Sphere

Michael Crichton (1942-2008) entered Harvard University in 1960 to study literature. However, after concluding that he would never receive the grades he felt he deserved, he switched his major to biological anthropology and graduated summa cum laude in 1964. Crichton then entered Harvard Medical school, publishing his first novel, Odds On, in 1966 under the pseudonym John Lange. Crichton wrote eight novels under the Lange pseudonym from 1964 to 1972. Under the name Jeffrey Hudson, he published a medical mystery called A Case of Need (1968) that was later made into the movie The Carey Treatment (1972). Crichton’ first bestseller was The Andromeda Strain (1969), published under his own name. It became a blockbuster film in 1971.

Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Crichton continued to write novels and moved into writing screenplays as well. It was during this time he wrote the screenplay for the original Westworld (1973). Crichton also took on the role of director for several films, including his adaptation of Robin Cook’s Coma (1978). His novels during this time period include The Great Train Robbery (1975), Eaters of the Dead (1976), and Congo (1980). Crichton began the 1990s with Jurassic Park (1990), Rising Sun (1992), and Disclosure (1994). In 1994, Crichton created and was executive producer/adviser of the television show, ER, which was based on a script he wrote in 1974, 24 Hours. He continued writing novels with The Lost World (1995), Airframe (1996), and Timeline (1999). Crichton also wrote the feature film, Twister (1996) with his then wife, Anne-Marie Martin. The early 2000s saw the publication of Prey (2000), State of Fear (2004), and Next (2006). Pirate Latitudes (2009), Micro (2011), Dragon Teeth (2017), and Eruption (2024; coauthored by James Patterson) were published posthumously. Altogether, Crichton wrote 29 novels (14 of which were adapted into movies), nine screenplays, two television shows/episodes, and 10 short stories or poems. Also, he directed seven movies and one made-for-TV movie, and produced four movies and a television show. In addition to his fiction work, Crichton wrote four nonfiction books, including Five Patients (1970), which recounts his experience with hospital practices in the 1960s; Jasper Johns, a coffee table book featuring art by his friend Jasper Johns (1970); Electronic Life (1983), which taught readers Basic computer programming; and Travels (1988), a memoir chronicling his departure from medicine and move into full-time writing.

Although Crichton graduated with a medical degree in 1969 and accepted a fellowship at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, he disliked medicine and never practiced. Instead, he developed interests in astral projection, aura viewing, and clairvoyance, all of which he considered real phenomenon dismissed too quickly by scientists. Crichton often called on his education and other interests in his writing, as is evident in the focus on psychology and astronomy in Sphere. Crichton was married five times and had two children, Taylor Anne Crichton and John Michael Todd Crichton. Michael Crichton died of lymphoma in 2008.