A short life of the author
Peter Bradford Benchley (8 May 1940 – 11 February 2006) was an American novelist whose first book, Jaws (1974), became one of the defining bestsellers of the 1970s and, through Steven Spielberg’s 1975 film adaptation, created the modern summer blockbuster. The novel’s depiction of a great white shark terrorising the fictional Long Island resort town of Amity had a cultural impact that extended far beyond entertainment: it reshaped the film industry’s release calendar, generated a worldwide fear of sharks, and launched a wave of shark hunting that Benchley himself came to deeply regret. He spent the final decades of his life as an ocean conservation advocate, arguing that the real danger was not sharks to humans but humans to sharks.
Life and Background
Benchley was born in New York City into a literary family. His father, Nathaniel Benchley, was a novelist; his grandfather, Robert Benchley, was the celebrated humorist, actor, and Algonquin Round Table member. Peter was educated at Phillips Exeter Academy and Harvard, where he roomed with future actors and was active in the Lampoon.
After Harvard, Benchley worked as a reporter for the Washington Post, then as a speechwriter for President Lyndon Johnson (he wrote speeches during 1967), and then as a freelance journalist for Newsweek, National Geographic, and other publications. He had been fascinated by sharks since childhood and had long wanted to write a novel about a great white shark attack.
Jaws (1974)
Benchley wrote Jaws over several years, inspired partly by accounts of the 1916 New Jersey shark attacks. The novel tells the story of Police Chief Martin Brody, who must convince the town leaders of Amity to close the beaches after a series of fatal shark attacks. The town’s corrupt selectmen resist closing the beaches because the summer tourist season is the town’s economic lifeblood — a conflict between public safety and commercial interest that gives the novel its political dimension.
The novel was also a soap opera — Brody’s wife Ellen has an affair with the oceanographer Matt Hooper, and the class tensions between the working-class police chief and the privileged marine biologist are a significant subplot. These elements were largely stripped from the Spielberg film, which replaced the novel’s social realism with pure cinematic terror.
Jaws spent over forty weeks on the New York Times bestseller list and sold over twenty million copies. The title became the second-most-recognised brand name in the world (after Coca-Cola), according to a 1975 marketing study.
The Film and Its Consequences
Spielberg’s Jaws (1975) — starring Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw, and Richard Dreyfuss — was released with a then-unprecedented wide release strategy (opening on over 400 screens simultaneously, backed by a massive television advertising campaign) that invented the modern summer blockbuster distribution model. The film earned $470 million worldwide and became, at the time, the highest-grossing film in history.
The cultural consequences were profound. Public fear of sharks surged. Shark-hunting tournaments proliferated. Marine biologists noted significant declines in shark populations, driven partly by the “Jaws effect.” Benchley, who had written a thriller, not an anti-shark manifesto, was horrified. He later said that if he had known what he now knew about shark behaviour and ecology, he could never have written the novel.
Later Novels and Conservation
Benchley published several more novels: The Deep (1976, adapted into a 1977 film), The Island (1979), Beast (1991, about a giant squid), and White Shark (1994). None replicated the success of Jaws, and they were largely formula thrillers. His later non-fiction, however — including Shark Trouble (2002) — reflected his genuine expertise in marine biology and his passionate advocacy for ocean conservation. He became a spokesperson for WildAid and appeared in shark conservation documentaries.
Collecting Benchley
Jaws (1974, Doubleday) in first edition with the iconic Roger Kastel dust jacket art brings $200–$800. The first printing is identified by “FIRST EDITION” on the copyright page. Signed copies are available but not abundant. The Deep (1976) brings $20–$50. Benchley’s later novels are common and inexpensive.