Celebrated horror novelist Peter Straub, who collaborated with Stephen King on The Talisman and wrote scores of his own books, has passed away at the age of 79.
Straub was considered a master of the genre and wrote with a poet’s sensibility, according to The New York Times. Straub was a big part of the horror-book boom of the late 1970s and ’80s, along with fellow marquee authors like Anne Rice, Neil Gaiman, Stephen King, and Ira Levin.
He passed away from complications following a broken hip, according to his wife Susan. Tributes poured in from all over following the news, including one from the horror emperor himself, Stephen King. King called working with the author a “great joy.”
“It’s a happy day for me because FAIRY TALE is published. It’s a sad day because my good friend and amazingly talented colleague and collaborator, Peter Straub, has passed away. Working with him was one of the great joys of my creative life,” the author tweeted.
Another fellow writing superstar, Gaiman, also tweeted about the author’s passing.
“One of the best writers I’ve read, one of the best friends I’ve known. Always kind, funny, irascible, brilliant. Once performed the Crow position in yoga, in a Milwaukee, Wisconsin, men’s room, because he was fearless and proud of his yoga. I’ll miss you Peter,” Gaiman tweeted.
He also tweeted a follow up sentiment: “I’ll miss the books he would still have written, but more than that I’ll miss the conversations we’ll now never have.”
Straub was born in March of 1943, and got a Master’s degree from Columbia University before he started a teaching stint at a prep school. He started a PhD program at University College Dublin but never finished, and instead published two books – one of poetry, called Ishmael, and his debut novel, Marriages.
His career took off when his agent suggested he pivot to horror and he wrote his breakout hit novel, Ghost Story, in 1979. Followups include The Hellfire Club, The Throat, The Ghost Village, and Floating Dragon. He’s won numerous awards over the years, including 14 Bram Stoker nominations (the premier achievement in horror writing) and 10 wins.
“He was a unique writer in a lot of ways,” King told The New York Times. “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.”
In 2016, Straub told Publishers Weekly that the horror genre provided a window into the unspoken and unrecognized fears of being human.
“I like its acknowledgment that life is a dodgy and uncertain business, and a monster with a smiling face may live or work right next door to you. Adult human beings live with the certainty of grief, which deepens us and opens us to other people, who have been there, too.”
Straub is survived by his wife Susan and their two children, son Ben, and daughter Emma, a bestselling author in her own right.