Peter Benchley
Peter Benchley was an American author born on May 8, 1940, in New York City, coming from a family with a rich literary background. His father and grandfather were both writers, which influenced Benchley’s own literary aspirations from a young age. After graduating from Harvard University, he worked as a reporter, editor, and speechwriter, including a stint with President Lyndon Johnson. Benchley's most notable work, the 1974 novel "Jaws," became a bestseller and was adapted into a highly influential film, despite receiving mixed critical reviews. The novel's gripping shark sequences and escapist adventure captured the public's imagination and paved the way for Benchley to write more adventure-focused novels throughout the following decades. In addition to his fiction, Benchley became an advocate for ocean conservation, producing educational content and serving on various environmental boards. He was married to Wendy Wesson and had three children, balancing his family life with his writing and advocacy efforts.
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Subject Terms
Peter Benchley
Writer
- Born: May 8, 1940
- Birthplace: New York, New York
- Died: February 11, 2006
- Place of death: Princeton, New Jersey
Biography
Peter Benchley was born on May 8, 1940, to a literary lineage in New York City. His father, Nathaniel Goddard Benchley, was a novelist. His grandfather, Robert Benchley, was a humorist and member of the Algonquin round table. His father encouraged Peter’s literary ambitions at age fifteen by providing him a stipend and a typewriter if he would write daily over the summer. Peter Benchley attended Harvard University, and after graduation he become a professional writer like his famous forebears. During the 1960’s, Benchley worked as a reporter for The Washington Post, as an associate editor and television reviewer for Newsweek, and as a speechwriter for President Lyndon Johnson.
During the 1970’s, Benchley worked variously as a freelance writer and host of an outdoors-oriented television program, The American Sportsman. In 1974, drawing on his family’s good name, he successfully pitched his first novel, Jaws, which went on to become a best seller. Its big- screen adaptation became one of the cultural touchstones of the decade. While many critics panned Benchley’s novel for its wooden characterization and its thinly derivative big white fish, his tightly described and well-researched sequences of the shark in action and the essential appeal of his escapist adventure accounted for the book’s enormous popularity.
While Benchley claimed that the success of Jaws allowed him to write freely for the next ten years, his following books wisely adhered to his successful formula of deeply researched watery adventure. His 1976 novel The Deep tells of a couple’s adventures diving on wrecks during an island honeymoon, while 1979’s The Island tells a tale of modern-day pirates in the Bahamas.
In the 1980’s, Benchley engaged other topics: The Girl of the Sea of Cortez (1982) is set by the sea but is more lyrical than adventurous, Q Clearance (1986) is a comic novel about a Washington speechwriter turned spy, while Rummies (1989) tells the story of a recovering alcoholic. Benchley returned to writing adventure novels in the 1990’s and used his fame to advocate on behalf of the sea and its inhabitants. He sat on the boards of numerous environmental and research organizations and produced educational books and television and radio programs about the state of the world’s oceans.
Benchley married Wendy Wesson in 1964; they had three children.