Authors · NYT Hardcover Fiction

Michael Crichton

Charting Jun 29, 1969 → Aug 25, 2024 · 280 weeks with chart power

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Image credits

Photo: Jon Chase photo/Harvard News Office, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Honours

Author of the Week

NYT Hardcover Fiction
19 crowns
19692024
Longest reign 8 weeks (Oct–Nov 1995) · First crown Mar 1992

Peak Power: 10.10%; week of Jan 14, 1996
Career Power: 2,075; share-weeks
Crowns: 19; weeks crowned Author of the Week

Peak Year: 234; January 1969 – January 1970
Peak Five Years: 716; February 1992 – February 1997
Top-five weeks: 120; weeks ranked 1–5
Longevity: 280; weeks with chart power
Dominance: 15.12%; week of Jan 23, 1994
Comebacks: 12; Jun 1972 · Jul 1975 · Aug 1987, after 11 quiet years · Jan 1991 · Jan 1994 · Oct 1995 · Dec 1999 · Dec 2002 · Jan 2005 · Jan 2007 · Jan 2010 · Jul 2017, after 7 quiet years

Ranked by weekly Power Share, part of the ChartReign Power model — not the list's own positions. How it works →

Exponentially smoothed share of the week's total power (the primary metric).

Titles on the NYT Hardcover Fiction

18 books · 2,063 share-weeks of Career Power

Power contributed is what each book earned this author: their weekly Power Share, split across their books (a featured credit takes its reduced share). Book Power is the book's own figure, the same for every author on it. Bar length compares books within this list.

Title	Peak	Weeks	On chart	Power contributedPower	Book Power
The Andromeda Strain	#3October 1969	30	June 1969 – January 1970	233.9	233.9
The Lost World	#1October 1995	24	October 1995 – March 1996	230.2	230.2
Disclosure	#1January 1994	22	January 1994 – July 1994	206.9	200.6
The Great Train Robbery	#3August 1975	23	June 1975 – December 1975	184.2	184.2
Rising Sun	#1March 1992	21	February 1992 – July 1992	175.2	175.2
Airframe	#1December 1996	17	December 1996 – April 1997	159.1	159.1
Prey	#1December 2002	15	December 2002 – March 2003	127.4	127.4
The Terminal Man	#5August 1972	19	May 1972 – September 1972	123.0	123.0
Timeline	#4December 1999	17	December 1999 – March 2000	122.3	109.7
State of Fear	#2January 2005	13	December 2004 – March 2005	108.1	108.1
Next	#2December 2006	10	December 2006 – February 2007	83.4	83.4
Jurassic Park	#6January 1991	14	December 1990 – March 1991	66.5	66.0
Dragon Teeth	#2June 2017	7	June 2017 – July 2017	53.4	53.4
Sphere	#6August 1987	13	June 1987 – September 1987	48.9	48.8
Pirate Latitudes	#2December 2009	7	December 2009 – January 2010	48.2	48.2
Congo	#6February 1981	12	December 1980 – April 1981	44.5	44.5
Eruptionwith James Patterson	#1June 2024	10	June 2024 – August 2024	41.8	81.8
Microwith Richard Preston	#10December 2011	4	December 2011 – January 2012	6.2	12.4

At their peak

1969 in books →

Michael Crichton's best twelve months on the NYT Hardcover Fiction list ran from January 1969 to January 1970. The most powerful authors over those weeks:

Ranked by Era Power over the same weeks.

Their decades: the 1960s, the 1970s, the 1980s, the 1990s, the 2000s, the 2010s, the 2020s.