Michael Crichton was an accomplished man. A Harvard graduate and a successful author, producer, and screenwriter, he created the "techno-thriller" genre by blending hard science with the intensity of action and mystery. However, this ended up being the sole selling point of his novels, especially in the 1987 novel Sphere. Sphere's success and readability is based solely on its fast paced, intense plot and Crichton's use of hard science to make the events seem plausible. On the literary plane, it is poorly constructed, follows a formula plot, and is generally bad writing.
Crichton was born in 1942 in Chicago, Illinois (State 271). The son of a journalist, he received a great deal of early encouragement and inspiration to become a writer. He was first published at 14, when he submitted a travel journal to the New York Times. The travel editor lived in the same town and had a daughter that went to school with Crichton, so it's probable that he knew who wrote it and published it in amusement. But the young author didn't know that, and it drove him to continue writing. During high school, he wrote articles on school sports for the local paper. After being accepted to Harvard, he reviewed books and movies for The Harvard Crimson, and wrote about sports for The Alumni Bulletin (Crichton, Travels 71). At college, he initially studied English and did poorly. Convinced that his professors knew nothing about writing, Crichton plagiarized a paper by George Orwell and handed it in for a grade. Not only did the fact that the entire paper was stolen go un-noticed, but it only received a B (Crichton, Travels 4). After that, he left the English department and graduated with a BA in Anthropology (Michael, Critical 1097). .
Despite a weak stomach and a strong aversion to blood, Crichton decided he wanted to be a doctor. After receiving his BA, he entered Harvard Medical School. At this point, his father was already putting three other children through college.
