Peter Straub, a novelist whose depiction of the supernatural in books like Julia and Ghost Story often felt too big and too fantastical to really be defined by the limits of the horror genre, has died.
Peter Francis Straub was an American novelist and poet. He wrote numerous horror and supernatural fiction novels like The Talisman, which he co-wrote with Stephen King. Straub received such literary honors as the Bram Stoker Award, World Fantasy Award, and International Horror Guild Award.
Straub was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the son of Gordon Anthony Straub and Elvena (Nilsestuen) Straub. Straub was struck by a car at age seven, sustaining severe injuries. He was hospitalized for several months and temporarily used a wheelchair after being released until he had re-learned how to walk. Straub has said that the accident made him prematurely aware of his own mortality.
Straub earned an honors B.A. in English at the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1965 and an MA at Columbia University a year later. He briefly taught English at Milwaukee Country Day, then moved to Dublin, Ireland, in 1969 to work on a Ph.D. and to start writing professionally.
