Peter Francis Straub (/straʊb/; March 2, 1943 – September 4, 2022) was an American novelist and poet. He had success with several horror and supernatural fiction novels, among them Julia (1975), Ghost Story (1979) and The Talisman (1984), the latter co-written with Stephen King. He explored the mystery genre with the Blue Rose trilogy, consisting of Koko (1988), Mystery (1990), and The Throat (1993). He fused the supernatural with crime fiction in Lost Boy, Lost Girl (2003) and the related In the Night Room (2004). For the Library of America, he edited the volume H. P. Lovecraft: Tales and the anthology American Fantastic Tales. Straub received such literary honors as the Bram Stoker Award, World Fantasy Award, and International Horror Guild Award.
Books in order of publication:
Novels
1973: Marriages
1974: Under Venus
1975: Julia
1977: If You Could See Me Now
1979: Ghost Story
1980: Shadowland
1983: Floating Dragon
1984: The Talisman (with Stephen King)
1988: Koko
1990: Mystery
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)
2026: Other Worlds Than These (with Stephen King)
Short story collections
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
Novellas
1982: The General’s Wife
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)
Poems
1971: My Life in Pictures
1972: Ishmael
1972: Open Air
1983: Leeson Park and Belsize Square: Poems 1970 – 1975 (Collection)
Non-Fiction
2006: Sides (collection of non-fiction essays)
Anthologies
2005: Peter Straub’s Ghosts
2008: Poe’s Children (2008)
2009: American Fantastic Tales (Two Volumes) for the Library of America
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