by PBS
The 25th-anniversary edition cover for Jurassic Park. The book was first published in 1990.
Michael Crichton, photographed at home, relaxing on his couch. Jurassic Park was his 17th novel.
The book was adapted for the screen for 1993’s Jurassic Park. A press kit released by Universal included production notes.
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JURASSIC PARK
Michael Crichton · 1990
Many literary works begin when their authors take an accepted orthodoxy and flip it on its side. The most fruitful—and fun—of these tap into our innate curiosity. Over his long career as a writer and director, Michael Crichton thought up some of the best and most compelling twists on reality. In Jurassic Park (1990), he began with the fact that nonavian dinosaurs went extinct some 65 million years ago, and then he explored what might happen if we brought them back.
Crichton’s 17th novel begins in 1989, when paleontologist Dr. Alan Grant is asked to investigate a series of strange animal attacks in Costa Rica. He and Ellie Sattler, one of his graduate students, travel to Isla Nublar, where they discover that John Hammond and InGen, his corporation, are preparing to open a theme park with genetically engineered dinosaurs as the star attraction. Along with mathematician Ian Malcolm (a specialist in chaos theory), Hammond’s grandkids, a lawyer, and some other park staff, Grant and Sattler are treated to a tour that starts to go desperately, dangerously awry right in front of the Tyrannosaurus rex enclosure. Before the Costa Rican national guard arrives to destroy the island, several people will be dead, and the door for the sequel left wide open.
Jurassic Park laments the hubris of humans who misunderstand the potential for havoc they hold in their hands. Dennis Nedry, a computer programmer, shuts down the security system in order to steal dino embryos that he plans to sell to another corporation, and this action sets off a chain reaction of pandemonium. Because the park was designed to be run remotely, no one is on hand to physically close the gates when they are inadvertently unlocked, proving the danger of overreliance on technology. Hammond’s entire project depends on the assumption that humans can master nature, but even though the park scientists created only females, the dinosaurs have been breeding—life always eludes our efforts to control it. Or, as Jeff Goldblum famously quipped in the role of Ian Malcolm in the film version, “Life, uh, finds a way.”
John Michael Crichton was born in 1942 in Chicago, and started writing while an undergraduate at Harvard. He switched to writing thrillers using a pseudonym to earn money while attending Harvard Medical School; he won an Edgar Award for best novel before graduating in 1969. Crichton candidly acknowledged his literary forebears: he looked to The War of the Worlds (1898) when writing The Andromeda Strain (1969), for example, and tipped his keyboard to Arthur Conan Doyle, whose novel The Lost World (1912) also features the unlikely survival of prehistoric creatures, by borrowing its title for his 1995 sequel to Jurassic Park. Crichton had the science chops to back up the imaginative ones. He knew the “hard stuff,” as his editor, Robert Gottlieb, would say. Fans were shocked when Crichton died unexpectedly in 2008 at age 66.
The universe of Jurassic Park had legs, as well as tails, heads, and really sharp claws. After the success of the novel came the megasuccess of the Steven Spielberg–directed film in 1993. Spielberg knew he had a hit: he optioned the book even before its 1990 publication, with Crichton signing on to write the screenplay, and the movie went on to earn more than $1 billion. Three more movie sequels came out in 1997, 2001, and 2015, with a fourth due in theaters in 2018. Crichton’s characters and plots also serve as the basis for rides at Universal theme parks, as well as video games.
In the years since Crichton published Jurassic Park, genetic engineering technology has advanced such that private companies regularly duplicate livestock and pets with little fanfare or media interest. But like its predecessor Frankenstein (1818), which also concerns a murderous monster who owes its existence to science, Jurassic Park offers well-founded concerns about bioethics. In their respective works, Mary Shelley and Michael Crichton urge us to never stop considering the moral implications of unbridled scientific inquiry.
Books in the Left Behind series, authored by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins.
LaHaye and Jenkins worked together to execute the series. LaHaye made notes and edits; Jenkins did the writing.
The Left Behind series focuses on the Rapture, depicted here in The Day of Judgement, a painting by John Martin.
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LEFT BEHIND SERIES
Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins · 1995–2007
The 16 books that make up the Left Behind series begin after the Rapture has instantly transported believers from the Earth to Heaven and focus on various characters who remain as they make sense of the new world, also known as End Times. According to the Christian belief system espoused by the authors, a period called the Tribulation, full of nightmares, discord, pain, famine, and other horrors, will occur in the aftermath of the Rapture. Many people will die during the apocalypse, but there will still be an opportunity for redemption. A Second Coming of Jesus will take place, ending the darkness and ushering in paradise for those who choose faith.
Left Behind (1995), the first book of the series, describes the struggle for those left behind not only to figure out what happened to their loved ones, but to cope in a changed world. A core group of American survivors—including pilot Rayford Steele; his daughter, Chloe; journalist Buck Williams; and assistant pastor Bruce Barnes—band together to form the Tribulation Force. Over subsequent novels, the Tribulation Force combats the powerful, elite Global Community, a sort of postapocalyptic United Nations headed by Nicolae Carpathia. In time, it’s revealed that Carpathia is actually the Antichrist.
Timothy Francis LaHaye was born in 1926 in Detroit, Michigan. An evangelical minister as well as a writer, he published more than 75 books before his death in 2016, but he is best known for the Left Behind series he created with Jerry B. Jenkins. LaHaye came up with the idea for the novels while traveling: one day he watched a married pilot flirting with an unmarried flight attendant, and wondered what would happen if the Rapture occurred at that very moment. Jerry Bruce Jenkins was born in 1949 in Kalamazoo, Michigan; he handled the writing, working from LaHaye’s notes and edits. A long-standing interest in Christian eschatology, or the study of “last things,” as well as a deep belief in dispensational premillennialism, which claims that the Second Coming is imminent, linked the men; this shared sensibility drives the Left Behind series.
Just because the books borrow liberally from the Book of Revelation doesn’t mean they aren’t page-turners. This portion of the New Testament lays out the apocalyptic predictions of John, a first-century-CE Jewish Christian whose identity remains uncertain. It’s a very dark text, focused on an epic, violent battle between Christ and the Antichrist at Armageddon. LaHaye—who argued that institutions as diverse as the NAACP and the US State Department are part of a conspiracy to destroy morality in America—encourages a reading of the Book of Revelation as literal truth. When the Rapture comes, a certain strain of Christians will be saved, and everyone else will be tortured and tormented.
Some have called the Left Behind series “a revenge fantasy, in which right-wing Christians win out over the rational, scientific, modern, post-Enlightenment world,” but readers were enraptured by the books. The Left Behind series has sold 80 million copies, making it one of the bestselling Christian fiction series in history. In fact, an obituary for LaHaye estimated that the books spent almost as long on the New York Times bestseller list—about 300 weeks—as the Tribulation is supposed to last. To date, a few movies have been made based on the series, some featuring Kirk Cameron, a well-known child actor who grew up to become a popular force in American evangelicalism.
For the faithful, part of the pleasure of the series comes from seeing the Book of Revelation turned into a narrative with characters, scenes, and plots. As LaHaye realized when he conceived his series, people learn lots from
nonfiction, but they especially love stories. No doubt another aspect of the books’ popularity may be explained by the driving good-versus-evil scenario. Enemies can’t get much worse than the Antichrist, so the stakes feel particularly high, the tale especially riveting.
Number 271 of a limited-edition first printing of 525 copies of The Little Prince, published in New York in 1943.
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, circa 1922. Saint-Exupéry wrote and illustrated his book while in exile in the United States, after leaving Nazi-occupied France during World War II.
One of Saint-Exupéry’s drawings for The Little Prince.
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THE LITTLE PRINCE
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry · 1943
Practically every page of The Little Prince (1943) tenders an aphorism. “It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye,” writes Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, in what is arguably the book’s most famous line. Elsewhere the little prince neatly sums up one of the novel’s primary points: “All grown-ups were once children… but only few of them remember it.” This slim classic, with its charming, iconic watercolor illustrations, seeks to detail the pleasant perplexity of being young in order to combat some of the existential crises that come with growing old.
Stranded in the Sahara when his airplane breaks down, the novel’s narrator is befriended by an odd young boy with blond hair and a gold scarf. The narrator names him “the little prince.” The boy grew up on an asteroid, where he spent his days tending a single rose. In time he felt stifled by the rose’s vanity and seemingly bottomless need, so he went off to explore the universe. Thus far, he says, he has met just a few people on various planets, including a drunk who drinks to forget he’s a drunk and a businessperson who wants only to acquire more money. From a railroad operator, he learns that only children take the time to look out the window; adults are too busy rushing from one place to another. A fox on Earth teaches him about friendship. The little prince and his observations make a profound impression on the narrator—and the reader.
Inseparable from The Little Prince is the life of its author and illustrator. Born to a poor but aristocratic family in Lyon, France, in 1900, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry lost a beloved brother to rheumatic fever as a teenager. He may have based the capricious character of the rose on his wife, Consuelo, with whom he had a somewhat rocky marriage. Like his unnamed narrator, Saint-Exupéry’s plane crashed in the desert, leaving him stranded for a time with nothing but the sand, the stars, and his thoughts to keep him company. Saint-Exupéry left his native France during World War II, after the Nazis took over; he wrote and illustrated his book while living in exile in the United States. A sense of rootlessness and deep sadness haunt the book.
Saint-Exupéry found himself while flying. An indifferent student, he went into the army, transferred to the air force, and became a commercial pilot, mostly flying postal runs. While in the air, Saint-Exupéry sometimes daydreamed or even read. His wistfulness aside, he patented several aircraft aids in the 1930s. Fittingly, he died in flight. Speculation about Saint-Exupéry’s death in 1944 almost overshadowed his accomplishments in life. The discovery of his bracelet in 1998 and the remains of his airplane in 2003 renewed debate about whether he was shot down by the Luftwaffe or committed suicide after being publicly accused of supporting the Vichy French government.
Many readers see the little prince as the narrator’s inner child come to life. Certainly the book makes the case that children lose not only their innocence but also their capacity for appreciating the world as they mature. Everyone the little prince meets has ceased to marvel at the wonders around them. At the same time, however, the little prince has lessons to learn. He realizes how cruelly he has treated the rose, and, in another well-known line, he recognizes his responsibilities to the flower: “You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed.” To fully exist, then, we must ground our search for beauty with the more earthbound concerns of how we treat one another. The book offers readers the chance to ruminate on all they have to admire and appreciate in their lives.
Early editions of Little Women, which was first published in 1868.
Author Louisa May Alcott. She initially said no when an editor asked her to write a book for girls, but relented when the editor agreed to publish a manuscript by her father, an influential educator and thinker.
Orchard House, Alcott’s home in Concord, Massachusetts. It was the setting for Little Women, and would become a place where devotees made pilgrimages to.
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LITTLE WOMEN
Louisa May Alcott · 1868–1869
Asked to name their favorite literary character from childhood, many women will respond with nary a pause or hesitation: Jo March. For a little girl with a literary bent, smart, tomboyish Jo was a revelation. She’d rather run than curtsy, write than cook, live independently than marry. She defies gender norms, at least for a while. She feels modern.
When an editor inquired whether Louisa May Alcott wanted to write a book expressly for girls, she initially said no. Alcott was a fast writer who often cranked out pseudonymous pulp novels for money. But she wasn’t interested in creating a story about a group of young women. However, she relented when the editor promised to publish a manuscript of her father’s if she submitted one too. She finished Little Women (1868–1869) in about 10 weeks of furious work. While most of her other fiction and nonfiction has disappeared into the mists of the past, Little Women evidences plenty of staying power.
Set in 19th-century New England, the novel focuses on the March family, specifically its four daughters: Meg (16), Jo (15), Beth (13), and Amy (12). They live with their beloved mother, Marmee, while their father serves as a chaplain in the Civil War. Having each received a copy of the religious novel The Pilgrim’s Progress (1678) one Christmas, they decide to embody its Christian values through circumstances that range from good-natured fun to tragedy, including competing for boys’ attention, falling in love, getting married, coping with terminal illness, and choosing between a conventional life of domesticity and fulfilling one’s artistic dreams. They grow up, and virtue and decency guide their days.
In many ways, the fates of the four sisters represent the options available to women at the time. The eldest, Meg, marries first, and starts a family immediately. The youngest, blonde-haired and blue-eyed Amy, is valued for her beauty, and she becomes a lady of society. Religious Beth stays at home, keeps house, and dies young. At first, Jo forgoes marriage in pursuit of her dream of becoming a writer. While she eventually lets that aspiration wither and marries Professor Friedrich Bhaer, they develop an equitable partnership based on mutual respect. Alcott herself never married.
Louisa May Alcott was born in what is now Philadelphia in 1832, but her family soon moved to Boston, where her father associated with transcendentalists like Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson. Amos Alcott was an influential educator and thinker, but the family was nonetheless very poor. From a young age Louisa worked, writing on the side. She achieved some success with a series of shorts about working in a Union hospital in 1863, but Little Women made her famous. So famous, in fact, that devotees would make pilgrimages to her house in Concord, which has since been turned into a museum.
Even as she wrote it, she derided the book as “moral pap.” Little Women abounds with homilies espousing the value of hard work and the joy of putting family first. The girls make do with very little. Alcott couldn’t deny the book’s life-changing success, and she wrote two sequels: Little Men (1871) and Jo’s Boys (1886). She died in 1888 at age 55.
After a few silent adaptations, George Cukor directed a 1933 film version, with Katharine Hepburn as Jo. Elizabeth Taylor took the role of Amy in the 1949 remake, while Winona Ryder was Jo in the 1994 update. A 21st-century version is currently in the works. Perhaps every generation needs to find its take on Little Women. Today, of course, girls have options Alcott never could have imagined, but her work continues to normalize the wi
sh of every little woman who’s longed to be more than “wife” or “mother.”
The first edition dust jacket of Lonesome Dove, published in 1985.
Author Larry McMurtry, photographed in California in 2006. McMurtry grew up in Texas, and knew the region’s stories well.
A trade paperback cover of Lonesome Dove.
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LONESOME DOVE
Larry McMurtry · 1985
A journalist once described Lonesome Dove (1985) as “the War and Peace of cattle-drive novels.” Larry McMurtry offered a different take on his Pulitzer Prize–winning novel, referring to it as “Gone with the Wind of the West.” The comparisons hold: all three novels offer expansive looks at societies in transition, depicting colorful, compelling characters caught up in the bloody progress of history.
Initially McMurtry conceived of the story of Texas Rangers in Lonesome Dove as a movie. After John Wayne passed on the project, James Stewart, who had been attached to play a role, dropped out, and production plans fizzled. So McMurtry bought back the screenplay from the studio that owned it, and transformed Lonesome Dove into a novel. It was such a success that CBS decided to make a miniseries featuring Robert Duvall and Tommy Lee Jones in 1989; that too was a critical and commercial darling.