Michael Crichton Dies
Posted by: Loren Coleman on November 5th, 2008
Michael Crichton, 66, has died unexpectedly.
The famed author sold 150 million books, some of which have been made into successful movies, including Jurassic Park and The Lost World. He also created the television series, “ER.”
Crichton died suddenly on Tuesday, November 4, 2008, in Los Angeles, after, according to his family, a quiet, private battle with cancer.
His most cryptozoological works may have been The 13th Warrior (regarding Grendel) and Congo (about anomalous gorillas).
For more general biographical background, see Wikipedia’s entry on Michael Crichton.
About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct).
Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015.
Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.
OMG! I did not see this one coming!
Crichton was one of my favorite writers. I remember reading Jurassic Park in less than 5 days before seeing the movie. I remember later reading an article on Omni magazine where a prominent biologist showed his gratitude to Crichton for introducing into popular culture many terms that before were considered too difficult and arcane for ordinary folks. Because of Crichton, even a 5-year-old could begin to understand what a DNA strand is!
I have to admit that after Timeline and State of Fear I began to lose a little appreciation for his work. But the man was a fantastic story-teller; and wherever he is, I want to thank him for all the entertainment and ideas that he put inside my brain.
Oh how awful! I’d bet that Crichton has inspired a whole generation of budding cryptozoologists and paleontologists. How sad to hear of his passing.
He and his work will be greatly missed. Rest in peace.
My favorite Crichton work is Sphere. Jurassic Park a close second, The Lost World third place. He may not have been a great writer per se, but he WAS a genius storyteller. Unfortunately, most editorials will tend to focus only on his controversial critiques of global warming and other subjects. I didn’t agree with most of what he said (UFOs particulalry) but he did bring an alternate, thought-provoking viewpoint to current issues. RIP.
A writing genius. He will be missed. The scourge of cancer knows no mercy.
This is shocking news for me. Crichton was full of some pretty big ideas and has always been a favorite of mine. I always enjoyed how he tried to put a sheen of scientific plausibility on his stories, no matter how far fetched they might be. I also agree with red_pill_junky that his work helped make some complex scientific ideas accessible to younger people and the layman through entertaining stories. I’m sure his work has inspired some young future scientists out there to pursue that path. He will be missed.
This is really sad, I loved every single book of his that I read. The movie adaptations that I watched, only slightly less so. Rest in peace.
I’ve only read a few of his books, but I enjoyed them immensely. He will be missed greatly. Rest in Peace.
Loved his writing. By the way, the 13th Warrior title was for the movie/screenplay. The book which he wrote years prior to the movie (unfortunate movie in my opinion) was far superior, entitled “Eaters of the Dead”.
His biography “Travels” is a gem, in particular his exploration of a number of phenomenon including spoon bending, and begins with the most interesting first hand description of what it’s like to cut open a living human skull. Turns out, it’s not that easy!
While I don’t necessarily ascribe to his approach regarding AGW, nor his characterization of those who are ringing the alarm, there is a lot of truth to his pointing out that the predictive capacity of the current climate models leave a lot to be desired, and I agree that a more reasoned look at the problems humans are encountering regarding our environment, would be a very good thing.
He really layed the foundation for popular well written stories that involve and inform the reader regarding our rapidly morphing technological world. RIP
I’ve been reading Crichton since I was 12, there was one whole summer that every book I read was by him. He was my all time favorite, Sphere was my favorite, the book not the movie.
I am sad to hear that Michael Crichton has died. I am happy to be a regular reader of Loren Coleman’s articles on Cryptomundo because I did not catch this news on any of the other media outlets. I very much enjoyed reading several of Crighton’s books. What I enjoyed the most was the language he used; the depth of the subject matter at hand. He went into the details. You could tell that he did a lot of research on a particular subject, leaving the reader to believe that Crighton was a subject matter expert, whether on cloning of DNA as in Jurassic Park, or on environmental sciences as in State of Fear. I will now look into reading some of his books that I hadn’t read yet. – Allan S.