Peter Benchley was born in New York City in 1940, the son of novelist Nathaniel Benchley and grandson of humorist Robert Benchley. He worked as a reporter for The Washington Post, as associate editor of Newsweek and as a speech-writer for the late President Johnson. His stories and articles appeared in numerous magazines, including The New Yorker and National Geographic. Jaws was his first novel, his previous two books being a story for children and a book based on his trip around the world. Peter Benchley died in 2006.
Pick up Jaws before midnight, read the first five pages, and I guarantee you'll be putting it down breathless and stunned, as dawn is breaking the next day. * Daily Express * A tightly written, tautly paced study of terror [that] makes us tingle * The Washington Post * Powerful . . . [Benchley’s] story grabs you at once. * The New York Times Book Review *