Straub used his writing not only as a vessel for his childhood trauma but as a means to explore the more painful elements of being alive. King, reacting to news of Straub's death, called their collaborations "one of the great joys of (his) creative life." "Ghost Story" earned Straub a lifelong admirer - and occasional collaborator - in King, who by then had published books like "Carrie" and "The Shining." (Their output helped cement genre fiction as a legitimate artform.) The two collaborated on the fantasy epic "The Talisman" in 1984, which followed a boy attempting to save his mother's life while navigating a dangerous parallel universe, and again for its 2001 sequel.
Both of those books were later adapted into films.
His breakthrough, though, came with "Ghost Story," a tale of four elderly men who trade ghost stories until they suspect they're being haunted themselves. It meant also that I had that material available for conscious thematic use."Īfter releasing two novels to little fanfare, Straub made his first foray into the supernatural with 1975's "Julia," which follows a grieving woman haunted by the specter of a child that may or may not be her own. "Once I did understand the consequences then I was far more able to deal with them. "I was way less a child than I had been beforehand," he said of the accident in a 2016 interview with Salon. Straub turned childhood trauma into a celebrated horror careerīorn in Wisconsin, Straub's childhood was shattered by a traumatic event in the first grade: He was hit by a car (referred to as a "classic near-death experience" on his website), an incident that left him with nightmares for nearly three decades of his life - until, that is, he started writing horror fiction. His wife, Susan, told the New York Times he died from complications after breaking his hip.
Straub died on Sunday at 79, his daughter, the author Emma Straub, confirmed on social media.
All you can do is not let it break you in half and keep on going until you get to the other side."Īn influence and friend to authors like Stephen King, Joe Hill, Neil Gaiman and many more, Straub left an indelible mark on the world of horror and fantasy fiction, helping to elevate it from disregarded pulp to a genre of consequence and depth. Even stories about ghostly hauntings, sinister parallel universes or grisly murders could feel mournful, sensitive and cathartic in Straub's hands.įrom his seminal 1979 novel, "Ghost Story": "Nobody can protect anybody else from vileness. Peter Straub, an author who helped usher in our decades-long fascination with horror fiction, had a way of weaving macabre and heart-wrenching prose into one sentence.
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