Born in Chicago and raised in Roslyn, Long Island, Michael Crichton was exposed to the technicalities of the English language at a young age. Though his relationship with his father, a former journalist and president of Advertising Age was not pleasant. He credits his parents in the fact that they actively encouraged him to go past his limits and explore. "They were always saying, 'You can do that.' So I never had the feeling there was some area that I was incompetent in" (Michael Crichton." Newsmakers 1995, Issue 4). An eager reader, Crichton loved mystery stories and movies from an early age; He had a profound interest in Science fiction genre and some of his favorite creative artists being Edgar Allan Poe, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and Alfred Hitchcock. His interest had a profound influence on his later works.
His interest in writing stayed till Crichton went to Harvard University, where he majored in English.
English: American author and speaker Michael Crich...
English: Michael Crichton signature (circa 1993).
grave of Sir Arthur Conan DoyleA self-declared achiever, he intended to become a writer until an English professor criticized his style of writing, Crichton decided to assess whether he was being misjudged: he plagiarized a little-known essay by George Orwell and submitted it to his professor for a grade of B-. Believing that the English department was not the place for an aspiring writer, Crichton changed his major to anthropology. Crichton graduated in 1964 and married Joan Radam, and spent his first year of marriage in England as a visiting lecturer of anthropology at Cambridge University. When he returned Crichton was accepted at Harvard Medical School.
In order to pay for the costs of the medical school, Crichton made his way through school writing mystery novels under various pseudonyms; Crichton had several reasons for writing under pseudonyms. He did not want to be treated differently by his...