Peter S. Beagle



Peter Soyer Beagle (born April 20, 1939) is an American novelist and screenwriter, especially fantasy fiction. His best-known work is The Last Unicorn (1968), a fantasy novel he wrote in his twenties, which Locus subscribers voted the number five "All-Time Best Fantasy Novel" in 1987. During the last twenty-five years he has won several literary awards including a World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement in 2011.

Early life
Beagle was born in Manhattan on April 20, 1939, the son of Rebecca Soyer and Simon Beagle. Three of his uncles were noted painters, Moses, Raphael, and Isaac Soyer.

Career
Beagle was raised in Bronx, New York, and graduated from the Bronx High School of Science in 1955. He garnered early recognition from The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, winning a scholarship to University of Pittsburgh for a poem he submitted as a high school senior. He went on to graduate from the university with a degree in creative writing. Following a year overseas, Beagle held the graduate Stegner Fellowship in creative writing at Stanford University, where he overlapped with Ken Kesey, Gurney Norman, and Larry McMurtry.

Beagle wrote his first novel, A Fine and Private Place, when he was only 19 years old, following it with a memoir, I See by My Outfit, in 1965. Today he is best known as the author of The Last Unicorn and A Fine and Private Place, as well as his later fantasies following The Folk of the Air. The Wind in the Willows, a classic of children's literature by Kenneth Grahame, had originally attracted him to the genre of fantasy.

In the 1970s, Beagle turned to screenwriting. After writing an introduction for an American print edition of The Lord of the Rings, he wrote the screenplay for the 1978 Ralph Bakshi-animated version of The Lord of the Rings. Two decades later he wrote the teleplay for "Sarek", episode 71 of the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Beagle's work as a screenwriter interrupted his early career direction as a novelist, magazine nonfiction author, and short-story writer. But in the mid-'90s he returned to prose fiction of all lengths, and has produced new works at a steady pace since. With David Carlson as composer he adapted his story "Come, Lady Death" into the libretto for an opera, The Midnight Angel, which premiered at the Opera Theater of St. Louis in 1993.

In 2005 Beagle published a coda to The Last Unicorn, a novelette entitled Two Hearts, and began work on a full-novel sequel. Two Hearts won the most prestigious annual awards, the Hugo Award for Best Novelette in 2006 and the parallel Nebula Award in 2007. It was also nominated as a short fiction finalist for the World Fantasy Award. Beagle also received a special Inkpot Award in 2006 for Outstanding Achievement in Science Fiction and Fantasy, and in 2007 the inaugural WSFA Small Press Award for "El Regalo", published in The Line Between (Tachyon Publications).

IDW Publishing released a six-issue comic book adaptation of The Last Unicorn beginning in April 2010. The collected hardcover edition was released in January 2011, premiering at #2 on the New York Times Hardcover Graphic Novel bestseller list. It will be followed by an adaptation of A Fine and Private Place.

Beagle's 2009 collection of short fiction, We Never Talk About My Brother, was nominated for a World Fantasy Award.

In 2013, he collaborated with Phildel (a UK musician) on a new track "Dark Water Down", mixing poetry and music. They then appeared together at a gig at Cafe Du Nord in San Francisco, USA.

Dispute with Granada media
Peter S. Beagle's book The Last Unicorn was made into an animated film of the same name in 1982, based on a screenplay written by Beagle himself. In 1979 Beagle had a contract with ITC Entertainment which entitled Beagle to 5% of the net profits in the animated property, and 5% of the gross revenues from any film-related merchandising. Since 1999 this film has been controlled by a British company, Granada Media International (a subsidiary of ITV plc). From 2003 through 2011 Beagle was involved in a financial dispute with Granada over nonpayment of contractually due profit and merchandising shares. On July 29, 2011, Beagle announced at his Otakon appearance that he and ITV had reached an agreement that was beneficial to all parties, and should please fans of The Last Unicorn because it will make new merchandise and business development possible. On October 14, 2011, at his New York Comic Con appearance, he announced the first results of the deal, including limited edition art prints of original concept paintings from the film, a nationwide digital screening tour with Peter doing audience Q&A, and a complete renovation of the original film for worldwide release in movie theaters in 2015.

Books

 * A Fine and Private Place, 1960 (novel)
 * I See By My Outfit: Cross-Country by Scooter, an Adventure, 1965 (nonfiction)
 * The Last Unicorn, 1968 (novel)
 * The California Feeling, 1969 (with photographer Michael Bry, nonfiction)
 * Lila the Werewolf, 1974 (chapbook edition of previously-published novelette)
 * American Denim, 1975 (nonfiction art book)
 * The Lady and Her Tiger, 1976 (with Pat Derby, nonfiction)
 * The Fantasy Worlds of Peter S. Beagle, 1978 (omnibus collection including A Fine and Private Place, The Last Unicorn, "Come Lady Death," and "Lila the Werewolf")
 * The Garden of Earthly Delights, 1982 (nonfiction art book)
 * The Folk of the Air, 1986 (novel, currently being rewritten and expanded for new release)
 * The Innkeeper's Song, 1993 (novel)
 * In the Presence of the Elephants, 1995 (nonfiction photo book)
 * The Unicorn Sonata, 1996 (young adult novel, currently being rewritten and expanded into a 4-book series)
 * Giant Bones, 1997 (collection of original stories set in the world of The Innkeeper's Song)
 * The Rhinoceros Who Quoted Nietzsche and Other Odd Acquaintances, 1997 (collection of fiction and nonfiction essays)
 * The Magician of Karakosk and Other Stories, 1999 (foreign edition title for Giant Bones collection)
 * Tamsin, 1999 (novel)
 * A Dance for Emilia, 2000 (hardcover giftbook edition of novella)
 * The Line Between, 2006 (story collection)
 * Your Friendly Neighborhood Magician: Songs and Early Poems, 2006 (limited edition chapbook collection of song lyrics and poetry) Tachyon Publications
 * The Last Unicorn: The Lost Version, 2007 (original novella length draft, from Subterranean Press)
 * Strange Roads 2008 (3-story chapbook collaboration with Lisa Snellings-Clark for Dreamhaven Books)
 * We Never Talk About My Brother, 2009 (short fiction collection for Tachyon Publications)
 * Mirror Kingdoms: The Best of Peter S. Beagle, 2010 (Subterranean Press, edited by Jonathan Strahan)
 * Return, 2010 (limited edition novella chapbook, Subterranean Press)
 * Sleight of Hand, 2011 (short fiction collection for Tachyon Publications)
 * Two Hearts, 2011 (limited chapbook edition of Hugo and Nebula Award-winning novelette sequel to The Last Unicorn)
 * Writing Sarek, 2013 (Star Trek nonfiction with annotated "Sarek" teleplay)
 * Three Faces of The Lady, 2013 (collection centered on "Come Lady Death")
 * Green-Eyed Boy: Three Schmendrick Stories, 2013 (story collection with additional essay)
 * Sméagol, Déagol, and Beagle: Essays From the Headwaters of My Voice, 2013 (nonfiction essay collection)
 * Summerlong, September 2016, Tachyon Publications
 * In Calabria, February 2017, Tachyon Publications
 * The First Last Unicorn and Other Beginnings, forthcoming (story collection with additional essay material), Tachyon Publications

As editor

 * Peter S. Beagle's Immortal Unicorn, 1995 (co-editor, original story anthology, split into two volumes when reprinted in paperback: Peter S. Beagle's Immortal Unicorn in 1998 and Peter S. Beagle's Immortal Unicorn 2 in 1999)
 * The Secret History of Fantasy, 2010 (anthology from Tachyon Publications)
 * The Urban Fantasy Anthology (2011, with Joe R. Lansdale)

Audiobooks
These five audiobooks are unabridged readings by Beagle, except the first which is abridged. Giant Bones is a collection of short fiction; the others are novels.


 * The Last Unicorn, abridged (1990 cassette)
 * A Fine and Private Place (2002 CD & cassette)
 * Giant Bones (2002 CD & cassette)
 * Tamsin (2002 CD & cassette)
 * The Last Unicorn (2005 CD & download), with original music by Jeff Slingluff.

Produced screenplays

 * The Dove, 1974
 * The Greatest Thing That Almost Happened, 1977
 * The Lord of the Rings, 1978
 * The Last Unicorn, 1982
 * "Sarek" episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, 1990
 * A Whale of a Tale, pilot episode for a TV serial adaptation of The Little Mermaid, 1992
 * Camelot, 1996
 * A Tale of Egypt, 1996

Awards
Source: The Locus Index to SF Awards

These are annual "best of the year" literary awards, with two exceptions (‡).
 * 1987  Mythopoeic Fantasy Award, The Folk of the Air
 * 1994  Locus Award, Fantasy Novel, ''The Innkeeper's Song
 * 2000  Mythopoeic Fantasy Award, Adult, Tamsin
 * 2004  Grand Prix de l'Imaginaire, Nouvelle étrangère, Le rhinocéros qui citait Nietzsche
 * That is, best foreign-language short fiction published July 2002 to June 2003, for the French edition (Gallimard, 2002, ISBN 9782070421473) of The Rhinoceros Who Quoted Nietzsche and other odd acquaintances (1997)


 * 2006 ‡ Inkpot Award (comics), Special citation
 * 2006  Hugo Award, Novelette, "Two Hearts"
 * 2007  Nebula Award, Novelette, "Two Hearts"
 * 2007  WSFA Small Press Award (short fiction), "El Regalo"
 * 2010  Locus Award, Novelette, "By Moonlight"
 * 2011 ‡ World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement

In 1987, Locus ranked The Last Unicorn number five among the 33 "All-Time Best Fantasy Novels", based on a poll of subscribers. The 1998 rendition of the poll considered many book series as single entries and ranked The Last Unicorn number 18.