It was originally published in 1977 by Harry N. Abrams Inc in association with the Whitney Museum of American Art,[1] and a second revised edition (ISBN 0810935155) was published in 1994.

In Crichton's 1972 novel, The Terminal Man, psychiatrist Janet Ross owned a copy of the painting Numbers by Jasper Johns.

The technophobic antagonist of the story found it odd that a person would paint numbers as they were inorganic.

[2] Michael Crichton himself had a serious art collection, including several works by Jasper Johns.

[3] This article about a biographical or autobiographical book on an artist is a stub.