Author Peter Straub has died. He was 79.
If you were an avid reader in the 70s and 80s, you probably had a few favorite authors in your horror library; Along with Stephen King, Peter Straub was most likely one of them. His body of work was celebrated the world around.
Today his wife Emma announced on Instagram that the prolific author passed away. Stephen King with whom Straub collaborated with on the 1984 fantasy/horror novel The Talisman sent out this tweet upon hearing of his death.
Peter Straub (Emma Straub Instagram)
“It’s a sad day because my good friend and amazingly talented colleague and collaborator, Peter Straub, has passed away,” wrote Stephen King on Twitter, “Working with him was one of the great joys of my creative life.”
Straub had many great novels in his oeuvre including Julia which was made into a movie called The Haunting of Julia in 1977. Arguably his best-known work is the eerie Ghost Story which was also made into a film in 1981.
It wasn’t long before he joined Stephen King on a collab called The Talisman and its loose sequel The Black House. King wanted to write a third entry into the series with Straub, but those plans were nixed when Straub bowed out.
But that’s not the end for The Talisman. Stranger Things creators, the Duffer Brothers are working with Netflix to create a miniseries based on the novel.
“It’s much more fantasy,” said Matt Duffer to Deadline in July. “It has sci-fi, it has horror elements, it has a lot of heart, it has everything that we love, and it’s got the best werewolf character I think, ever.”
Straub loved to scare people in his books. But it wasn’t about the visceral shock, it cut much deeper. “In America, we don’t like darkness, really,” he told NPR, “but there is an immense quantity to be learned there, and we all experience it in our lives.”
Peter Straub: 1943 – 2022
:quality(85):upscale()/2023/05/11/976/n/1922564/782262e2645d6b967847b4.74342194_.png)
