Best-selling author Michael Crichton has died in Los Angeles aged 66 after a "courageous and private battle against cancer", his family has said.

He penned Jurassic Park, as well as books like Congo and Disclosure, all of which were adapted into films.

His books have sold more than 150 million copies. He also created the long-running US hospital TV drama ER.

"He will be profoundly missed by those whose lives he touched," his family said in a statement.

A private funeral service is expected.

Crichton is survived by his wife, Sherri, and daughter, Taylor.

The family's statement paid tribute to a "devoted husband, loving father and generous friend".

It added: "Through his books, Michael Crichton served as an inspiration to students of all ages, challenged scientists in many fields, and illuminated the mysteries of the world in a way we could all understand."

'Gentle soul'

"Michael's talent out-scaled even his own dinosaurs of Jurassic Park," said filmmaker Steven Spielberg, who directed the blockbuster film version of that novel.

"He was the greatest at blending science with big theatrical concepts, which is what gave credibility to dinosaurs again walking the Earth.

"Michael was a gentle soul who reserved his flamboyant side for his novels. There is no-one in the wings that will ever take his place," he added.

A new Crichton novel had been scheduled to come out in the US next month.

Publisher HarperCollins said the book would now be postponed indefinitely.

A Harvard Medical School graduate, Chicago-born Crichton became the toast of Hollywood when his 1971 novel The Andromeda Strain was turned into a film.

Many of his novels and screenplays were adapted for cinema.

The most successful were Jurassic Park, which burst onto the screen in 1993, and its sequel The Lost World.

ER has won a host of Emmys since it began in 1994, and helped launch the career of George Clooney.

Crichton's 2004 bestseller State of Fear caused controversy when it cast doubt on the dangers of global warming.

Environmentalists said his novel was marring efforts to pass legislation to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.

Posthumous Crichton Novels on the Way

Michael Crichton, the best-selling author of technological thrillers like “The Andromeda Strain” and “Jurassic Park” who died of cancer in November, left behind at least one finished novel and about one-third of a second. Both will be released over the next year and a half, his publisher said.

HarperCollins, Mr. Crichton’s publisher for his previous three books, will release “Pirate Latitudes,” an adventure story set in Jamaica in the 17th century, on Nov. 24. The company also plans to publish a technological thriller in the fall of 2010, a novel that Mr. Crichton was working on when he died.

Jonathan Burnham, publisher of Harper, an imprint of HarperCollins, said Mr. Crichton evidently wrote “Pirate Latitudes” at the same time that he wrote “Next,” his last published novel.

The new novel, discovered by Mr. Crichton’s assistant in the writer’s computer files after his death, features a pirate named Hunter and the governor of Jamaica, and their plan to raid a Spanish treasure galleon.

“It’s eminently and deeply and thoroughly researched,” Mr. Burnham said. “It’s packed through with great detail about navigation and how pirates operated, and links between the New World and the Caribbean and Spain.”

The novel represents a departure from Mr. Crichton’s longtime fictional preoccupation with the moral and social ramifications of science and technology. But Mr. Burnham pointed out that “Pirate Latitudes” also harks back to the kind of historical yarn that Mr. Crichton wrote in the “The Great Train Robbery,” first published in 1975. Mr. Burnham said that the book needed little editing and that Harper planned a first printing of 1 million copies.

At the time of Mr. Crichton’s death he was under contract for the second of a two-book deal that began with “Next.” He had begun that second novel, a technological thriller, but was only about a third of the way through. Mr. Burnham said that the publisher would work with Lynn Nesbit, Mr. Crichton’s agent of 40 years, and his estate to select a co-writer who would finish the book, working from Mr. Crichton’s notes.

“We want a high-level thriller writer, somebody who understands Michael’s work,” Mr. Burnham said. “From what I gather, there are notes and indications of which direction the novel was going, so the writer has material to work from apart from the actual material that was finished.”

Neither Mr. Burnham nor Ms. Nesbit has seen the unfinished novel. Ms. Nesbit said that Mr. Crichton was “the most private of all authors that I have ever met in my life,” and that he never showed his agent or his editor any material before he had a complete draft. She said that other than the general category of technological thriller, she had no idea what the incomplete novel was about.

Ms. Nesbit said that she and Mr. Burnham had discussed some possible co-writers, but no decision had been made. She added that any selection would be made in collaboration with Sherri Crichton, Mr. Crichton’s widow, acting on behalf of his estate.

In “Next” Mr. Crichton explored the ethical dilemmas posed by the expanding field of genetics. According to Nielsen BookScan, which represents about 70 percent of retail sales and does not cover retailers like WalMart, the book sold 500,000 copies. Mr. Burnham said that the figure was closer to 800,000 copies.

Ms. Nesbit said that Mr. Crichton left “many, many electronic files,” and that there could well be other novels or unfinished material. “We haven’t begun to really go through it all,” she said.

Mr. Burnham said, though, that HarperCollins had no plans to take Mr. Crichton’s name and create a franchise in the way that ghostwriters have continued to publish books under Robert Ludlum’s name long after his death. “We’re not taking a name brand and spinning books out of it,” Mr. Burnham said.