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|  | | Michael Crichton
It stands to reason that someone with as many pursuits as Michael Crichton (novelist, nonfiction writer, screenwriter, director, software engineer, M.D.) might achieve only modest success in any of them. But Crichton somehow excelled at them all. His books, suffused with his scientific research and knowledge, never failed to present imaginative, chilling scenarios that jumped from historical capers to futuristic sci-fi. He died on November 4, 2008, after a long battle against cancer.
 Read the interview
Exclusive: See our video interview with Crichton (5:08)
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Fact File
| Name:
Michael Crichton
Also Known As:
John Michael Crichton (full name), Jeffery Hudson, John Lange
Current Home:
Los Angeles, California
Date of Birth:
October 23, 1942
Place of Birth:
Chicago, Illinois
Date of Death:
November 4, 2008
| | Place of Death:
Los Angeles, California
Education:
B.A.. in Anthropology, Harvard University, 1964; M.D., Harvard Medical School, 1969
Awards:
Edgar Award for In Case of Need (1968) and The Great Train Robbery (1980); New ankylosaurus species named Crichtonsaurus bohlini, 2003
Michael Crichton's official web site
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Crichton's Latest
| Selected Novels
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| | Next
by
Michael Crichton
In his latest blockbuster, Crichton takes readers into the realm of genetics: fast, furious and out of control. Prepare to enter a world where nothing is as it seems and a new set of possibilities is opening up at every turn. Next challenges your sense of what is happening, what is true and what is ethical. It will overturn your assumptions of what you thought you knew. Provocative yet playful, dark and disturbing, this is Crichton as readers have never seen him before. | | 
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The Andromeda Strain (1969)
Sphere (1987)
Jurassic Park (1990)
Disclosure (1994)
The Lost World (1995)
Timeline (1999)
Prey (2002)
State of Fear (2004)
Next (2006)
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Michael Crichton chronology
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The Best Book to Read First
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| | The Andromeda Strain
by
Michael Crichton
One of Crichton's most popular thrillers to date, The Andromeda Strain spent an astonishing 30 months atop the New York Times bestseller list in the '70s, and remains a perennial fan favorite.
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Father Figure?
| ”In the early 1990s, interviewers began calling me ‘the father of the techno-thriller.’ Nobody ever had before," Crichton reveals in our interview. "Finally I began asking the interviewers, ‘Why do you call me that?’ They said, ‘Because Tom Clancy says you are the father of the techno-thriller.’ So I called Tom up and said, ‘Listen, thank you, but I’m not the father of the techno-thriller.’ He said, ‘Yes you are.’ I said, ‘No, I’m not, before me there were thrillers like Failsafe and Seven Days In May and The Manchurian Candidate that were techno-thrillers.’ He said, ‘No, those are all political. You’re the father of the techno-thriller.’ And there it ended."
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Dino-Might
| Favorite Writers and Reads
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| | Jurassic Park
by
Michael Crichton
Crichton was so successful with this dinosaurs-run-amok novel and its sequel, The Lost World (both of which were turned into movies), that he has a species of dino named after him. He left 'em wanting more, though: On his web site, Crichton says he won't be writing any more dinosaur books.
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| | Collected Essays, Journalism and Letters of George Orwell
by
George Orwell
Crichton told us that George Orwell has been an inspiration throughout his life. "He is my favorite writer, and I read him as a teenager because my father admired him a lot," he reflects. "From Orwell, I got an insight into an independent mind and I emulated him." Read our interview to learn more about Crichton's favorite writers and reads, including:
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| | Photo by Jonathan Exley |
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