Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Michael Crichton Highlights 2010


Happy New Year!

Today we’re taking a look back at some of the Michael Crichton highlights of 2010.

In January, I explored the name Matanceros in Crichton’s posthumously published novel, Pirate Latitudes.

In June I shared my discovery that in 1979 magazine interview, Crichton mentioned working on a novel about Caribbean pirates.

Pirate Latitudes came out in paperback in September.

In March, gene patents were ruled invalid by a U.S. district court. Crichton explored the use and abuse of gene patents in his novel Next, and he advocated the abolition of gene patents. As time goes by, I think we will see that Michael Crichton was right about more and more things.

Also in March, I discovered Janet Berliner’s blog post Travels of Michael Crichton, which shared excerpts from her week-long interview with Crichton in 1993.

In August, three of Michael Crichton’s novels made the NPR list of Top 100 Killer Thrillers.

But easily the most exciting event in 2010 was the Christie’s auction of Michael Crichton’s art collection in May. Not only was it exciting, but it was surprisingly informative. Christie’s published a magnificent 290-page catalogue Works from the Collection of Michael Crichton. I highly recommend it for dedicated Crichton fans. Christie’s no longer sells the catalogue, but copies can be found on Ebay.

Christie’s featured a video about Crichton as an art collector. The auction house’s website also published a transcript of Michael Crichton’s last public lecture In Search of an Artist: "Gray is my Favorite Color", given at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in April 2008.

The May 2010 issue of W magazine contained an article on Michael Crichton and his art collection.

Crichton’s beloved Flag by Jasper Johns sold for 28 million.

The art auction inspired me to write a post about the epigraphs in Crichton’s books.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hopefully this is on subject somewhat. Can you tell me why you think the end of the story, after Hunter failed to find the 2nd part of treasure hidden by Sanson, he went back to England to live?
I think this was not written by Crichton, but filled in by others when they found the manuscripts and readied it for publication.
Hunter, as the book explains, was born in the New World, educated in the New World, and never mentions any of his time in England. Why would he 'go back' to a place he was not from? Do you agree?

If Crichton wrote it, I would respectfully guess that Hunter would live out his days with his son and Ms. Hacklett.

Thanks for your thoughts on the matter,

David Foster

mr_dave_foster@yahoo.com

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