Peter Straub: Three Novels of the 1970s (LOA #402)

A LANDMARK COLLECTION of 3 terrifying novels of worldly transgression and otherworldly retribution by a modern master of literary horror

Library of America honors the writer who “brought a poet’s sensibility to the field, creating a synthesis of horror and beauty.” (Stephen King)

Gothic horror master Peter Straub joins the Library of America with the 3 novels that launched his extraordinary career:

• In Julia (1975) a woman's disturbing encounter with a girl who uncannily resembles her lost child begins a chain of events that forces Julia Lofting to uncover the horrific past of her new home in London's Kensington section. While playing with genre conventions—séances, asylums, reclusive witnesses—Straub demonstrates his uncanny ability to make everyday reality seem terrifyingly fragile. 
• If You Could See Me Now (1977) fuses societal and supernatural horror. One night in 1955, teenage Alison Greening and her cousin, Miles Teagarden, make a vow to reunite in 20 years. When they go swimming, only Miles emerges from the water. 20 years later, he returns to rural Wisconsin, his arrival coinciding with a series of murders. Miles awaits his cousin’s promised return amid a pastoral landscape suffused with fear, dread, and savage violence.
• Ghost Story (1979) is a masterwork of intricate narrative construction and an unsettling exploration of our deepest fears. In the small town of Milburn, New York, 4 elderly men meet to tell ghost stories after the sudden death of their friend. When the dead man’s nephew arrives with his own ghost story, the members of the Chowder Society realize that Milburn is under siege from shapeshifting “nightwatchers,” and that their nightmarish present is the consequence of their past sins. 

Edited by the author's daughter, the writer Emma Straub, this landmark collection reaffirms Peter Straub status as "a giant, both as a man of American letters and as a titan in the modern horror genre he helped create." (Tananarive Due)Peter Straub (1943–2022) was born in Milwaukee. After the modest sales of his first novel Marriages (1973) and the rejection of its successor Under Venus his agent suggested he try writing “a gothic.” Julia (1975) was followed by If You Could See Me Now (1977), and then by Ghost Story (1979), his commercial and critical breakthrough. For the remainder of his career Straub wrote horror, fantasy, and mystery/suspense fiction, eventually publishing seventeen novels, including two written with Stephen King, and four collections of short fiction. He also edited H.P. Lovecraft: Tales and American Fantastic Tales for Library of America.

Emma Straub, editor,  is the author of six novels, Laura Lamont's Life in Pictures, The Vacationers, Modern Lovers, All Adults Here, This Time Tomorrow, and American Fantasy, the short story collection Other People We Married, and three picture books for children. With her husband she owns Books Are Magic, an independent bookstore in Brooklyn, New York. She is Peter Straub’s daughter.