The Four Paintings from Crichton’s Collection

As I noted on in my Feb. 8 post, four paintings from Michael Crichton’s collection are going to be auctioned off at Christies in New York on May 11. The four paintings are:

Flag by Jasper Johns (1960-66)

Femme et Filettes (Woman and Children) by Pablo Picasso (1961)

Studio Painting (Combine) by Robert Rauschenberg (1960-61)

Girl in Water by Roy Lichtenstein (1965)

All of the paintings can be seen along with an article at the Italian art website Art Economy 24. The article can be read in the original Italian or in an English translation.
(Scroll down to the bottom to see the four paintings from Crichton’s collection)

In an article about the auction, Crichton is quoted:

“I never really cared whether a particular piece was major or minor, typical or atypical of the artist’s work, or whether the artist was fully or thinly represented in my collection,” Crichton wrote. “I just bought images that I enjoyed looking at, and in the end, that is the only significance that I attach to them. I feel fortunate to have been able to live with the works.”

A spokesperson for the Crichton family stated (in the same article):

“Michael was a visionary. He loved art and treasured his relationships with artists. It is a very difficult decision to sell works that have had such a personal place in his world. We are confident that the auctions and exhibitions at Christie’s will commemorate Michael’s eye and deep passion for art.”

This photo from the Architectural Digest July 2002 issue shows Jasper Johns’ Flag hanging in the library of Crichton’s Bedford, New York home. In other photos from the article (not available online), Picasso’s Femme et Filettes (Woman and Children) is seen on a wall in Crichton’s living room, and Lichtenstein’s Girl in Water is visible on the wall of the hallway opposite the master bedroom door.

An April 1998 article in Architectural Digest focused on Crichton’s Los Angeles home and contains this quote from Crichton:

“Art should be looked at when you want to look at it…I have enough demands on my life without a painting requiring my attention when I come home.”

Related Posts:
Paintings from Crichton’s Art Collection to be Auctioned Off

Links and more info on Michael Crichton at:
Kahlessa's Corner

Michael Crichton – Love is…

In honor of Valentine’s Day, it is apropos to reflect on an essay Michael Crichton wrote in 1988 titled “Love is…”

In the first part of the essay, Crichton distinguishes how what many people think of as romantic love is based on self-centered needs and the desire to possess. He writes:

There are ways to know real love. It feels calm. It's steady, and it can easily last a lifetime. It's nourishing — people grow under its influence. They become who they really are, and now what someone expects them to be. Real love isn't blind; on the contrary, people feel understood, accepted for who they really are. It's healing. People recover.

Crichton concludes the essay by defining love as:

An emotion of deep caring that asks nothing in return, an emotion that is fulfilling without any expectation at all, is so rare that most people in our society can't imagine it. They can't imagine feeling it, or receiving it. They may even come to believe it doesn't exist. But it does.
And it's the best thing there is.

The Crichton website notes that the essay, published in the February 1988 issue of Redbook, “brought more reader mail than anything the magazine printed in a year.”

When I read the essay again today, two things came to mind.

One is a quote from the Bible which my friend Liza posted in celebration of St. Valentine’s Day:

Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things…

--1 Corinthians 13:4-7

I was struck by the similarities in what Crichton wrote to what the Bible says. But the other thing about this essay is how unusual it is as a work by Michael Crichton. It shows a sweetness and vulnerability that I haven’t seen in any of his other works.

With one exception. Crichton’s second novel, Scratch One, which he wrote under the pseudonym “John Lange”, contains a genuine love story, which I found surprising and very touching. The main character, Roger Carr, falls in love with a woman named Anne Crittenden and the story is told from his point of view. Here are some of the passages describing his growing feelings for Anne:

“He liked to listen to her talk, and enjoyed the way she put things.” p. 90

“They had discussed everything, and he had become increasingly astonished at her…She was quick, she was witty, she was gorgeous, and Carr found himself entranced.” p. 96

“He enjoyed being with her, doing almost anything with her. Nothing else seemed to matter.” p. 110

“He realized that he had been treating her with caution, with a care and delicacy that was not usual to him.” p. 134

“That day and the next were like a dream to Carr. He wandered around the villa grounds, hand-in-hand with Anne. Sometimes they talked, but often they spent hours without passing a word; it was as if they had no need to speak to understand what the other was thinking….Carr was blissfully, peacefully happy with her. He felt as if he had found something he had needed for a very long time.” p. 162

“He could not quite comprehend that Anne was being taken from him; the realization came slowly, and very painfully. He did not want it to happen.

He could not allow it to happen.” p. 167

While it is not unusual for Crichton’s characters to become romantically involved, Scratch One is the only novel in which the character’s feelings are deeply described. And it is also unusual that the woman Anne is both worthy of and reciprocates Roger Carr’s feelings. Feminine betrayal is much more the norm in the John Lange novels.

One interesting detail about Roger Carr—he shares Michael Crichton’s October 23 birthday. When reading Crichton’s novels, I often wonder how much of certain characters reflect what was inside of the writer himself.

Links and more info on Michael Crichton at:
Kahlessa's Corner

Paintings from Crichton’s Art Collection to be Auctioned Off

According to an article in the Independent, four paintings from Michael Crichton’s art collection will be auctioned off at Christie's in New York on May 11.

In the Summer 2008 issue of Art News, Crichton was named one of the top 200 art collectors in the world.

One of the paintings to be auctioned is Jasper Johns's Flag. Crichton, who was a friend of Johns, published a book on his art titled Jasper Johns in 1977. A revised edition of the book was published in 1994.

I have a print of Flag hanging in my bedroom.

(Thank you Pavel for bringing this to my attention!)

Links and more info on Michael Crichton at:
Kahlessa's Corner

Pirate Latitudes - Matanceros

While I was reading Pirate Latitudes, my thoughts kept returning to the name “Matanceros”, the Spanish fortress that Captain Hunter and his forces attack. I had the feeling I had seen that name before in connection with Michael Crichton. It took awhile, but I finally figured it out.

In Crichton’s novel The Lost World, Ian Malcolm, speaking about where they are going, describes:

Five islands “strung out in an arc, all about ten miles offshore from the bay of Puerto Cortés…Local people call them the Five Deaths.”

“The Five Deaths are ancient volcanic islands…Matanceros, Muerte, Tacaño, Sorna, Pena…All names of death and destruction…” (paperback edition, pp. 87-88)

On p. 46 in Pirate Latitudes, Whisper tells Hunter “The island of Matanceros, it means slaughter in the Donnish tongue…” (The “Donnish tongue being Spanish.) But when I looked up the word “matanceros” I couldn’t find it in either online Spanish dictionaries or in the extensive dictionaries at my bookstore.

Fortunately, my friend (and major Michael Crichton fan) Erik Stengler, lives in Spain, and I asked him to investigate.

Here’s what he discovered:

I did notice the mention of Matanceros as supposedly meaning "slaughter", and it sounded strange to me, but I assumed it was archaic and left it at that. After all the modern word for "slaughter" is "matanza".

Now I have looked it up in the official dictionary of the Spanish Language www.rae.es. It turns out to have the obvious meaning of a word built from "matanza" with the suffix "-ero", which always refers to the person or object that does whatever the root word means. So, a "matancero" is the official of the slaughterhouse who kills and rips apart the animals that are slaughtered, "matanceros" being its plural.

Now, why would an island be called that? There are two possibilities: either the island was inhabited by people (indigenous or colonists) known for their bloody way of dealing with enemies, or it was inhabited by people from the Cuban province of "Matanzas". This province in turn probably got its name from bloody battles held during its colonization.

It so happens that here on the island of Tenerife where I live, we have a village called "La Matanza", because the indigenous inhabitants "slaughtered" the Spanish colonists there. (The Spanish had there revenge soon afterwards at the neighboring village now known as "La Victoria", that is "The Victory" - history is always told by the winners...)

So, a third and unlikely explanation for the name Matanceros is that that island was inhabited by people from Tenerife's village "La Matanza"!

I have a theory as to how Michael Crichton might have discovered and came to use the word “matanceros”.

Just off the coast of Akumal, Mexico on the Caribbean coastline of Yucatan peninsula is a Spanish shipwreck known was as the Matanceros. The merchant ship sank in 1741 after being fatally damaged by coral reefs.

American underwater archaeologist Robert F. Marx discovered the wreck in 1957
From his book Treasure Lost at Sea: Diving to the World's Great Shipwrecks:

“One day in 1956, while I was living in Cozumel, I was pouring over a chart when I noticed that the coast opposite the island was called Punta Matanceros, which translates as “Slaughter Point.” That made me think that perhaps a ship had been lost there and the survivors massacred by Indians. I might never have investigated the area if I had know then what I later gleaned from the archives: the vessel’s nickname came from Matanzas, Cuba, where it was built.”

The wreck is described by a travel guide as "quite possibly the best dive site along the Riviera Maya". So I wonder if Michael Crichton, an avid scuba diver, ever explored the sunken ship known as the Matanceros.

Related Posts - The Origin of Pirate Latitudes

Links and more info on Michael Crichton at:
Kahlessa's Corner

Pirate Latitudes - Additional Reading List

As I noted in Pirate Latitudes: First Impressions, the novel does not have a bibliography. When I read a novel by Michael Crichton, my curiosity is sparked about the reality behind the story, and I usually start reading some of the nonfiction books Crichton has listed in the bibliography. But this time we’re on our own.

Like The Great Train Robbery, Pirate Latitudes has its roots in actual historical events, and many of the characters appear to be based on real historical figures. And it’s not surprising that Crichton got the history right.

Here are some books on the real history behind Pirate Latitudes that I’m either reading, have read, or am going to read:

Empire of Blue Water: Captain Morgan's Great Pirate Army, the Epic Battle for the Americas, and the Catastrophe That Ended the Outlaws' Bloody Reign
By Stephan Talty

This excellent book is the story of Henry Morgan, who I believe was the model for the character of Captain Charles Hunter.

The Invisible Hook: The Hidden Economics of Pirates
By Peter T. Leeson

The book examines how economics explains and determined the actions of Caribbean pirates in the 17th and 18th centuries.
Book website

Under the Black Flag: The Romance and the Reality of Life Among the Pirates
By David Cordingly

Cordingly is a maritime historian who served as historical consultant for the film Pirates of the Caribbean.

The Republic of Pirates: Being the True and Surprising Story of the Caribbean Pirates and the Man Who Brought Them Down
By Colin Woodard

This book tells the story of the end of pirating in the Caribbean. Woodes Rogers was once a privateer himself (as was Henry Morgan), but political changes in Europe necessitated an end to the use of privateers, and many of them turned to piracy. Rogers was given the task of reining the pirates in.
Book website

The Sea Rover's Practice: Pirate Tactics and Techniques, 1630 - 1730
By Benerson Little

Little was a Navy SEAL and is an analyst for the Naval Special Warfare Center Strategy and Tactics Group.
Book website

The Buccaneers of America
By Alexandre-Olivier Exquemelin

First published in English in 1684, this book was written by an insider. Exquemelin served with Henry Morgan, and after the book was published, Morgan sued the author because Exquemelin called Morgan a pirate. Morgan successfully argued that he was a privateer, acting under government commissions which made his acts lawful.
Available from Gutenberg for free

To Rule the Waves: How the British Navy Shaped the Modern World
By Arthur Herman
The book explores the development of the British navy, which used privateers as the bulk of the Navy in the 16th and 17th centuries, but phased out their use as the country constructed its own fleet.

Sailing for Dummies
By J. Isler and Peter Isler

When Russell Crowe got the lead role in the film Master and Commander, his friend Jodie Foster gave him this book as a joke. But Crowe said, while he read other historical and academic books about sailing ships in the Napoleonic era, Sailing for Dummies proved to be an excellent overview and review of the basics.

Links and more info on Michael Crichton at:
Kahlessa's Corner

Happy New Year!

Sorry for the silence, but I work in a bookstore and retail gets really nuts during the holidays. I’m also recovering from one of those colds that throws you down and stomps on your head.

Meanwhile I’ve been reading and pursuing books on pirates and privateers. I should have an “Addition Reading” list for Pirate Latitudes posted soon.

While you wait, here are two useful links:

The Caribbean map for Pirate Latitudes
(Published on the end papers of the hardcover)

Rob Ossian’s Pirate Cove
This fascinating website has pirate and privateer biographies, plus historical info on many aspects of piracy—weapons, ships, nautical terminology and pirate music.

Wishing everyone a glorious 2010! Enjoy this New Year’s post from my other blog Marla’s Musings:

One Good Year

Links and more info on Michael Crichton at:
Kahlessa's Corner

A Michael Crichton Christmas Video

My good friend Erik and his friend Angel, with some help from their families, have created a video based on A Michael Crichton Christmas!

I am just overwhelmed! It’s amazing and I can’t believe they put all that work into it!
So enjoy! And a Merry Christmas to all!

Visit Erik's Michael Crichton Collection!