Los Angeles headquarters of Nakamoto, a fictional Japanese corporation. The book was adapted into the1993 film directed byPhilip Kaufman and starringSean Connery andWesley Snipes; it was released the same year as the adaptation ofJurassic Park.[64][65]
The theme of his next novel,Disclosure, published in 1994, was sexual harassment—a theme previously explored in his 1972 novel,Binary.Disclosure centers on sexual politics in the workplace, emphasizing an array of paradoxes in traditional gender roles by featuring a male protagonist who is being sexually harassed by a female executive. As a result, the book has been criticized harshly by some feminist commentators and accused of being anti-feminist. Crichton, anticipating this response, offered a rebuttal at the close of the novel which states that a "role-reversal" story uncovers aspects of the subject that would not be seen as easily with a female protagonist. The novel was made into afilm the same year, directed byBarry Levinson and starringMichael Douglas andDemi Moore.
Crichton was the creator and an executive producer of the television dramaER, based on his 1974 pilot script24 Hours. Spielberg helped develop the show, serving as an executive producer for season one and offering advice (he insisted onJulianna Margulies becoming a regular, for example). It was also through Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment thatJohn Wells was attached as the show's executive producer. In 1995, Crichton publishedThe Lost World as a sequel toJurassic Park. The title was a reference toArthur Conan Doyle'sThe Lost World (1912).[66] It was made into the1997 film two years later, again directed by Spielberg.[67] In March 1994, Crichton said there would probably be a sequel novel as well as a film adaptation, stating that he had an idea for the novel's story.[68] In 1996, Crichton publishedAirframe, an aero-techno-thriller. The book continued Crichton's overall theme of the failure of humans in human-machine interaction, given that the plane worked perfectly and the accident would not have occurred had the pilot reacted properly.[65] He also wroteTwister (1996) withAnne-Marie Martin, his wife at the time.[69]
In 1999, Crichton publishedTimeline, a science-fiction novel in which expertstime travel back to the medieval period. The novel, which continued Crichton's long history of combining technical details and action in his books, exploresquantum physics and time travel directly; it was also warmly received by medieval scholars, who praised his depiction of the challenges involved in researching theMiddle Ages.[70] In 1999, Crichton founded Timeline Computer Entertainment withDavid Smith. Although he signed a multi-title publishing deal withEidos Interactive, only one game,Timeline, was ever published. Released by Eidos Interactive on November 10, 2000, forWindows, the game received negative reviews. A2003 film based on the book was directed byRichard Donner and starringPaul Walker,Gerard Butler andFrances O'Connor.[71]Eaters of the Dead was adapted into the 1999 filmThe 13th Warrior directed byJohn McTiernan, who was later removed, with Crichton himself taking over direction of reshoots.[72]
In 2002, Crichton publishedPrey, about developments in science and technology, specificallynanotechnology. The novel explores relatively recent phenomena engendered by the work of the scientific community, such as:artificial life,emergence (and by extension,complexity),genetic algorithms, andagent-based computing. In 2004, Crichton publishedState of Fear, a novel concerningeco-terrorists who attempt mass murder to support their views. The novel's central premise is that climate scientists exaggerateglobal warming. A review inNature found the novel "likely to mislead the unwary".[73] The novel had an initial print run of 1.5 million copies and reached the No. 1 bestseller position atAmazon.com and No. 2 onThe New York Times Best Seller list for one week in January 2005.[74][75]
The last novel published during his lifetime wasNext in 2006.[76] The novel follows many characters, includingtransgenic animals, in a quest to survive in a world dominated by genetic research, corporate greed, and legal interventions, wherein government and private investors spend billions of dollars every year on genetic research.[77] In 2006, Crichton clashed with journalistMichael Crowley, a senior editor of the magazineThe New Republic. In March 2006, Crowley wrote a strongly critical review ofState of Fear, focusing on Crichton's stance on global warming.[78] In the same year, Crichton published the novelNext, which contains a minor character named "Mick Crowley", who is a Yale graduate and a Washington, D.C.–based political columnist. The character was portrayed as a child molesterwith a small penis.[79] The real Crowley, also a Yale graduate, alleged that by including asimilarly named character Crichton had libeled him.[79]
Several novels that were in various states of completion upon Crichton's death have since been published. The first,Pirate Latitudes, was found as a manuscript on one of his computers after his death. It centers on a fictional privateer who attempts to raid a Spanish galleon. It was published in November 2009 byHarperCollins.[80] Additionally, Crichton had completed the outline for and was roughly a third of the way through a novel titledMicro, a novel which centers on technology that shrinks humans to microscopic sizes.[80][81]Micro was completed byRichard Preston using Crichton's notes and files, and was published in November 2011.[81]
On July 28, 2016, Crichton's website and HarperCollins announced the publication of a third posthumous novel, titledDragon Teeth, which he had written in 1974.[82] It is a historical novel set during theBone Wars, and includes the real life characters ofOthniel Charles Marsh andEdward Drinker Cope. The novel was released in May 2017.[83][84] In addition, some of his published works are being continued by other authors. On February 26, 2019, Crichton's website and HarperCollins announced the publication ofThe Andromeda Evolution, the sequel toThe Andromeda Strain, a collaboration with CrichtonSun LLC. and authorDaniel H. Wilson. It was released on November 12, 2019.[85][86][87]
In 2020, it was announced that his unpublished works will be adapted into TV series and films in collaboration with CrichtonSun and Range Media Partners.[88] On December 15, 2022, it was announced thatJames Patterson would coauthor a novel about a mega-eruption of Hawaii's Mauna Loa volcano, based on an unfinished manuscript by Crichton. The novel,Eruption, was released on June 3, 2024.[89]
Crichton was an early proponent of programming and computers, predicting their ubiquity.
In 1983, Crichton wroteElectronic Life, a book that introducesBASICprogramming to its readers. The book, written like a glossary, with entries such as: "Afraid of Computers (everybody is)," "Buying a Computer" and "Computer Crime," was intended to introduce the idea of personal computers to a reader who might be faced with the challenge of using them at work or at home for the first time. It defined basic computer jargon and assured readers that they could master the machine when it inevitably arrived. In his words, being able to program a computer is liberation: "In my experience, you assert control over a computer—show it who's the boss—by making it do something unique. That means programming it... If you devote a couple of hours to programming a new machine, you'll feel better about it ever afterward."[90]
In the book, Crichton predicts a number of events in the history of computer development, that computer networks would increase in importance as a matter of convenience, including the sharing of information and pictures that we see online today, which the telephone never could. He also makes predictions for computer games, dismissing them as "thehula hoops of the 80s," and saying "already there are indications that the mania for twitch games may be fading." In a section of the book called "Microprocessors, or how I flunked biostatistics at Harvard," Crichton again seeks his revenge on the teacher who had given him abnormally low grades in college. Within the book, Crichton included many self-written demonstrativeApplesoft (forApple II) andBASICA (forIBM PC compatibles) programs.[91]
Amazon is agraphical adventure game created by Crichton and produced by John Wells.Trillium released it in the United States in 1984 initially for theApple II,Atari 8-bit computers, andCommodore 64.Amazon sold more than 100,000 copies, making it a significant commercial success at the time.[citation needed] It has plot elements similar to those previously used inCongo.[92] Crichton started a company selling a computer program he had originally written to help him create budgets for his movies.[93] He often sought to utilize computing in films, such asWestworld, which was the first film to employ computer-generated special effects. He also pushed Spielberg to include them in theJurassic Park films. For his pioneering use of computer programs in film production he was awarded theAcademy Award for Technical Achievement in 1995.[54]
In November 2006, at theNational Press Club in Washington, D.C., Crichton joked that he considered himself an expert in intellectual property law. He had been involved in several lawsuits with others claiming credit for his work.[94] In 1985, theUnited States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit heardBerkic v. Crichton, 761 F.2d 1289 (1985). Plaintiff Ted Berkic wrote a screenplay calledReincarnation Inc., which he claims Crichton plagiarized for the movieComa. The court ruled in Crichton's favor, stating the works were not substantially similar.[95] In the 1996 case,Williams v. Crichton, 84 F.3d 581 (2d Cir. 1996), Geoffrey Williams claimed thatJurassic Park violated his copyright covering his dinosaur-themed children's stories published in the late 1980s. The court grantedsummary judgment in favor of Crichton.[96] In 1998, A United States District Court in Missouri heard the case ofKessler v. Crichton that actually went all the way to a jury trial, unlike the other cases. Plaintiff Stephen Kessler claimed the movieTwister (1996) was based on his workCatch the Wind. It took the jury about 45 minutes to reach a verdict in favor of Crichton. After the verdict, Crichton refused to shake Kessler's hand.[97] Crichton later summarized his intellectual property legal cases: "I always win."[94]
Crichton became well known forattacking thescience behindglobal warming. He testified on the subject before Congress in 2005.[98] His views would be contested by a number of scientists and commentators.[99] An example is meteorologistJeffrey Masters's review of Crichton's 2004 novelState of Fear:
Flawed or misleading presentations of global warming science exist in the book, including those on Arctic sea ice thinning, correction of land-based temperature measurements for theurban heat island effect, andsatellite vs. ground-based measurements of Earth's warming. I will spare the reader additional details. On the positive side, Crichton does emphasize the little-appreciated fact that while most of the world has been warming the past few decades, most of Antarctica has seen a cooling trend. TheAntarctic ice sheet is actually expected to increase in mass over the next 100 years due to increased precipitation, according to theIPCC.
Peter Doran, author of the paper in the January 2002 issue ofNature, which reported the finding referred to above, stating that some areas of Antarctica had cooled between 1986 and 2000, wrote an opinion piece inThe New York Times of July 27, 2006, in which he stated "Our results have been misused as 'evidence' against global warming by Michael Crichton in his novelState of Fear."[74]Al Gore said on March 21, 2007, before a U.S. House committee: "The planet has a fever. If your baby has a fever, you go to the doctor... if your doctor tells you you need to intervene here, you don't say 'Well, I read a science fiction novel that tells me it's not a problem.'" Several commentators have interpreted this as a reference toState of Fear.[101][102][103][104]
Crichton's novels, includingJurassic Park, have been described byThe Guardian as "harking back to the fantasy adventure fiction ofSir Arthur Conan Doyle,Jules Verne,Edgar Rice Burroughs, andEdgar Wallace, but with a contemporary spin, assisted by cutting-edge technology references made accessible for the general reader."[105] According toThe Guardian, "Michael Crichton wasn't really interested in characters, but his innate talent for storytelling enabled him to breathe new life into the science fiction thriller."[105] LikeThe Guardian,The New York Times has also noted the boys adventure quality to his novels interfused with modern technology and science. According toThe New York Times,
All the Crichton books depend to a certain extent on a little frisson of fear and suspense: that's what kept you turning the pages. But a deeper source of their appeal was the author's extravagant care in working out the clockwork mechanics of his experiments—the DNA replication inJurassic Park, the time travel inTimeline, the submarine technology inSphere. The novels have embedded in them little lectures or mini-seminars on, say, the Bernoulli principle, voice-recognition software or medieval jousting etiquette ...
The best of the Crichton novels have about them a boys' adventure quality. They owe something to the Saturday-afternoon movie serials that Mr. Crichton watched as a boy and to the adventure novels of Arthur Conan Doyle (from whom Mr. Crichton borrowed the titleThe Lost World and whose example showed that a novel could never have too many dinosaurs). These books thrive on yarn spinning, but they also take immense delight in the inner workings of things (as opposed to people, women especially), and they make the world—or the made-up world, anyway—seem boundlessly interesting. Readers come away entertained and also with the belief, not entirely illusory, that they have actually learned something"
— The New York Times on the works of Michael Crichton[106]
Crichton's works were frequentlycautionary, his plots often portrayed scientific advancements going awry, commonly resulting in worst-case scenarios. A notable recurring theme in Crichton's plots is thepathological failure ofcomplex systems and their safeguards, whether biological (Jurassic Park), militaristic/organizational (The Andromeda Strain), technological (Airframe), orcybernetic (Westworld). This theme of the inevitable breakdown of "perfect" systems and the failure of "fail-safe measures" can be seen strongly in the poster forWestworld, whose slogan was, "Where nothing can possibly go worng" [sic], and in the discussion ofchaos theory inJurassic Park. His 1973 movieWestworld contains one of the earliest references to acomputer virus and is the first mention of the concept of a computer virus in a movie.[107] Crichton believed, however, that his view of technology had been misunderstood as
being out there, doing bad things to us people, like we're inside the circle of covered wagons and technology is out there firing arrows at us. We're making the technology and it is a manifestation of how we think. To the extent that we think egotistically and irrationally and paranoically and foolishly, then we have technology that will give usnuclear winters or cars that won't brake. But that's because people didn't design them right.[108]
The use ofauthor surrogate was a feature of Crichton's writings from the beginning of his career. InA Case of Need, one of his pseudonymouswhodunit stories, Crichton used first-person narrative to portray the hero, a Bostonian pathologist, who is running against the clock to clear a friend's name from medical malpractice in a girl's death from a hack-job abortion. Crichton has used the literary technique known as the false document.Eaters of the Dead is a "recreation" of theOld English epicBeowulf presented as a scholarly translation ofAhmad ibn Fadlan's 10th century manuscript.The Andromeda Strain andJurassic Parkincorporate fictionalized scientific documents in the form of diagrams, computer output,DNA sequences, footnotes, and bibliography.The Terminal Man andState of Fear include authentic published scientific works that illustrate the premise point. Crichton often employs the premise of diverse experts or specialists assembled to tackle a unique problem requiring their individual talents and knowledge. The premise was used forThe Andromeda Strain,Sphere,Jurassic Park, and, to a lesser extent,Timeline. Sometimes the individual characters in this dynamic work in the private sector and are suddenly called upon by the government to form an immediate response team once some incident or discovery triggers their mobilization. This premise or plot device has been imitated and used by other authors and screenwriters in several books, movies and television shows since.
Crichton was tall (6 ft 9 in, or 206 cm).[109] His height made him feel isolated as an adolescent.[110] During the 1970s and 1980s, he consultedpsychics and enlightenment gurus to make him feel more socially acceptable and to improve his positivekarma. As a result of these experiences, Crichton practicedmeditation throughout much of his life.[111][failed verification] While he is often regarded as adeist, he never publicly confirmed this. When asked in an online Q&A if he were a spiritual person, Crichton responded with: "Yes, but it is difficult to talk about."[112]
Crichton was aworkaholic. When drafting a novel, which would typically take him six or seven weeks, Crichton withdrew completely to follow what he called "a structured approach" of ritualistic self-denial. As he neared writing the end of each book, he would rise increasingly early each day, meaning that he would sleep for less than four hours by going to bed at 10 p.m. and waking at 2 a.m.[6]
In 1992, Crichton was ranked amongPeople magazine's 50 most beautiful people.[113] He married five times. Four of the marriages ended in divorce: Joan Radam (1965–1970); Kathleen St. Johns (1978–1980); Suzanna Childs (1981–1983); and actressAnne-Marie Martin (1987–2003), the mother of his daughter (born 1989).[114] At the time of his death, Crichton was married to Sherri Alexander (married 2005), who was six months pregnant with their son, born on February 12, 2009.[115]
In a 2003 speech, Crichton warned against partisanship in environmental legislation, arguing for an apolitical environmentalist movement.[119] In 2005, Crichton reportedly met withRepublican PresidentGeorge W. Bush to discuss Crichton's novelState of Fear, of which Bush was a fan. According toFred Barnes, Bush and Crichton "talked for an hour and were in near-total agreement."[120] In September 2005, Crichton testified on climate change before theU.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works. Crichton opined that human activities are not significantly contributing toglobal warming, and encouraged U.S. lawmakers to more closely examine the methodology of climate science before voting on policy. His testimony received praise from Republican SenatorJim Inhofe, and criticism from Democratic SenatorHillary Clinton.[121] Crichton's views on climate change are frequently criticized aspseudoscience.[122][123][124][125]
According to Crichton's brother Douglas, Crichton was diagnosed withlymphoma in early 2008.[126] His cancer was not made public until his death. He was undergoingchemotherapy treatment at the time of his death, and Crichton's physicians and relatives had been expecting him to recover. He died at age 66 on November 4, 2008.[127][128][129]
Michael's talent outscaled even his own dinosaurs ofJurassic Park. He was the greatest at blending science with big theatrical concepts, which is what gave credibility to dinosaurs walking the earth again. In the early days, Michael had just soldThe Andromeda Strain to Robert Wise at Universal and I had recently signed on as a contract TV director there. My first assignment was to show Michael Crichton around the Universal lot. We became friends and professionallyJurassic Park,ER, andTwister followed. Michael was a gentle soul who reserved his flamboyant side for his novels. There is no one in the wings that will ever take his place.[130]
— Steven Spielberg on Michael Crichton's death
As a pop novelist, he was divine. A Crichton book was a headlong experience driven by a man who was both a natural storyteller and fiendishly clever when it came toverisimilitude; he made you believe that cloning dinosaurs wasn't just over the horizon but possible tomorrow. Maybe today.[131]
Most of Crichton's novels address issues emerging in scientific research fields. In a number of his novels (Jurassic Park,The Lost World,Next,Congo)genomics plays an important role. Usually, the drama revolves around the sudden eruption of a scientific crisis, revealing the disruptive impacts new forms of knowledge and technology may have,[133] as is stated inThe Andromeda Strain, Crichton's first science fiction novel: "This book recounts the five-day history of a major American scientific crisis" (1969, p. 3) orThe Terminal Man where unexpected behaviors are realized when electrodes are implanted into a person's brain.
Crichton was a popular public speaker. He delivered a number of speeches in his lifetime, particularly on the topic ofglobal warming, for which he has been criticized as a proponent ofpseudoscience.[122][123][124][125]
On March 14, 2007,Intelligence Squared held a debate in New York City for which the motion wasGlobal Warming Is Not a Crisis, moderated byBrian Lehrer. Crichton was for the motion, along withRichard Lindzen andPhilip Stott, versusGavin Schmidt,Richard Somerville, and Brenda Ekwurze, who were against the motion. Before the debate, the audience had voted largely against the motion (57% to 30%, with 13% undecided).[138] At the end of the debate, there was a greater shift in the audience vote for the motion (46% to 42%, with 12% undecided), resulting in Crichton's group winning the debate.[138] Although Crichton inspired numerous blog responses and his contribution to the debate was considered one of his best rhetorical performances, reception of his message was mixed.[138][139]
The AAAS invited Crichton to address scientists concerns about how they are portrayed in the media, which was delivered to theAmerican Association for the Advancement of Science in Anaheim, California on January 25, 1999.[141]
This was not the first discussion of environmentalism as a religion, but it caught on and was widely quoted. Crichton explains his view that religious approaches to the environment are inappropriate and cause damage to the natural world they intend to protect.[142][143] The speech was delivered to theCommonwealth Club in San Francisco, California on September 15, 2003.
Crichton outlined several issues before a joint meeting of liberal and conservative think tanks. The speech was delivered atAEI–Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., on January 25, 2005.[144]
On January 25, 2005, at theNational Press Club in Washington, D.C., Crichton presented a case against thescientific consensus on climate change, arguing that claims for catastrophic warming were doubtful and that reducing CO2 is vastly more difficult than is commonly presumed. He also opined that societies are morally unjustified in spending vast sums on global warming when people around the world are dying of starvation and disease.[143] This presentation was later collected and republished in writing by theScience and Public Policy Institute, an organization which promotesclimate change denial.[145]
"Aliens Cause Global Warming" January 17, 2003. In the spirit of his science fiction writing, Crichton details research onnuclear winter andSETI Drake equations relative to global warming science.[146]
Crichton was invited to testify before the Senate in September 2005, as an "expert witness on global warming."[147] The speech was delivered to theCommittee on Environment and Public Works in Washington, D.C.
In previous speeches, Crichton criticized environmental groups for failing to incorporatecomplexity theory. Here he explains in detail why complexity theory is essential to environmental management, using the history of Yellowstone Park as an example of what not to do. The speech was delivered to the Washington Center for Complexity and Public Policy in Washington, D.C., on November 6, 2005.[148][149]
While writingNext, Crichton concluded that laws covering genetic research desperately needed to be revised, and spoke to congressional staff members about problems ahead. The speech was delivered to a group of legislative staffers in Washington, D.C., on September 14, 2006.[150]
In a speech in 2002, Crichton coined the termGell-Mann amnesia effect to describe the phenomenon of experts reading articles within their fields of expertise and finding them to be error-ridden and full of misunderstanding, but seemingly forgetting those experiences when reading articles in the same publications written on topics outside of their fields of expertise, which they believe to be credible. He explained that he had chosen the name ironically, because he had once discussed the effect with physicistMurray Gell-Mann, "and by dropping a famous name I imply greater importance to myself, and to the effect, than it would otherwise have."[151][152]
In 2002, a genus ofankylosaurid,Crichtonsaurus bohlini, was named in his honor.[153][154] This species was concluded to be dubious however,[155] and some of the diagnostic fossil material was then transferred into the new binomialCrichtonpelta benxiensis,[154] also named in his honor. His literary works continue to be adapted into films, making him the 20th highest grossing story creator of all time.[156]
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^"Michael Crichton".Famous Authors.Archived from the original on February 19, 2014. RetrievedMarch 24, 2014.
^abcJudith Martin (February 28, 1969). "Dropping the Scalpel: Film Notes Columbia Frowns Speeds the Turnover Refuge From Roles".The Washington Post and Times-Herald. p. B12.
^J. MICHAEL CRICHTON (November 10, 1968). "Life, Death And the Doctor".The New York Times. p. BR28.
^Crichton, Michael (December 22, 1968). "Be careful, it's not my heart".Chicago Tribune. p. m3.
^A. H. Weiler (October 18, 1970). "Elliott Gould Will Ride a 'Tiger': Plenty For Pakula Full 'Speed' Ahead Elliott Gould Getting in 'Sync'".The New York Times. p. D13.
^ab"Biography".MichaelCrichton.net.Archived from the original on January 7, 2021. RetrievedMarch 15, 2012.
^Bosworth, Patricia (June 26, 1988)."TOURING THE ALTERED STATES".The New York Times.Archived from the original on August 31, 2020. RetrievedMay 4, 2020.
^Crichton, Michael (2001).Michael Crichton on the Jurassic Park Phenomenon (DVD). Universal.
^"Return to Jurassic Park: Dawn of a New Era",Jurassic Park Blu-ray (2011)
^abLee, Felicia R. (December 14, 2006)."Columnist Accuses Crichton of 'Literary Hit-and-Run'".The New York Times.Archived from the original on April 22, 2017. RetrievedJanuary 4, 2024.On Page 227 Mr. Crichton writes: 'Alex Burnet was in the middle of the most difficult trial of her career, a rape case involving the sexual assault of a two-year-old boy in Malibu. The defendant, thirty-year-old Mick Crowley, was a Washington-based political columnist who was visiting his sister-in-law when he experienced an overwhelming urge to have anal sex with her young son, still in diapers.' Mick Crowley is described as a 'wealthy, spoiled Yale graduate' with a small penis that nonetheless 'caused significant tears to the toddler's rectum.'
^Crichton, Michael (2012).Travels. Westminster: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group.ISBN978-0-394-56236-0.
^Bosworth, Patricia (June 26, 1988)."TOURING THE ALTERED STATES".The New York Times.Archived from the original on July 21, 2019. RetrievedJuly 21, 2019.
^abCrichton, Michael (December 2009)."Three Speeches by Michael Crichton"(PDF). Washington, D.C.: Science & Public Policy Institute. Archived from the original on December 18, 2010. RetrievedApril 26, 2011.
^Hatfield, Michael (2012)."Deconstructing Risk Management".Game Theory in Management: Modelling Business Decisions and their Consequences. Gower Publishing, Ltd. p. 97.ISBN978-1-4094-5940-8.Archived from the original on December 27, 2019. RetrievedSeptember 10, 2017.
^p.8 Johansen, Bruce ElliottSilenced!: Academic Freedom, Scientific Inquiry, and the First Amendment Under Siege in America Greenwood Publishing Group, 2007
^Lü Junchang; Ji Qiang; Gao Yubo; Li Zhixin (2007). "A new species of the ankylosaurid dinosaurCrichtonsaurus (Ankylosauridae:Ankylosauria) from the Cretaceous of Liaoning Province, China".Acta Geologica Sinica.81 (6) (English ed.):883–897.Bibcode:2007AcGlS..81..883L.doi:10.1111/j.1755-6724.2007.tb01010.x.S2CID140562058.
^abArbour, Victoria Megan; Currie, Philip John (2015). "Systematics, phylogeny and palaeobiogeography of the ankylosaurid dinosaurs".Journal of Systematic Palaeontology.14 (5): 1.doi:10.1080/14772019.2015.1059985.S2CID214625754.
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