Peter Straub Wiki
Peter Straub Biography
Who was Peter Straub?
American writer Peter Straub was walking around London in the early 1970s wondering what to do next. His first novel passed without warning and his idea for the next one was rejected.
He said he feared he was “the most pathetic of all creatures,” a one-book novelist. His agent had suggested a stab at goth fiction as more commercial. “Eventually I had a little idea that scared me,” he recounted in 1984.
The result was “Julia” (1975), about a woman harassed by a malevolent supernatural presence who could be his dead daughter. The book was a hit, inspired a movie starring Mia Farrow, and redirected Mr. Straub’s career to become one of the most celebrated writers of horror short stories, psychological thrillers, and stories that made pulses race and lights up at night. they stayed lit.
Straub, who died Sept. 4 in New York at age 79, became part of a literary era in the late 1960s and ’70s that took readers into dark corners of all kinds: “Rosemary’s Baby” by Ira Levin (1967), William Peter Blatty’s “The Exorcist” (1971), Stephen King’s first novel, “Carrie”, in 1974 and Anne Rice’s “Interview with the Vampire” (1976).
Anne Rice, who helped launch revival of vampire stories, dies at 80
A published poet, Mr. Straub kept his love of literary precision in his stories, turning his tales into taut explorations of the “inner geography of horror, dark fantasy, and psychological suspense,” wrote Michael Dirda of The Washington Post. in 2012.
Mr. Straub followed up with “If You Could See Me Now” (1977) and the best-selling “Ghost Story” (1979), which was made into a 1981 film and cemented his reputation as a master of horror. He was the winner of numerous awards, including the Bram Stoker Lifetime Achievement Award for him in 2006, and was named a “Living Legend” by the International Horror Guild in 2008.
“Ghost Story” tells the story of four men who share ghost stories and are threatened by a vengeful spirit.
Straub, who collaborated with King on “The Talisman” (1984) and a sequel, 2001’s “Black House,” said he long resisted being categorized as a horror novelist. But he made his peace with it after deciding it gave him ample room to delve into timeless emotions and fears, including even his Blue Rose trilogy, published between 1998 and 1983.
Injured as boy
Peter Francis Straub was born on March 2, 1943, in Milwaukee and earned a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Wisconsin in 1965. He moved to New York to earn a master’s degree at Columbia University in 1966, then returned to Wisconsin to teach English. at his old high school.
At the age of 7, Mr. Straub was seriously injured when he was hit by a car. He temporarily used a wheelchair and had to relearn how to walk. Mr. Straub has said that his injury and long recovery gave him an awareness as a child of his own mortality.
In 1969 he began work on a doctorate at University College Dublin, but did not finish it. He wrote two poetry books in 1972, “Ismael” and “Open Air”. His first novel, Marriages, about an adulterous affair, was published in 1973.
Straub died at New York-Presbyterian Hospital from complications after a fall, his family said. He is survived by his wife of 55 years, Susan Bitker Straub; son Benjamin Straub; a daughter, novelist Emma Straub; and three grandchildren.
Mr. Straub kept up a steady stream of novels and short stories for decades, including such supernatural thrillers as “Shadowland” (1980) about apprentice magicians; fantasy worlds like “Floating Dragon” (1983); and a story of evil and obsession in “A Dark Matter” (2010) and novels such as “The Ghost Village” (1992).
“I’ve always loved listening and telling stories,” Mr. Straub said in a story for the Wisconsin Alumni Association. “Also, telling stories and writing fiction is a way of managing and exploring my own impulses and emotions. I am not at the mercy of my terrors, my shame. I push the extracted emotions in ways that are pleasing in the end, even if their content seems violent or disturbing.”
However, he also enjoyed the quirky twists and turns of daytime soap operas. For his 60th birthday, his wife surprised Mr. Straub with a behind-the-scenes tour of the “One Life to Live” set, which opened the door for the author to take on a cameo appearance as blind detective Peter Braust.
Despite the success of Mr. Straub’s collaborations with King, he pointed to the challenges of a creative partnership that, at times, left them “pretty fed up with each other.”
In a 2001 interview with USA Today, Mr. Straub described writing as a “deeply private and intimate activity.”
“Self-style comes at some cost,” he said. “You don’t want anyone else in your shop, messing with your tools, unless you trust them.”
Mr. Straub also said that any worthwhile horror tale must remain connected to the wonder and imagination of childhood.
“Novelists must write from their deepest places,” he said in a 1983 interview, “and a horror novelist had better stay in touch with his fears, his childhood still lives inside him.
