Peter Benchley (b. May 8, 1940 in New York City, New York) is an American author.
From a literary family, he is the son of author Nathaniel Benchley and grandson of Algonquin Round Table founder Robert Benchley. Peter Benchley is an alumnus of Phillips Exeter Academy and Harvard University.
After graduating, he worked for The Washington Post, then as an editor at Newsweek and a speech-writer in the White House. Jaws was published in 1974, and later made into a film by Steven Spielberg, for which Benchley wrote the screenplay. He is a member of the National Council of Environmental Defense and is a spokesman for its Oceans Program
Bibliography
Fiction
- 1974 Jaws
- 1976 The Deep
- 1979 The Island
- 1982 The Girl of the Sea of Cortez
- 1986 Q Clearance
- 1989 Rummies
- 1991 Beast
- 1994 White Shark
- 1997 Peter Benchley's Creature
Non-fiction
- 1994 Ocean Planet: Writings and Images of the Sea
- 2001 Shark Trouble: True Stories About Sharks and the Sea
- 2002 Shark!: True Stories and Lessons from the Deep
- 2005 Shark Life: True Stories About Sharks and the Sea (with Karen Wojtyla)
See also