Editing Michael Crichton (section)

===Early life===
John Michael Crichton<ref name="kids">{{cite web |url=http://www.michaelcrichton.com/foryoungerreaders-qa.html |title=Q & A with Michael Crichton |date=November 20, 2014 |publisher=Michael Crichton (the official site) |access-date=May 2, 2015 |archive-date=June 17, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150617045805/http://www.michaelcrichton.com/foryoungerreaders-qa.html |url-status=live }}</ref> was born on October 23, 1942, in Chicago, Illinois,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.state.il.us/hpa/Illinois%20History/Mover206.pdf |title=IHPA: Illinois Historic Preservation Agency |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070614110520/https://www.state.il.us/hpa/Illinois%20History/Mover206.pdf |archive-date=June 14, 2007}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.filmbug.com/db/22387|title=Michael Crichton|work=Filmbug|access-date=August 15, 2020|archive-date=January 26, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200126175348/https://www.filmbug.com/db/22387|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=http://movies.ign.com/articles/403/403447p1.html|title=Featured Filmmaker: Michael Crichton|publisher=IGN|date=May 19, 2003|access-date=March 14, 2011|archive-date=October 19, 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071019010752/http://movies.ign.com/articles/403/403447p1.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{IMDb name|0000341}}</ref> to John Henderson Crichton, a journalist, and Zula Miller Crichton, a homemaker. He was raised on [[Long Island]], in [[Roslyn, New York]],<ref name="kids" /> and he showed a keen interest in writing from a young age; at 16, he had an article about a trip he took to [[Sunset Crater]] published in ''[[The New York Times]]''.<ref name="Telegraph">{{cite news |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/3387711/MichaelCrichton.html |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130114045739/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/3387711/MichaelCrichton.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=January 14, 2013 |title=Michael Crichton: Novelist and screenwriter responsible for 'Jurassic Park', 'Westworld' and the TV series 'ER' |date=November 10, 2008 |work=The Daily Telegraph |access-date=December 18, 2008 |location=London}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=CLIMBING UP A CINDER CONE: A Visit to Sunset Crater Makes A Novel Side Trip in Arizona|author=Michael Crichton|work=[[The New York Times]]|date=May 17, 1959|page=XX30|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1959/05/17/89124241.html?pageNumber=442|access-date=19 October 2024}}</ref> Crichton later recalled, "Roslyn was another world. Looking back, it's remarkable what wasn't going on. There was no terror. No fear of children being abused. No fear of random murder. No drug use we knew about. I walked to school. I rode my bike for miles and miles, to the movie on Main Street and piano lessons and the like. Kids had freedom. It wasn't such a dangerous world... We studied our butts off, and we got a tremendously good education there."<ref name="big">{{cite news|title=Big Mike Michael Crichton Was Easily Spotted in a Roslyn High Crowd|author=David Behrens|work=Newsday|date=October 10, 1995|page=B.04}}</ref>

Crichton had always planned on becoming a writer and began his studies at [[Harvard College]] in 1960.<ref name="Telegraph" /> During his undergraduate study in literature, he conducted an experiment to expose a professor whom he believed was giving him abnormally low marks and criticizing his literary style.<ref name="Travels" />{{Rp|4}} Informing another professor of his suspicions,<ref>{{cite news|title=Michael Crichton's Convictions|work=[[The Boston Globe]] |date=May 11, 1988}}</ref> Crichton submitted an essay by [[George Orwell]] under his own name. The paper was returned by his unwitting professor with a mark of "B−".<ref>{{cite news |url=http://books.guardian.co.uk/departments/sciencefiction/story/0,,1962747,00.html |title=King of the techno-thriller |work=[[The Observer]] |date=December 3, 2006 |access-date=February 2, 2007 |archive-date=February 8, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070208164938/http://books.guardian.co.uk/departments/sciencefiction/story/0,,1962747,00.html |url-status=live }}</ref> He later said, "Now Orwell was a wonderful writer, and if a B-minus was all he could get, I thought I'd better drop English as my major."<ref name="big"/> His differences with the English department led Crichton to switch his undergraduate concentration. He earned his Bachelor's degree in [[biological anthropology]] ''[[wikt:summa cum laude|summa cum laude]]'' in 1964,<ref name="Graduation">{{cite web|url=http://www.crichton-official.com/aboutmichaelcrichton-biography.html|website=About Michael Crichton|title=Biography|access-date=September 24, 2008|archive-date=September 13, 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080913184547/http://www.crichton-official.com/aboutmichaelcrichton-biography.html|url-status=live}}</ref> and was initiated into [[Phi Beta Kappa]] society.<ref name="Graduation" />

Crichton received a Henry Russell Shaw Traveling Fellowship from 1964 to 1965, which allowed him to serve as a visiting lecturer in [[anthropology]] at the [[University of Cambridge]] in the United Kingdom.<ref name="Graduation" /><ref name="auto">{{Cite web |title=Michael Crichton '64, Novelist and Screenwriter {{!}} News {{!}} The Harvard Crimson |url=https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2014/5/29/michael-crichton-64-author/ |access-date=2024-07-17 |website=www.thecrimson.com}}</ref> Crichton later enrolled at [[Harvard Medical School]].<ref name="auto"/>  Crichton later said "about two weeks into medical school I realized I hated it. This isn't unusual since everyone hates medical school – even happy, practicing physicians."<ref name="chicago" />