Posthumous Crichton Novels Coming Soon

Michael Crichton, the bestselling author of fifteen novels and the creator of the television show "ER," who died of cancer last November, has two new books coming out. Pirate Latitudes, an adventure story set in 17th century Jamaica, as well as an untitled technological thriller will be published in November 2009 and in Fall 2010, respectively, by HarperCollins, the publisher for his previous three books.

The first novel features a pirate named Hunter and the governor of Jamaica, and their plan to raid a Spanish treasure galleon. According to the publisher, "it's packed through with great detail about navigation and how pirates operated, and links between the New World and the Caribbean and Spain."

While the pirate novel had been completed at the time of his death, Crichton had only completed about a third of the techno-thriller, and the publisher will be working with the author's estate to select a co-writer to finish the book based on Crichton's notes.

Michael Crichton was born in Chicago in 1942 and grew up on Long Island. His father was a journalist, so the act of writing was something he was familiar with from a young age. He was first published at age 14, when he wrote an article about Sunset Crater National Monument in Arizona following a family trip and submitted it to The New York Times travel section.

Crichton attended Harvard Medical School, intending to become a doctor. He started writing books to pay his way through medical school. His first bestseller, The Andromeda Strain, was published while he was still a med student. He soon realized that he could make a living as a writer and chose never to become a practicing doctor, despite earning his MD.

Some of his other books include Jurassic Park, Timeline, Sphere, and Next -- his most recent novel, about the world of genetics research. His books have been translated into thirty-six languages, and thirteen have been made into films. Some of the influences he has cited were Arthur Conan Doyle, Mark Twain, and Alfred Hitchcock.