Crichton was born John Michael Crichton on the 23rd October 1942 in Chicago, Illinois. Michael was the first son of John Henderson Crichton, a journalist, and Zula Miller Crichton. The family, including two sisters, Kimberly and Catherine, and a younger brother, Douglas, soon moved to Roslyn, New York, where Michael grew up.
From an early age, Michael was encouraged to write and type by his father. His father’s wide ranging interests also seemed to rub off on Michael, as the son sought out new expansive knowledge. His mother also assisted in this search for information, regularly taking all of the children to the theatre and museums. Childhood illness also meant that Michael would often have to spend time indoors, time he would use in learning and conducting scientific experiments.
By the age of fourteen Crichton was an accomplished writer. Following in his father’s footsteps he had his first taste of journalism, selling his own articles to the travel section of the New York Times’.
Crichton did well enough at school to earn a place at Harvard University. Studying anthropology at the Cambridge, Massachusetts campus, Crichton was successful in achieving his BA. Crichton in fact graduated summa cum laude’ in 1964.
His undergraduate study was generally a success. Crichton though at one point did believe that one of his professors was deliberately marking his work down. Crichton proved his case, submitting a piece of work written by George Orwell, for which the professor gave him a B minus.
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| Michael Crichton - Jon Chase photo/Harvard News Office - CC-BY-3.0 |
In 1965 Crichton returned to America, and entered Harvard Medical School, training as a doctor. Crichton quickly found that his time at medical school would be more expensive than expected so he turned to writing to pay his fees. Crichton obtained his MD in 1969 before undertaking a year’s postdoctoral fellowship at the Jonas Silk Institute for Biological Studies in California.
The novels he wrote at medical school were written under pseudonyms, John Lange and Jeffery Hudson. Crichton used the pseudonyms because his novels, A Case of Need in particular, made reference to real people at Harvard Medical School. A Case of Need was his fourth novel, following on from Odds On, Scratch One and Easy Go. A Case of Need was the best received and was in fact nominated for, and won, the 1969 Mystery Writers of America’s Edgar Allan Poe Award for best novel. Of course in accepting his award, his anonymity was gone.
After receiving his award, Crichton published his first novel in his own name. This novel was The Andromeda Strain, a story of a virus from outer space, which quickly became Crichton’s first bestseller. The novel was Crichton’s first to be turned into a film, as it was adapted to become a 1971 Robert Wise film. Though still a medical student, Crichton found himself to be a famous author as well.
Crichton soon found his success meant that he could shy away from a medical profession to focus full time on his writing career. Continuing to write novels under his John Lange pseudonym, Crichton also managed to write non-fiction science work, before co-authoring the novel Dealing with his brother.
The success of the Andromeda Strain as a film, introduced Crichton to the world of movies. 1972 saw Crichton write and direct his first tv-movie, called Pursuit it was based on his novel Binary. It was 1973 that saw his first big film break, as Westworld hit the big screen. Starring Yul Brynner, it was the first film to use 2D CGI. In all thirteen of his books have been turned into films, including the Jurassic Park series and Congo.
Crichton’s film interest meant that as a novel writer he has not been prolific. Crichton in fact averages a novel every three or four years. There are common themes throughout his novels though, as he shows the conflict between technology and social and moral values, Congo is a prime example showing how technology and greed, in the form of diamonds, can show what a danger science can be. The other major theme is what happens when fail proof systems suddenly fail, Jurassic Park and Westworld being key examples.
Crichton though is far from being anti-technology. He has always had a keen interest in computers and computer modelling. Crichton used computer modelling in his study of anthropology. In the 1980s he also created the graphical text game Amazon for the Atari ST and Commodore 64. In 1999 Crichton founded Time-Line Computer Entertainment Studios, a company designed to make video games.
Away from his books and film work, Crichton is best known for his television work. Crichton used his medical knowledge to create and produce the television drama ER, a series which has had worldwide success. In December 1994 ER enabled to him have a unique US record of having the Number One movie, for Jurassic Park, the Number One book, Disclosure, and Number One TV show, ER.
His work across all forms of media, has enabled Crichton to pick up a range of awards, although maybe not as many as would be expected for a bestselling author. ER won a Writers Guild of America award, a Peabody and an Emmy. Aside from A Case of Need, The Great Train Robbery won a second award from the Mystery Writers of America’s, winning as it did the 1980 Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Motion Picture.
Away from the award ceremonies, Crichton has also been honoured, with a Chinese dinosaur being named after him, Bienosauraus crichtoni.
Away from work Crichton has been married on five occasions and divorced on four. The five wives have been Suzanna Childs, Joan Radam, Kathy St. Johns, Anne-Marie Martin and his current wife, Sherri Alexander. Anne-Marie and Crichton have produced Crichton’s only child to date, a daughter called Taylor.
Crichton has sold in excess of 150 million copies of his novels, and many millions more have watched the film adaptations. Into his sixties now, Crichton still writes and produces bestselling work had regular intervals.
Copyright - First Published 11th March 2008
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