Information reaching Kossyderrickent has it that Talisman and author, Peter Straub, has been confirmed dead.
King tweeted his condolences on Tuesday, calling Straub a “good friend” and “amazingly talented colleague and collaborator”.
“Working with him was one of the great joys of my creative life,” he wrote. The two co-wrote Black House, a sequel to The Talisman, published in 2001.
“One of the best writers I’ve read, one of the best friends I’ve known,” English author Neil Gaiman wrote in a tweet. “Always kind, funny, irascible, brilliant. Once performed the Crow position in yoga, in a Milwaukee WI men’s room, because he was fearless & proud of his yoga. I’ll miss you Peter.”
“I’ll miss the books he would still have written, but more than that I’ll miss the conversations we’ll now never have,” Gaiman added in a second tweet.
Born on 2 March, 1943 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Straub studied English at the University of Wisconsin and earned an MA from Columbia before teaching English at his former prep school for three years. He started but did not finish a PhD at University College Dublin, and instead published two books of poetry in 1972, Ishmael and Open Air, and his first novel, Marriages in 1973.
He turned to gothic fiction at the suggestion of his agent, first with Julia and then his breakout book, Ghost Story in 1979. Other works include Floating Dragon, The Ghost Village, The Throat and The Hellfire Club.
Over the course of his career, Straub was nominated for a dozen World Fantasy Awards and won four, as well as 14 Bram Stoker awards, the premier achievement for literary horror, winning 10 times. He won a Stoker lifetime achievement award in 2006, was named an International Horror Guild living legend in 2008 and received a lifetime achievement World Fantasy Award in 2010, among numerous other accolades.
Straub married Susan Bitker in 1966, and is survived by their two children, Ben and Emma, a bestselling aithor.
BIOGRAPHY OF PETER STRAUB:
Peter Francis Straub was born March 2, 1943 in Milwaukee WI. He earned a BA in English from the University of Wisconsin in 1965, an MA from Columbia University in 1966, then returned to Wisconsin to teach English at his former prep school for three years. In 1969 he moved to Ireland and began work on a PhD at University College in Dublin, but did not finish. He published two books of poetry in 1972, Ishmael and Open Air, and his first mainstream novel, Marriages, in 1973.
At the suggestion of his agent, Straub decided to give “gothic fiction” a try: first horror novel Julia appeared in 1975 and was later filmed as The Haunting of Julia. If You Could See Me Now (1977) followed, but his breakout novel was the bestselling Ghost Story (1979), later a film. His next supernatural novels were Shadowland (1980) and British Fantasy Award winner Floating Dragon (1983), followed by a few linked works that were mostly non-supernatural: novella Blue Rose (1985), World Fantasy Award winner Koko (1988), Mystery (1990), and Stoker winner The Throat (1993). The Hellfire Club (1997) was a thriller, and Stoker winner Mr. X (1999) was a return to the supernatural. lost boy lost girl (2003) won a Stoker and a World Fantasy Award, and sequel In the Night Room (2004) won a Stoker.
A Dark Matter (2010) won a Stoker, and The Skylark (2010) is “an earlier state” of that novel, described by Straub as “a much looser, sloppier, more wild-eyed version of the book.” Novellas A Special Place (2010) and The Process (Is a Process All Its Own) (2017) concern some of the same characters.
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