As you may know, one of the greatest authors of the modern age has passed away not to long ago, on November 4th, 2008. I thought I would give him a proper tribute on DeviantArt.

John Michael Crichton was born on October 23, 1942, and raised on Long Island. He lived in a house with three siblings, Kimberly, Catherine, and Douglas Crichton. At a young age, Michael showed great interest in writing, and had a column published in The New York Times at the age of fourteen. Crichton planned to be a writer, and studied at Harvard College in 1960. Due to troubles with his teachers, Crichton switched his course from literature to biological anthropology, and he received his bachelor’s degree in 1964.

Later on, he enrolled in Harvard Medical School, and obtained the title of M.D. in 1969.

While he was in Medical School, Crichton wrote his first published book, Odds On, under the pen name of John Lange. The book describes attempted robbery in an isolated hotel. The following years, he publishes Scratch One in 1967, and Easy Go, plus A Case of Need in 1968. It was once of his next book, The Andromeda Strain that would launch him on the road to success.

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The Andromeda Strain deals with a team of scientists investigating a mysterious micro-organism from space. This organism clots and dries out human blood, therefore the infected die within two minutes. The book received great reviews, because it was frighteningly real, and well thought out. It was adapted into a movie in 1971, and that movie was later remade in 2008 as a TV movie.

From 1972 to his death, Michael Crichton was on a victory streak. He is was a well known author by this time, and his next hit, The Terminal Man, dealing with a man with epilepsy that has to go through major surgery, boosts his success immensely.

His books The Great Train Robbery (1975) Eaters of the Dead (1976) Congo (1980) and Sphere (1987) were also instant successes. From this point on, Crichton receives wonderful reviews from even the harshest critics for his detailed scientific analysis, and the lingering aspect of realism.

Jurassic Park is the book that comes to mind when people hear Crichton’s name. It is arguably his best and most famous book. It revolves around a Paleobotanist, a Paleontologist, and two children who are invited to a dinosaur theme park with real dinosaurs as the main attraction. When the power goes out, chaos is released and a chaotic and wonderful adventure begins. It was made into a movie directed by the great Steven Spielberg in 1993, and both the book and the movie are considered classics.



A sequel to the book, The Lost World was released in 1995, and a movie followed shortly after, which unfortunately could not compare to the book.

After The Lost World, Michael Crichton writes Airframe, about an airplane accident and Timeline, dealing with time travel. Timeline was made into a movie with a few big star names in it, but unfortunately it failed to impress the critics.

Prey was written in 2002. Similar to Jurassic Park, the book was a cautionary tale about advances in Nanotechnology.



In 2004, the respected Crichton released State of Fear and Next in 2006.

Some might know Crichton as the creator of the television series E.R., which might have been inspired by his experience as a M.D.

Michael Crichton passed away on Election Day 2008. His talent and knowledge of the world will (and has been) missed dearly. He suffered from throat cancer, and was fighting it private. His final book is scheduled to be released sometime this year.

I hope you found my little article interesting. Unfortunately, most of the Crichton fan-art is Jurassic Park related, and even then most of it is from the movie.

Spread the Michael Crichton love!