Peter Straub

 ( Official Website ) 

After a fallow period, Straub re-emerged in 1988 with Koko, a non-supernatural (though horrific) novel about the Vietnam war. Koko was followed by Mystery (1990) and The Throat (1993). The three novels comprise the "Blue Rose Trilogy", which extended Straub's experiments with metafiction and unreliable narrators.

In 1990, Straub published Houses Without Doors, a collection of short fiction including the shorter version of the novella Mrs. God. In 1996, he published the mainstream thriller The Hellfire Club. In 1999 , Straub published Mr. X, a novel with a doppelgänger theme. The novel pays homage to H. P. Lovecraft, as the eponymous character writes in a similar style. In 2001, Straub and King rejoined forces for Black House, a loose sequel to The Talisman which tied that book in with King's The Dark Tower series. 2003 saw the publication of Lost Boy, Lost Girl, followed a year later by the related In the Night Room. Both won the Bram Stoker Award.

In 2005, Straub edited the Library of America volume H. P. Lovecraft: Tales. In 2009, Straub edited the Library of America anthology American Fantastic Tales.

Straub published several books of poetry. My Life in Pictures appeared in 1971 as part of a series of six poetry pamphlets Straub published with his friend Thomas Tessier under the Seafront Press imprint while living in Dublin. In 1972 the more substantial chapbook Ishmael was published by Turret Books in London. Straub's third book of poetry, Open Air, appeared later that same year from Irish University Press. The collection Leeson Park and Belsize Square: Poems 1970 – 1975 was published by Underwood-Miller in October 1983. It reprinted much of Ishmael along with previously uncollected poems, but none of the poems from Open Air. He also sat on the contributing editorial board of the literary journal Conjunctions, and he guest-edited Conjunctions #39, an issue on Magic realism. Conjunctions:39 – The New Wave Fabulists. Fall 2002, edited by Bradford Morrow and Peter Straub.

In 2007, Straub's personal papers were acquired by the Fales Library at New York University.

Straub's final novel, A Dark Matter, was released in February 2010.

In 2013, Straub appeared on the Code Street podcast with fantasist John Crowley.

In 2016, co-author Stephen King said that he and Straub had plans to write a third Talisman book in the future. King says that the collaboration for the series was "natural," and that the two were excited to work together. In a 2021 appearance on the Dead Headspace podcast, Straub said that due to his health, it was unlikely that he would co-write a third Talisman with King.

In 2024 Penguin Random House launched the republication of many of Straub's novels with new cover art and blurbs.

In Andrew Shaffer's Secret Santa, a character refers to Stephen King, Anne Rice and Straub as "the unholy trinity" of horror.

Of Straub's contribution to horror King says, "he brought a poet's sensibility to the field, creating a synthesis of horror and beauty" and "he writes a beautiful prose line that features narrative clarity, sterling characterization, and surprising bursts of humor."Tibbetts, John C. The Gothic Worlds of Peter Straub, McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers., 2016, pp. 167, 197. King told The New York Times that "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." King added that "he was a better and more literary author than I was."

Neil Gaiman paid homage to Straub, writing “One of the best writers I’ve read, one of the best friends I’ve known. Always kind, funny, irascible, brilliant."

Songwriter Nick Cave alludes to Straub's work in "The Curse of Millhaven" and "Do You Love Me (Part 2)". Straub said "Naturally, this pleased me enormously. It is a great honor to have your work alluded to in that way by another artist. I love the whole idea. Nick Cave is a talented, compelling performer and I could see that some of my work would fall very neatly within the territory that interests him. Eventually we wound up e-mailing each other, and he sent me a very nicely signed copy of one of his CDs. It would be nice to meet him one day."

When asked who his favorite writer was, Straub replied "I guess I have to say Henry James. At least that’s what I’d say today. On other days, I might choose Raymond Chandler, or Charles Dickens, or Wilkie Collins, or on other, other days, a real long shot, like Donald Harington. In some ways, John Ashbery will always be my favorite writer."

Straub was a jazz aficionado, and saxophonist Lester Young features in his novella Pork Pie Hat. Per WBGO, "He discovered jazz as a boy growing up in Milwaukee in the late 1950s. He gravitated toward Dave Brubeck & Paul Desmond, Clifford Brown, Bill Evans and Miles Davis." In addition to jazz, he was "intensely interested in opera and other forms of classical music."

Straub died on September 4, 2022, aged 79, from complications of a Hip fracture. At the time of his death, he and his wife lived in Brooklyn.

• 1973: Marriages
  Peter Straub (1973). 9780233963846, André Deutsch. . ISBN 9780233963846
• 1974: Under Venus
• 1975: Julia
• 1977: If You Could See Me Now
• 1979: Ghost Story
  Peter Straub (1980). 9780671685638, Simon and Schuster. . ISBN 9780671685638
• 1980: Shadowland
• 1983: Floating Dragon
• 1984: The Talisman (with Stephen King)
• 1988: Koko
• 1990: Mystery
  Peter Straub (1990). 9780451168696, Dutton. . ISBN 9780451168696
• 1993: The Throat
• 1995: The Hellfire Club
• 1999: Mr. X
• 2001: Black House (with Stephen King)
• 2003: Lost Boy, Lost Girl
• 2004: In the Night Room
• 2010: A Dark Matter
• 2025: Wreckage (unfinished)

• 1990: Houses Without Doors (includes "A Short Guide to the City" and a shorter version of Mrs. God)
• 2000: Magic Terror
• 2007: 5 Stories
• 2010: The Juniper Tree and Other Blue Rose Stories
• 2016: Interior Darkness

• 1982: The General's Wife
  (1982). 9780937986547, D.M. Grant. . ISBN 9780937986547
• 1990: Mrs. God (collected in "Houses Without Doors")
• 1993: The Ghost Village (collected in Magic Terror)
• 1993 Bunny is Good Bread (collected in "Magic Terror")
• 1997 Mr. Clubb and Mr. Cuff (collected in "Magic Terror")
• 1999 Pork Pie Hat (collected in "Magic Terror")
• 2010: A Special Place – The Heart of a Dark Matter (outtake from "A Dark Matter")
• 2011: The Ballad of Ballard and Sandrine
• 1990/2012: The Buffalo Hunter: A Novella (originally collected in "Houses Without Doors" in 1990)
• 2015: Perdido
• 2017: The Process (is a Process All its Own)

• 1971: My Life in Pictures
• 1972: Ishmael
  Peter Straub (1972). 9780854690374, Turret. . ISBN 9780854690374
• 1972: Open Air
  Peter Straub (1972). 9780716521761, Irish University Press. . ISBN 9780716521761
• 1983: Leeson Park and Belsize Square: Poems 1970 – 1975 (Collection)
  Peter Straub (1983). 9780934438919, Underwood-Miller. . ISBN 9780934438919

• 2006: Sides (collection of non-fiction essays)

• 2005: Peter Straub's Ghosts
• 2008: Poe's Children (2008)
• 2009: American Fantastic Tales (Two Volumes) for the Library of America

• 1984: Wild Animals (collects the novels Julia, If You Could See Me Now, and Under Venus)

• 2010: The Skylark (an earlier, longer draft of A Dark Matter)

• Hauntings: The Official Peter Straub Bibliography, Michael R. Collings
• Tibbetts, John C. The Gothic Worlds of Peter Straub. Jefferson: McFarland Publishers, 2016
  (2000). 9781892950161, Overlook Connection Press. . ISBN 9781892950161

• Full Circle (1977), based on Julia (1975)
• Ghost Story (1981), based on Ghost Story (1979)
• The Talisman (2008 short), based on The Talisman
• The Talisman (TBA), an upcoming miniseries based on The Talisman

• BookBanter interviews Peter Straub (March, 2010)
• Database containing descriptive bibliography, publishing history, reviews, and literary criticism of King and Straub's The Talisman
• Genealogy of Peter Francis Straub
• NYU Press Release about Straub's papers
• Peter Straub Penguin Random House author page
• Peter Straub Papers, Fales Library and Special Collections at New York University