Peter Straub, Author

The Life of Peter Straub

Born in Wisconsin on 2 March 1943, Peter Straub developed a love of reading and storytelling from an early age despite his parent’s hopes that he would become an athlete, a doctor, or a Lutheran minister.

Bored with kindergarten, he taught himself to read by memorising comic books and reciting them to friends over and over until he recognised the words. He became known as a storyteller and found himself streets ahead of his peers at school. While they were struggling through Dick, Jane, and Spot, he was off in the world of pirates, detectives, and spies.

At the age of seven, he was seriously injured when he was hit by a car and spent months in hospital and in a wheelchair until he learned to walk again. He read even more than he had before as “books took him out of himself”.

In 1965, he graduated from the University of Wisconsin with an honors degree in English. In 1966, he earned his Master of Arts at Columbia University.

He taught English for three years before heading to Ireland in 1969 to work on his Ph.D.

In Dublin, he published two small books of poetry and finally wrote his first novel Marriages, which was accepted by the first publisher he sent it to.

In 1972, he and his family moved to London and he wrote tirelessly when he discovered he could turn his old fears into fiction. He first came to the public’s attention in 1979 with his 5th novel Ghost Story.

In 1979, the Straubs moved back to America, where he struggled for a while. In his own words: “At some point [I] became conscious of the central issues of [my] life, which recognition made it impossible to cast them into the patterns, however imaginative, of horror literature, as least as conventionally regarded.”

He soon started publishing again, releasing novels, short story collections, and novellas. He also edited several anthologies of short stories.

In 1984, he collaborated with Stephen King on the horror novel The Talisman, and they followed up with a sequel Black House in 2001.

In 1997, he was awarded the World Horror Convention Grand Master Award, given to “an author who has contributed greatly to the field of horror”.

Peter Straub died on 4 September 2022 in New York from complications following a fall.

Emma Straub shared the news of her father’s death on Instagram, saying: “Peter Francis Straub, the smartest and most fun person in every room he was ever in, 3/2/43 – 9/4/22. How lucky we were. There aren’t enough words in the world.”

Peter Straub Books in Order

See: Peter Straub Books in Order

Peter Straub Books Ranked

See: Peter Straub Books Ranked

Peter Straub Books That Have Been Made into Movies

Julia was adapted in 1977 into the movie The Haunting of Julia (also known as Full Circle).

Ghost Story was adapted in 1981 into the movie of the same name: Ghost Story.

A seven-minute short film from The Talisman was produced in 2008 and the novel is being currently being adapted into a miniseries.