Guardian Unlimited Books | News | Jaws author Peter Benchley dies at 65

Peter Benchley, author of the 1974 bestselling novel JAWS which became the Steven Spielberg film of the same name, has died at the age of 65. He was suffering from a progressive and fatal scarring of the lungs and died on Saturday night at his home in Princeton, New Jersey.

This is sad. JAWS had a more profound impact on American, indeed world, culture than many far more prestigious books.

(cue “Jaws” theme …)

An Outspoken Conservative Loses His Place at the Table - New York Times

Mr. Bartlett, for his part, said he was fine financially but hoped his book would be a best seller. In any case, he is tired of think tanks.

“Some reporter called the other day and asked me about the budget,” Mr. Bartlett said. “It’s just a boring subject. It’s never changed in the 30 years I’ve been working on the budget. But if I were still working for a think tank, I’d have to be up on that kind of stuff and ready to give a quote or some intelligent analysis, and I feel I can kind of ignore some of that.”