Remembering Big Pete
I first met Peter Straub at an event I hosted at WORD Bookstore in Brooklyn in 2011. The Largehearted Lit series featured authors sharing a literary anecdote, then reading, and musicians sharing a literary anecdote, then playling a couple of songs. The theme of the event was family, and featured Peter and his daughter Emma, along with twin brothers Lev and Austin Grossman. Pete almost didn’t come, having been hospitalized for congenital heart failure the week before. His daughter, an author herself, told a story about her father’s reaction to a New Kids on the Block concert. I introduced Pete by mentioning that I had been a fan of his work since eighth grade. He smiled, wagged his finger at me jokingly, then regaled the crowd with the tale of his drunken conversation with Stephin Merritt of Magnetic Fields (Emma’s favorite band) that embarrassed her to tears at the time.
Afterwards, Emma formally introduced me to her father. He made a point of engaging the night’s other featured writers, brothers Lev and Austin Grossman, in conversation, discussing plot points of their latest novels. He had read their books before the event and was anxious to discuss them. At some point, Pete and I started a conversation about music, then books, then ourselves. Pete didn’t talk to you, he was always 100% focused on the current conversation and talked with you. Thirty minutes quickly passed until his wife mentioned they had a long ride home and it was getting late.
When I hosted Emma a couple of years later at McNally Jackson Books with Edan Lepucki as part of my Literary BFFs series, Pete approached afterward with a handshake that drew me quickly into his signature hug. “That was the most eloquent introduction I have ever heard for a reading series,” he told me. I was flattered and proud that someone I had so much respect for praised something as insignificant as an introduction.
The introduction I give at the Literary BFFs series, where authors discuss their friendship as well as their books, simply mentions that Literary BFFs is all about the literary community, and that there is no stronger bond in that community than the friendship of writers. Peter was the embodiment of this ideal. He responded to everyone who reached out to him with the warmth of his kindness and vigorous intelligence. Over the past day I have traded so many stories with friends of our interactions with this special man, about how he helped us become better people as well as stronger writers.
Author Peter Straub passed away Sunday. Known as “Big Pete” to his family and many friends, he will be dearly missed.
Largehearted Links
Books that vividly capture hospitalization
Doug Martsch on every Built To Spill album
Emma Straub on her father, Peter Straub
An excerpt from A. M. Homes’ forthcoming novel
An excerpt from Kathryn Scanlan’s forthcoming novel
Experimental guitarist Oren Ambarchi interviewed
New Laura van den Berg short fiction
Last Week on LHB
Hillary Leftwich's playlist for her memoir Aura
Kathleen Rooney's playlist for her poetry collection Where Are the Snows
May-Lee Chai's playlist for her story collection Tomorrow in Shanghai