First published in the USA on November 20, 1990, Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton would, like HG Wells and Jules Verne, bring science fiction to the masses and to the movie screen. The book actually started life as a screenplay written in 1983 in which a graduate student creates a dinosaur. Then, given the fact that genetic research is expensive and there was no need to create a dinosaur, Crichton changed the story so the dinosaurs were made to put into an entertaining wildlife park. Another thing changed from first to final draft was the point of view: originally it was told from a child’s viewpoint, but Crichton changed it when everyone who read the draft felt it would be better told by an adult.
A signed US 1st edition [above] is for sale [at time of going to press] on eBay for $225. Read more about the first edition of the 1991 UK hardback edition [below] published by Century at Biblio. 
The story
Following strange animal attacks in Costa Rica and nearby island Isla Nublar, one of the animals involved is identified as an extinct dinosaur. Palaeontologist Alan Grant and paleobotanist Ellie Satler are asked to confirm this, but are whisked away by billionaire John Hammond to visit his nature reserve on Isla Nublar and calm his investors. Hammond’s park contains not lions and tigers but cloned dinosaurs. Fellow consultant, mathematician and chaos theorist Ian Malcolm, predicts the park will collapse into chaos.
The film
Released on June 9, 1993, the film of Jurassic Park by Steven Spielberg was a monumental success and has taken well over $1bn worldwide.
The film closely follows the storyline of the book, though there are slight differences in some of the characters. Nedry is much the same, but both children have stronger roles in the film while Alan Grant in the novel is considerably scruffier than the movie version as played by Sam Neill. Watch the original film trailer here.
Other editions
‘Jurassic Park’ by Michael Crichton [UK: Arrow]
If you like old books, check out these:-
‘The Moonstone’ by Wilkie Collins
‘A Passage to India’ by EM Forster
‘The Sea The Sea’ by Iris Murdoch
And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
First Edition: JURASSIC PARK by Michael Crichton #oldbooks https://wp.me/p5gEM4-37x via @SandraDanby
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