Author Peter Straub at St. Paul in London, when he collaborated with the Aurora Orchestra for their “Thriller” tour in 2011.
Yui Mok / PA image via Getty Images
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Yui Mok / PA image via Getty Images
Author Peter Straub at St. Paul in London, when he collaborated with the Aurora Orchestra for their “Thriller” tour in 2011.
Yui Mok / PA image via Getty Images
Peter Straub, author of horror, mystery and supernatural novels and short stories has died at the age of 79. His daughter, novelist Emma Straub, announced his death on Instagram:
“Peter Francis Straub, the smartest and funniest man in every room he’s ever been in, 3/2/43 – 9/4/22. How lucky we are. There aren’t enough words in the world.”
In a career spanning over 40 years, Straub’s books include Ghost story, Hell Fire Club, Black house and collaborated with Stephen King, Amulet. Straub has won numerous titles including multiple World Fantasy and Bram Stoker awards.
Stephen King wrote on Twitter“Working with him has been one of the great joys of my creative life.”
Straub was born in Milwaukee. His father was a salesman and his mother was a nurse. Biography of him website reveals a bit of Straub’s witty humor.
“When kindergarten turned out to be a horribly unjustified frustration for cutting animals out of heavy colored paper, he solved the problem and taught himself to read by memorizing comic books. his own and re-read them to other kids in the neighborhood. steps ahead until he can recognize the words.”
“Peter Straub is the modern-day Henry James, but with sharper teeth and a long black tongue,” writes Benjamin Percy in review of the Ghost story to NPR, “He writes horror literature, in which the sentences are tastefully refined, the characters are completely believable, and the plot is menacing.”
In 2009, Straub told NPR, scary stories can do more than just make people shiver. “In America, we really don’t like the dark,” he said, “but there’s a huge amount to learn there, and we’ve all experienced it in our lifetimes.”
Emma Straub published this year This time tomorrowa novel in which a woman struggles with her father’s declining health. She said it was partly inspired by Peter Straub’s joking suggestion that she wrote about a woman visiting her father in the hospital and he asked, “What page do I die on?”
