Interview – “Travels of Michael Crichton”

I just discovered these amazing articles on Michael Crichton. Janet Berliner interviewed Michael Crichton for a week in December 1993. She has recently posted these articles about the interviews. There are many great quotes from Michael Crichton that I’ve never read before. This is such a treat! A huge “Thank You” to Janet Berliner!

Crichton Author’s Note
By Janet Berliner, February 26th, 2009

On Writing and Influences: A Snippet from Crichton on Crichton
By Janet Berliner, February 26th, 2010

The Travels of Michael Crichton
By Janet Berliner, March 26th, 2010

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

Michael Crichton’s Recommended Reading

Many people visit this blog because, like me, they love Michael Crichton’s books. But what books did Michael Crichton himself love? What books did he recommend? What books influenced the way he wrote?

From a 2005 Barnes & Noble interview:
(Click on the “Meet the Writer” tab)

BN: What was the book that most influenced your life or your career as a writer?

MC: Arthur Conan Doyle's The Hound of the Baskervilles was the first novel I read as a young person, that I genuinely enjoyed. (I was plowing my way through the classics at the time, and Lorna Doone wasn't doing much for me.) I subsequently read all the Holmes stories, and later in life went back to study them, to see how Conan Doyle had moved his narratives forward so quickly. In fact, his techniques are quite cinematic.

In a June 8, 1969 interview with the New York Times, Crichton cited Len Deighton’s novel The Ipcress File as a major influence on his 1969 novel The Andromeda Strain (Crichton’s first novel published under his own name):

I picked up The Ipcress File,” he recalled, “and was terrifically impressed with it. A lot of ‘Andromeda’ is traceable to ‘Ipcress,’ in terms of trying to create an imaginary world using recognizable techniques and real people.

In the 2005 Barnes & Noble interview, Crichton, when asked about his ten favorite books, named:

• George Orwell, Collected Essays -- He is my favorite writer, and I read him as a teenager because my father admired him a lot. From Orwell, I got an insight into an independent mind and I emulated him.

• Mark Twain, Life on the Mississippi -- Making art out of life, blurring the lines of fiction and nonfiction. And of course funny.

• Witter Bynner, Tao Te Ching -- This is my preferred translation of this classic, which influenced me very much in my approach to life.

• Robert Louis Stevenson, The Black Arrow -- Actually, I recommend anything by Stevenson. This particular novel must be the source for about 50 movie clichés for any period story. It's great fun.

• Ken Wilbur, No Boundary -- The first of his books I ever read, and I have read almost all of them. He's brilliant.

• Alejo Carpentier, The Lost Steps -- I regard this as a man's novel, about manhood. And rare for that.

• Mary Midgeley, anything by her -- I find her the one of the most interesting contemporary philosophers because she works with real-life issues. And she is especially interesting about science: Evolution as Religion, Beast and Man, Wickedness, and so on.

• Graham Greene, The End of the Affair -- Again, art into life. A classic in some ways disagreeable and even repellent, but for me mysterious in its impact, and unforgettable.

• Ram Dass, Be Here Now -- A very important book for me at a troubled time in my life. I wrote about why in a book of my own called Travels.

• James Thurber, The Thirteen Clocks -- a children's book.


In the June 3, 2007 New York Times Sunday Book Review, a survey “Read Any Good Books Lately?” featured celebrities giving their recommendations.

Michael Crichton’s response:

Nassim Nicholas Taleb, The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable. The second volume by the author of Fooled by Randomness continues his theme — our blindness to the randomness of life — in an even more provocative, wide-ranging and amusing mode. A book that is both entertaining and difficult.

P. K. Feyerabend, Problems of Empiricism: Philosophical Papers, Volume 2. From 1981, a brisk reminder that the conflicts of contemporary science are not in any way new or unique. The author is reviled in many quarters, mostly by those who have not read him. He is invariably provocative.

Anthony Bourdain, Bone in the Throat. Wonderful fun, a perfect book to read at the beach.

Look for these books and many others at your local library! Ask your librarian about interlibrary loan for books you can’t find at your local library.

Crichton was himself a big supporter of libraries. When he died in November 2008, a librarian from Bedford, New York, where Crichton used to live, remembered his generosity:

…Librarian Ann Cloonan, director of the Bedford Village Free Library, said she recalls hearing he was a big library supporter in communities where he has lived. He was known for generously donating funds and his time. When Bedford Village, for example, planned a building expansion more than a decade ago, Cloonan, says that staff recalls that he spoke at the library during a capital campaign fund-raiser.

And here are some photos from a February 2003 event where Michael Crichton read from his book Prey to benefit the Los Angeles Public Library Foundation.

Photos of Crichton’s Jasper Johns covers

Michael Crichton’s official website has recently added photos of the front and back covers of both the 1977 edition and the 1994 edition of Crichton’s book on Jasper Johns.

The 1977 edition cover is actually one big painting that wraps around the spine of the book and extends to the back cover. The information on inside of the dust cover lists the painting as UNTITLED (1977), but at a 2007 exhibit at the National Gallery of Art, the painting’s title is given as Savarin (1977)

The 1994 edition’s front cover shows Johns’ Summer (1985), and the painting on the back cover is Untitled (1991)

Related Posts:

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


The Four Paintings from Crichton’s Collection


Paintings from Crichton’s Art Collection to be Auctioned Off

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

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