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.

Michael Crichton Artwork – Quoted by Joseph Kosuth

Out of the 98 works of art owned by Michael Crichton that were auctioned off at Christie’s this year, there is one that intrigues me.

Quoted by Joseph Kosuth

First of all, the realized price for the work--$813--was something I could have afforded in theory (if not justified in actuality). It would be wonderful to own a work of art that had belonged to Michael Crichton. Perhaps the opportunity will arise again.

The artist, Joseph Kosuth, wrote an essay titled “Artist as Anthropologist”. Michael Crichton received his bachelor’s degree at Harvard in anthropology. He was a visiting lecturer in Anthropology at Cambridge University in1965, before going on to Harvard Medical School.

The art work, a screenprint on transparent wove paper, contains no images, only the following text:

‘Is that a quotation?’ I asked.
‘Of course. Quotations are all we have now. Language is a system of quotations.’
Jorge Luis Borges
The Book of Sand

The recent auction of Crichton’s art collection inspired me to reread both the 1977 and 1994 editions of Crichton’s book on Jasper Johns. In one passage, Crichton quoted Borges:

These questions stand alongside another debate among artists themselves about what is important in a created work. Borges wrote: “The composition of vast books is a laborious and impoverishing extravagance. To go on for five hundred pages developing an idea whose perfect oral expression is possible in a few minutes! A better course of procedure is to pretend that these books already exist, and then to offer a resume, a commentary.” (p. 47, 1977 edition)

The phrase “an idea whose perfect oral expression is possible in a few minutes” reminded me of Crichton’s habit of using quotations at the beginning of his books (and sometimes the sections of books). The proper term for these opening quotations is epigraphs.

Crichton used epigraphs in 27 out of the 31 books he published, starting with Odds On (1966), which he published under the name of John Lange. Two other John Lange novels-- Scratch One (1967) and The Venom Business (1969) lack epigraphs, as does the nonfiction book Electronic Life (1983). The posthumously published novel Pirate Latitudes (2009) does not have an epigraph, or a bibliography, both of which Crichton might have added if he had been able to finish the book himself. From the interview “Michael Crichton: a Career in Three Acts” by David Kipen, Firsts magazine, July/August 1997:

Firsts: Where do you get your epigraphs?

Michael Crichton: I think it originally comes out of an interest in doing nonfiction. There’s more of that tendency to put epigraphs in front of chapters in nonfiction. I was trying to make it, especially in something like The Andromeda Strain, like nonfiction. (p. 52)

Here is a complete list of the epigraphs in Crichton’s books. It’s interesting to note that several of the epigraphs for Crichton’s novels are quotes from fictional characters.

The Andromeda Strain (1969)
“The survival value of human intelligence has never been satisfactorily demonstrated.”
–Jeremy Stone

“Increasing vision is increasingly expensive.”
–R. A. Janek

Five Patients (1970)
“Doctors and nurses are the only people who possibly can alter the conditions of patient care.”
–Paul B. Beeson, M.D.

“Health, as a vast societal enterprise, is too important to be solely the concern of the providers of services.”
–William L. Kissick, M.D.

The Terminal Man (1972)
“I have come to the conclusion that my subjective account of my own motivation is largely mythical on almost all occasions.”
–J.B.S. Haldane

“The wilderness masters the colonist.”
–Frederick Jackson Turner

The Great Train Robbery (1975)
“Satan is glad—when I am bad,
And hopes that I—with him shall lie
In fire and chains—and dreadful pains”
–Victorian child’s poem

“I wanted the money.”
–Edward Pierce, 1856

Eaters of the Dead (1976)
“Praise not the day until evening has come; a woman until she is burnt; a sword until it is tried; a maiden until she is married; ice until it has been crossed; beer until it has been drunk.”
–Viking proverb

“Evil is of old date.”
–Arab proverb

Jasper Johns (1977 and 1994 editions)
“We see, not a change of aspect, but a change of interpretation.”
–Ludwig Wittgenstein

“I am just trying to find a way to make pictures.”
–Jasper Johns

Congo (1980)
“The more experience and insight I obtain into human nature, the more convinced do I become that the greater portion of a man is purely animal.”
–Henry Morton Stanley, 1887

“The large male [gorilla] held my attention….He gave an impression of dignity and restrained power, of absolute certainty in his majestic appearance. I felt a desire to communicate with him….Never before had I had this feeling on meeting an animal. As we watched each other across the valley, I wondered if he recognized the kinship that bound us.”
–George B. Schaller, 1964

Electronic Life (1983)
No epigraphs

Sphere (1987)
“When a scientist views things, he’s not considering the incredible at all.”
–Louis I. Kahn

“You can’t fool nature.”
–Richard Feynman

Travels (1988)
“In self-analysis the danger of incompleteness is particularly great. One is too soon satisfied with a part explanation.”
–Sigmund Freud

“Existence is beyond the power of words to define.”
–Lao-Tzu

“What you see is what you see.”
–Frank Stella

Jurassic Park (1990)
“Reptiles are abhorrent because of their cold body, pale color, cartilaginous skeleton, filthy skin, fierce aspect, calculating eye, offensive smell, harsh voice, squalid habitation, and terrible venom; wherefore their Creator has not exerted his powers to make many of them.”
–Linnaeus, 1797

“You cannot recall a new form of life.”
–Erwin Chargaff, 1972

Rising Sun (1992)
“We are entering a world where the old rules no longer apply.”
–Phillip Sanders

“Business is war.”
–Japanese motto

Disclosure (1994)
“It shall be an unlawful employment practice for an employer: (1) to fail or refuse to hire or to discharge any individual, or otherwise to discriminate against any individual with respect to his compensation, terms, conditions, or privileges of employment because of such individual’s race, color, religion, sex, or national origin or (2) to limit, segregate, or classify his employees or applicants for employment in any way which would deprive or tend to deprive any individual of employment opportunities or otherwise adversely affect his status as an employee, because of such individual’s race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.”
–Title VII, Civil Rights Act of 1964

“Power is neither male nor female.”
–Katherine Graham

The Lost World (1995)
“What really interests me is whether God had any choice in the creation of the world.”
–Albert Einstein

“Deep in the chaotic regime, slight changes in structure almost always cause vast changes in behavior. Complex controllable behavior seems precluded.”
–Stuart Kauffman

“Sequelae are inherently unpredictable.”
–Ian Malcolm

Airframe (1996)
“The damn things weigh half a million pounds, fly a third of the way around the world, and they carry passengers in greater comfort and safety than any vehicle in the history of mankind. Now, are you fellas really going to stand there and tell us you know how to do the job better? Are you going to pretend you know anything about it at all? ‘Cause it looks to me like you boys are just stirring folks up for your own reasons.”
–Aviation legend Charley Norton, 78, speaking to reporters in 1970 after an airplane crash*

“The irony of the Information Age is that it has given new respectability to uninformed opinion.”
–Veteran reporter John Lawton, 68, speaking to the American Association of Broadcast Journalists in 1995

Timeline (1999)
“All the great empires of the future will be empires of the mind.”
—Winston Churchill, 1953

“If you don’t know history, you don’t know anything.”
–Edward Johnston, 1990

“I’m not interested in the future. I’m interested in the future of the future.”
–Robert Doniger, 1996

Prey (2002)
“Within fifty to a hundred years, a new class of organisms is likely to emerge. These organisms will be artificial in the sense that they will originally be designed by humans. However, they will reproduce, and will ‘evolve’ into something other than their original form; they will be ‘alive’ under any reasonable definition of the word. These organisms will evolve in a fundamentally different manner….The pace…will be extremely rapid….The impact on humanity and the biosphere could be enormous, larger than the industrial revolution, nuclear weapons, or environmental pollution. We must take steps now to shape the emergence of artificial organisms….”
–Doyne Farmer and Alletta Belin, 1992

“There are many people, including myself, who are quite queasy about the consequences of this technology for the future.”
–K. Eric Drexler, 1992

State of Fear (2004)
“There is something fascinating about science. One gets such wholesale returns of conjecture out of such a trifling investment of fact.”
–Mark Twain

“Within any important issue, there are always aspects no one wishes to discuss.”
–George Orwell

Next (2006)
“The more the universe seems comprehensible, the more it also seems pointless.”
--Steven Weinberg

“The word ‘cause’ is an altar to an unknown god.”
--William James

“What is not possible is not to choose.”
--Jean-Paul Sartre

Pirate Latitudes (2009)
No epigraphs

The Pseudonym Novels:

As Jeffery Hudson:

A Case of Need (1968)
“I will prescribe regimen for the good of my patients, according to my judgment and ability, and never do harm to anyone. To please no one will I prescribe a deadly drug, nor give advice which may cause his death. Nor will I give a woman a pessary to procure abortion. But I will preserve the purity of my life and my art…”
--from the Hippocratic Oath demanded of the young physician about to enter upon the practice of his profession

“There is no moral obligation to conserve DNA.”
--Garrett Hardin

As Michael Douglas (Michael Crichton and Douglas Crichton):

Dealing, or the Berkeley-to-Boston Forty-Brick Lost-Bag Blues (1970)
“Most of what my neighbors call good, I am profoundly convinced is evil, and if I repent anything, it is my good conduct that I repent.”
--Thoreau

“When somebody like Timothy Leary comes out and justifies [using drugs], we’ve just got to jump on him with hobnailed boots.”
--Linkletter

“I knew I was going off [hard] drugs when I didn’t like to watch TV.”
--Billie Holliday

As John Lange:

Odds On (1966)
”There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.”
--Benjamin Disraeli

Scratch One (1967)
No epigraphs

Easy Go (also published as The Last Tomb ) (1968)
Title page
“What secret was ever kept in Egypt?”
--Howard Carter, discoverer of the tomb of Tutankhamen

Part 1: The Plan
“Everything forbidden is sweet.”
--Arab proverb

Part 2: The Search
“Evil is of old date.”
--Arab proverb

Part 3: The Last Tomb
“…and the idols of Egypt shall be moved…”
--Isaiah 19:1

Zero Cool (1969)
Part I
“Radiologists see things in black and white.”
--D. D. McGowan M.D.

Part II
“The diagnostic skills of the radiologist are significant, but limited.”
--Harold Ellison M.D.

Part III
“Radiologists have the shortest lifespan of all medical specialists.”
--U.S. Bureau of Statistics

The Venom Business (1969)
No epigraphs

Drug of Choice (1970)
Title page
“The beginning of modern science is also the beginning of calamity.”
--Karl Jaspers

“Give me librium or give me meth!”
--Anon.

Part I: Coma
“Shall I tell you what knowledge is? It is to know both what one knows and what one does not know.”
--Confucius

Part II: Eden
“If an urn lacks the characteristics of an urn, how can we call it an urn?”
--Confucius

Part III: Madness
“It is indeed harmful to come under the sway of utterly new and strange doctrines.”
--Confucius

Grave Descend (1970)
Title page
“He is no wise man that will quit a certainty for an uncertainty.”
--Samuel Johnson

Part I: Swift Ship
“Much may be made of a Scotchman, if he be caught young.”
--Samuel Johnson

Part II: Dark Swamp
“Being in a ship is being in jail, with the chance of being drowned.”
--Samuel Johnson

Part III: White Money
“It is better to live rich than to die rich.”
--Samuel Johnson

Binary (1972)
“Binary: any system composed of two interacting elements. As in binary stars, binary numbers, binary gases, etc.”

“Chemical agents lend themselves to covert use in sabotage against which it is exceedingly difficult to visualize any really effective defense…I will not dwell upon this use of CBW because as one pursues the possibilities of such covert uses, one discovers that the scenarios resemble that in which the components of a nuclear weapon are smuggled into New York City and assembled in the basement of the Empire State Building.

In other words, once the possibility is recognized to exist, about all that one can do is worry about it.”
--Dr. Ivan L. Bennett, Jr., testifying before the Subcommittee on National Security Policy and Scientific Developments, November 20, 1969


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

Michael Crichton’s Flag by Johns on Display in Philadelphia

The crown jewel of Michael Crichton’s art collection, Flag by Jasper Johns, will be on display at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia from June 26 to September 12.

The painting was sold in on May 11 for 28.6 million. The new owner has not yet been publicly identified.

Related Posts:
Video – Flag by Jasper Johns Auction

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

Michael Crichton Art Auction Results

In the past two months, 98 works owned by Michael Crichton were auctioned off at Christies – 5 at the April 15 photographs sale, 14 at the April 26 prints sale, 31 at the May 11 evening sale, and 48 at the May 12 day sale. (You can see detailed info on each piece at the Christie’s website.)

When I did a search of “Michael Crichton" in past lots at Christie’s, I discovered something interesting. 101 results popped up, including one from the December 17, 2003 sale “Playboy at 50”. This particular lot contained letters from various well-known writers, such as Anthony Burgess, Philip Roth, Carl Sandburg, and Ogden Nash.

From the lot description:

Three typed letters signed ("J. Michael Crichton") to Murray Fisher, Boston, Nice, Greece, 1965-1966. Together 3 pages, 4to, with carbon responses from Playboy. Crichton proposes an interviewing Isaac Asimov for Playboy and other projects.

Crichton published several pieces in Playboy. The first one that I am aware of is a short story “How Does That Make You Feel?” published in the November 1968 issue under the name “Jeffery Hudson”. That was the pseudonym under which Crichton published the novel A Case of Need.

Those three letters make me wonder if Crichton published anything in Playboy earlier. (Wish I knew what the letters in response said.) I would love to see an interview of Isaac Asimov by Michael Crichton. Asimov has long been a favorite of mine.

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

Video – Flag by Jasper Johns Auction

If you didn’t watch the Christie’s auction of Michael Crichton’s art collection, you can see the high point—the auction of the painting Flag by Jasper Johns.

The auctioneer for the sale was Christopher Burge (whom I found just marvelous to watch). Burge has portrayed an auctioneer in two films: The First Wives Club (1996) and Wall Street (1987).

Watch Crichton Art Auction Online

Did you know that you can watch the Christie’s auction of Michael Crichton’s art collection online? Just go to the website, click on “Calendar”, and click on the “Enter Sale” button for the auction. You can watch auctions as a viewer only. I watched a wine auction on Saturday. Nice spectator sport.

The auction of Crichton’s art collection is in two parts.

Tuesday, May 11, 2010, 6:30 p.m. (Eastern Standard Time)
Sale 2406 - Works from the Collection of Michael Crichton
31 lots

Wednesday, May 12, 2010, 10 a.m. (Eastern Standard Time)
Post-War and Contemporary Art Morning Session Including Works from the Collection of Michael Crichton
224 lots – the first 47 are from Crichton’s art collection

Make certain you get logged in well before the auctions begin, as things move fast. You can enter a sale up to 15 minutes before the start of the sale.

(On a side note, my catalogue for the Crichton auction arrived last week. It’s beautiful, and very informative. I highly recommend it for dedicated Crichton fans. The e-catalogue may be taken off the website once the auction is over.)

It’s pleasant to think that there will come a day when I can actually bid during a Christie’s auction. But there’s something I would have to do to prepare.

My small black female cat Asimov has an impressive talent for jumping on my computer at the worst possible moment. She’s caused so many problems over the years that her photo is on “Wanted” posters at call centers across the country.

From Christie’s Live Terms of Use:

If your computer is logged on to Christie's Live™ and a successful bid is sent to Christie's from your computer, you are accepting personal liability to pay the purchase price, including the buyer's premium and all applicable taxes and other applicable charges.

A live auction is by its nature fast-moving and competitive bidding can often progress very quickly. To ensure that online bidders are not placed at a disadvantage when bidding against bidders in the room or on the telephone, the procedure for placing bids through Christie's Live™ is a one-step process. As soon as the "Bid" button is clicked a bid is submitted. You acknowledge that this is necessary in order to ensure that online bids are submitted and received as promptly as bids from other sources. You also accept and agree that bids submitted in this way are final and that you will not under any circumstances be permitted to amend or retract your bid.

In other words, Christie’s will not accept the excuse “My cat bid on that painting.”

So if I ever want to bid online during an auction, I must first secure the cats. My female cat is capable of blowing my entire credit limit on something I don’t even like.

“No! Don’t bid ten thousand for that painting! Bad cat! Bad!”

1998 Architectural Digest Article on Crichton

The July 1998 Architectural Digest article The Jurassic Park and Sphere Writer’s Los Angeles Residence is now online. The nine photos accompanying the piece show several artworks belonging to Michael Crichton. And one photo contains the family dog, a dachshund named Frankie.


Related posts:
2002 Architectural Digest Article on Michael Crichton


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

2002 Architectural Digest Article on Michael Crichton

The July 2002 Architectural Digest article A Dino-Sized House for the Jurassic Park Author and His Wife is now online. It features Michael Crichton’s house in Bedford, New York. There is also a slide show of 12 photos, many of which feature pieces from Crichton’s art collection, including Jasper John's Flag.

(Thank you Chris, for discovering this!)


Related posts:
1998 Architectural Digest Article on Crichton


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

Christie’s Catalogue about Michael Crichton Online

The E-catalogue for the Christie’s sale “Works from the Collection of Michael Crichton” is available for viewing online. (You may have to register at the Christie’s website to see it, but it’s free.)

The 290-page catalogue contains a transcript of Crichton’s last lecture on Jasper Johns at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in April 2008.

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

W Article on Michael Crichton and Art

The May 2010 issue of W magazine features an article Michael Crichton: Private View on Crichton and his art collection. It contains quotes from his widow Sherri and from others who knew him.

The magazine is currently on newsstands.

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

Christie’s Video - Michael Crichton’s Art Collection

The auction house Christie’s has created a 17-minute video about Michael Crichton’s art collection. The video, which features interviews with Crichton’s widow Sherri Crichton, agent and friend Michael Ovitz, Printmaker Ken Tyler, and Brett Gorvy, Christie’s Deputy Chairman of Post-War & Contemporary Art, explores his love of art and his passion for collecting. The video contains a clip of Michael Crichton talking about art in a 1976 interview.

Christie's will be auctioning off many works from Crichton’s collection on May 11 & 12, 2010 in New York.

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

More Works from Crichton’s Art Collection to be Auctioned Off

In a March 2, 2010 press release Christie’s announced that more works from Michael Crichton’s art collection are going to be auctioned off. A public exhibition of 50 of these works was on display at Christie’s Los Angeles Galleries from March 5 through March 12. The exhibit included works by Jasper Johns, Jeff Koons, Claes Oldenburg, Pablo Picasso, Robert Rauschenberg, Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol, and David Hockney. (The press release contains images of eight of the works from Crichton’s collection.)

Photos of the exhibit can be viewed at Christie's Press Preview and “Michael Crichton Knows Art”.

Brett Gorvy, Deputy Chairman of Christie's Americas, said in the press release:

“Michael was the rarest breed of collector: a Renaissance man in every sense, whose passion for art was fueled by his search for answers to the basic tenets of art. In the same way Michael challenged accepted scientific dogma, he continually challenged his own understanding of an artist or work of art. He became intimate friends with artists and responded as a creative equal to their own searches and challenges.”

One of Crichton’s friendships was with David Hockney, who made a portrait of Crichton in 1976. The portrait was sold at auction for $650 in 2004.

Christie's spokesperson Sung-Hee Park, quoted in an article by Lee Rosenbaum, said the Crichton consignment consists of about 97 works---approximately 30 in the May evening contemporary sale; 48 grouped in their own section of the May day sale for less important contemporary works; 14 in the Apr. 26 prints sale; 5 in the Apr. 15 photographs sale.

According to a Los Angeles Times article, the 97 pieces to be auctioned off “represent approximately 80% of Crichton's art collection.”

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

The Four Paintings from Crichton’s Collection

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

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

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