Peter Straub

Peter Francis Straub (; March 2, 1943 – September 4, 2022) was an American novelist and poet. He had success with several horror and supernatural fiction novels, among them Julia, Ghost Story (1979) and The Talisman (1984), the latter co-written with Stephen King. He explored the mystery genre with the Blue Rose trilogy, consisting of Koko (1988), Mystery (1990), and The Throat (1993). He fused the supernatural with crime fiction in Lost Boy, Lost Girl (2003) and the related In the Night Room (2004). For the Library of America, he edited the volume H. P. Lovecraft: Tales and the anthology American Fantastic Tales. Straub received such literary honors as the Bram Stoker Award, World Fantasy Award, and International Horror Guild Award.

According to his New York Times obituary, Straub "brought a poet's sensibility to stories about ghosts, demons and other things that go bump in the night."

Early life and education Straub was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the son of Gordon Anthony Straub and Elvena (Nilsestuen) Straub. At the age of seven, Straub was struck by a car, sustaining serious injuries. He was hospitalized for several months and used a wheelchair until he had re-learned how to walk. Straub has said that the accident made him prematurely aware of his own mortality.

Straub read voraciously from an early age, although his father hoped that he would grow up to be a professional athlete and his mother wanted him to be a Lutheran minister. He attended Milwaukee Country Day School on a scholarship, and, during his time there, began writing.

Straub attended the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where he discovered "the various joys of Henry James, William Carlos Williams, and the Texas blues-rocker Steve Miller, a great & joyous character who lived across the street." He earned an honors BA in English in 1965 and an MA at Columbia University a year later. He briefly taught English at Milwaukee Country Day, where he "enjoyed a minor but temporary success as Mr. Chips-cum-jalapenos, largely due to the absolute freedom given him by the administration and his affection for his students, who faithfully followed him as he struck matches and led them into caves named Lawrence, Forster, Brontë, Thackeray, etc., etc. On his off-hours, he fell in love with poetry, especially John Ashbery’s poetry, and wrote imitations of same. Three years later, fearing to turn into a spiritless & chalk-stained drudge, he went to Dublin, Ireland, to work on a Ph.D., secretly (a secret even to him) to start writing seriously."

Career After mixed success with two attempts at literary mainstream novels in the mid-1970s (Marriages and Under Venus), Straub dabbled in the supernatural for the first time with Julia (1975). He followed Julia with If You Could See Me Now (1977), and came to widespread public attention with his fifth novel, Ghost Story (1979), After returning to America, he wrote Floating Dragon, which won the August Derleth Award. He said "I knew that this book would be an at least temporary farewell to the supernatural material that had been my daily fare." He coauthored the horror-fantasy The Talisman (1984) with his longtime friend Stephen King. Koko was followed by Mystery (1990) and The Throat (1993). The three novels comprise the "Blue Rose Trilogy", which extended Straub's experiments with metafiction and unreliable narrators.

In 1990, Straub published Houses Without Doors, a collection of short fiction including the shorter version of the novella Mrs. God. In 1996, he published the mainstream thriller The Hellfire Club. In 1999, Straub published Mr. X, a novel with a doppelgänger theme. The novel pays homage to H. P. Lovecraft, as the eponymous character writes in a similar style. In 2001, Straub and King rejoined forces for Black House, the sequel to The Talisman which tied that book in with King's The Dark Tower series. Lost Boy, Lost Girl was published in 2003; a year later, the related In the Night Room was released. Both won the Bram Stoker Award.

In 2005, Straub edited the Library of America volume H. P. Lovecraft: Tales. In 2009, Straub edited the Library of America anthology American Fantastic Tales.

Straub published several books of poetry.

In 2007, Straub's personal papers were acquired by the Fales Library at New York University.

Straub's final novel, A Dark Matter, was released in February 2010.

In 2013, Straub appeared on the Code Street podcast with fantasist John Crowley.

In 2016, co-author Stephen King said that he and Straub had plans to write a third Talisman book in the future. King says that the collaboration for the series was "natural," and that the two were excited to work together. In a 2021 appearance on the Dead Headspace podcast, Straub said that due to his health, it was unlikely that he would co-write a third Talisman with King.

In 2024, Penguin Random House launched the republication of many of Straub's novels with new cover art and blurbs.

Reception and influence A critical essay on Straub's horror work can be found in S. T. Joshi's book The Modern Weird Tale (2001). At the Foot of the Story Tree by Bill Sheehan discusses Straub's work before 2000. John C. Tibbetts wrote a book-length study, The Gothic Worlds of Peter Straub.

In Andrew Shaffer's Secret Santa, a character refers to Stephen King, Anne Rice and Straub as "the unholy trinity" of horror.

Of Straub's contribution to horror King says, "he brought a poet's sensibility to the field, creating a synthesis of horror and beauty" and "he writes a beautiful prose line that features narrative clarity, sterling characterization, and surprising bursts of humor." King told The New York Times that "He was not only a literary writer with a poetic sensibility, but he was readable. And that was a fantastic thing. He was a modern writer who was the equal of, say, Philip Roth, though he wrote about fantastic things." King added that "he was a better and more literary author than I was."

Songwriter Nick Cave alludes to Straub's work in songs on two different albums: "The Curse of Millhaven" (from Murder Ballads in 1996) and "Do You Love Me (Part 2)" (from Let Love In in 1993). Straub said "Naturally, this pleased me enormously. It is a great honor to have your work alluded to in that way by another artist. I love the whole idea. Nick Cave is a talented, compelling performer and I could see that some of my work would fall very neatly within the territory that interests him. Eventually we wound up e-mailing each other, and he sent me a very nicely signed copy of one of his CDs. It would be nice to meet him one day."

Personal life and death In 1966, Straub married Susan Bitker. They had two children, Benjamin and novelist Emma Straub. The family lived in Dublin from 1969 to 1972, in London from 1972 to 1979, and in the New York City area from 1979 onwards.

When asked who his favorite writer was, Straub replied "I guess I have to say Henry James. At least that’s what I’d say today. On other days, I might choose Raymond Chandler, or Charles Dickens, or Wilkie Collins, or on other, other days, a real long shot, like Donald Harington. In some ways, John Ashbery will always be my favorite writer."

Straub was a jazz aficionado, and saxophonist Lester Young features in his novella Pork Pie Hat. Per WBGO, "He discovered jazz as a boy growing up in Milwaukee in the late 1950s. He gravitated toward Dave Brubeck & Paul Desmond, Clifford Brown, Bill Evans and Miles Davis." In addition to jazz, he was "intensely interested in opera and other forms of classical music."

Straub died on September 4, 2022, aged 79, from complications of a broken hip. At the time of his death, he and his wife lived in Brooklyn. 1974: Under Venus 1975: Julia 1977: If You Could See Me Now 1979: Ghost Story 1980: Shadowland 1983: Floating Dragon 1984: The Talisman (with Stephen King) 1988: Koko 1990: Mystery 1993: The Throat 1995: The Hellfire Club 1999: Mr. X 2001: Black House (with Stephen King) 2003: Lost Boy, Lost Girl 2004: In the Night Room 2010: A Dark Matter 2025: Wreckage (unfinished) 2026: Other Worlds Than These (with Stephen King)

Short story collections 1990: Houses Without Doors (includes "A Short Guide to the City" and a shorter version of Mrs. God) 2000: Magic Terror 2007: 5 Stories 2010: The Juniper Tree and Other Blue Rose Stories 2016: Interior Darkness

Novellas 1982: The General's Wife 1990: Mrs. God (collected in "Houses Without Doors") 2011: The Ballad of Ballard and Sandrine 1990/2012: The Buffalo Hunter: A Novella (originally collected in "Houses Without Doors" in 1990)

Poems 1971: My Life in Pictures 1972: Ishmael

Non-Fiction 2006: Sides (collection of non-fiction essays)

Anthologies 2005: Peter Straub's Ghosts 2008: Poe's Children (2008) 2009: American Fantastic Tales (Two Volumes) for the Library of America

Omnibus editions 1984: Wild Animals (collects the novels Julia, If You Could See Me Now, and Under Venus)

Limited editions 2010: The Skylark (an earlier, longer draft of A Dark Matter) Tibbetts, John C. The Gothic Worlds of Peter Straub. Jefferson: McFarland Publishers, 2016

Awards Work !! Year & Award!! Category!! Result !! Ref.

1997 World Horror Convention Grand Master Award

2005 Bram Stoker Award Lifetime Achievement

2010 World Fantasy Award Lifetime Achievement

1981 Balrog Awards Novel 1981 Locus Award Fantasy Novel 1981 World Fantasy Award Novel 1984 Kurd Laßwitz Award Foreign Work

1982 Balrog Awards Short Fiction

1983 British Fantasy Award Novel 1984 Locus Award Fantasy Novel

1988 Bram Stoker Award Long Fiction

1989 World Fantasy Award Novel

1998 International Horror Guild Award Long Fiction 1998 Bram Stoker Award Long Fiction

2000 International Horror Guild Award Collection 2000 Bram Stoker Award Fiction Collection

2003 Locus Award Novelette

2004 International Horror Guild Award Novel 2004 Bram Stoker Award Novel 2008 Locus Award Non-Fiction 2009 Locus Award Anthology 2010 Locus Award Anthology 2011 Shirley Jackson Award Novel 2011 Locus Award Fantasy Novel 2012 Locus Award Novella Ghost Story (1981), based on Ghost Story (1979) The Talisman (2008 short), based on The Talisman The Talisman (TBA), an upcoming miniseries based on The Talisman