Editing Michael Crichton (section)

===Pseudonymous novels (1965–1968)===
[[File:Hudson in the woods by Mytens.jpg|thumb|upright|Crichton used the pen-name "[[Jeffrey Hudson]]", a reference to a 17th-century court dwarf and his own "abnormal" height.]]
In 1965, while at [[Harvard Medical School]], Crichton wrote a novel, ''[[Odds On]]''. "I wrote for furniture and groceries", he said later.<ref name=nonterminal>{{cite news |title=Author of 'Terminal Man' Building Nonterminal Career: CRICHTON |author= Gelmis, Joseph |work= Los Angeles Times |date= January 4, 1974 |page= d12}}</ref> ''Odds On'' is a 215-page paperback novel which describes an attempted robbery at an isolated hotel on the [[Costa Brava]] in Spain. The robbery is planned scientifically with the help of a [[Critical path method|critical path analysis]] computer program, but unforeseen events get in the way. Crichton submitted it to Doubleday, where a reader liked it but felt it was not for the company. Doubleday passed it on to New American Library, which published it in 1966. Crichton used the pen name John Lange because he planned to become a doctor and did not want his patients to worry that he would use them for his plots. The name came from cultural anthropologist [[Andrew Lang]]. Crichton added an "e" to the surname and substituted his own real first name, John, for Andrew.<ref name="israel" /> The novel was successful enough to lead to a series of John Lange novels.<ref name="chicago">{{cite news| title= The versatile Crichton| author =Seligson, Marcia|work=Chicago Tribune |date=June 8, 1969| page= k6}}</ref> Film rights were sold in 1969, but no movie resulted.<ref>{{cite news| title= No Gap Like the Generation Gap| author=Weiler, A. H. |work=The New York Times |date=July 6, 1969|page= D11}}</ref>

The second Lange novel, ''[[Scratch One]]'' (1967), relates the story of Roger Carr, a handsome, charming, privileged man who practices law, more as a means to support his playboy lifestyle than a career. Carr is sent to [[Nice]], France, where he has notable political connections, but is mistaken for an assassin and finds his life in jeopardy. Crichton wrote the book while traveling through Europe on a travel fellowship. He visited the [[Cannes Film Festival]] and [[Monaco Grand Prix]], and then decided, "any idiot should be able to write a [[potboiler]] set in Cannes and Monaco", and wrote it in eleven days. He later described the book as "no good".<ref name="israel" /> His third John Lange novel, ''[[Easy Go (novel)|Easy Go]]'' (1968), is the story of Harold Barnaby, a brilliant [[Egyptologist]] who discovers a concealed message while translating [[hieroglyphics]] informing him of an unnamed pharaoh whose tomb is yet to be discovered. Crichton said the book earned him $1,500 ({{Inflation|US|1500|1968|fmt=eq}}).<ref name=nonterminal/> Crichton later said: "My feeling about the Lange books is that my competition is in-flight movies. One can read the books in an hour and a half, and be more satisfactorily amused than watching [[Doris Day]]. I write them fast and the reader reads them fast and I get things off my back."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.crichton-official.com/books-medschoolyears-lange.html |title=John Lange Archive |website=crichton-official.com|publisher=Michael Crichton's official website |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150518062947/http://www.crichton-official.com/books-medschoolyears-lange.html|archive-date=May 18, 2015}}</ref><ref name="israel">{{cite news|title=Michael Crichton |author=Shenker, Israel|work=The New York Times|date=June 8, 1969|page=BR5}}</ref>

Crichton's fourth novel was ''[[A Case of Need]]'' (1968), a medical thriller. The novel had a different tone from the Lange books; accordingly, Crichton used the pen name "Jeffery Hudson", based on Sir [[Jeffrey Hudson]], a 17th-century dwarf in the court of [[queen consort]] [[Henrietta Maria of France|Henrietta Maria]] of England.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.theedgars.com/edgarsDB/index.php |title=Edgar Awards throughout time |publisher=TheEdgars.com |access-date=November 19, 2013 |archive-date=August 28, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120828005743/http://www.theedgars.com/edgarsDB/index.php |url-status=live }}</ref> The novel would prove a turning point in Crichton's future novels, in which technology is important in the subject matter, although this novel was as much about medical practice. The novel earned him an [[Edgar Award]] in 1969.<ref>{{cite web |title=Michael Crichton |url=http://www.famousauthors.org/michael-crichton |work=Famous Authors |access-date=March 24, 2014 |archive-date=February 19, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140219212422/http://www.famousauthors.org/michael-crichton |url-status=live }}</ref> He intended to use the "Jeffery Hudson" pseudonym for other medical novels but ended up using it only once. The book was later adapted into the film ''[[The Carey Treatment]]'' (1972).<ref name="scalpel">{{cite news|title=Dropping the Scalpel: Film Notes Columbia Frowns Speeds the Turnover Refuge From Roles|author=Judith Martin|work=The Washington Post and Times-Herald|date= February 28, 1969|page=B12}}</ref>