Jaws (novel) facts for kids
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Cover of the first hardcover edition
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| Author | Peter Benchley |
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| Translator | Wikipedia |
| Cover artist | Paul Bacon (hardcover) Roger Kastel (paperback) |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Thriller |
| Publisher | Doubleday (hardcover) Bantam (paperback) |
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Publication date
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February 1974 |
| Pages | 278 |
| LC Class | PS3552.E537 |
Jaws is a famous novel written by American author Peter Benchley. It was published in 1974. The story is about a huge great white shark that attacks people in a small beach town. Three men then go on a dangerous journey to hunt down and kill the shark.
Before the book was even released, film producers Richard D. Zanuck and David Brown bought the rights to make it into a movie. They chose Steven Spielberg to direct the film. The Jaws movie, which came out in June 1975, left out some smaller parts of the book. It focused more on the terrifying shark.
The Jaws movie became a huge success. It was the highest-earning movie ever at that time. It also helped create the idea of the summer blockbuster film. After the first movie, three more Jaws films were made.
How the Story Was Created
Peter Benchley had always been very interested in sharks. He often saw them when he went fishing with his father, Nathaniel Benchley, near Nantucket. For many years, he thought about writing a story. It would be about a shark that attacks people and just won't leave.
His interest grew even more after he read a news story from 1964. A fisherman named Frank Mundus caught a great white shark weighing about 2,063 kilograms (4,550 pounds). This happened off the coast of Montauk Point, Long Island, New York.
In 1971, Benchley was working as a writer and trying to support his family. His literary agent arranged meetings with different book publishers. One of them was Thomas Congdon, an editor at Doubleday. He had lunch with Benchley to hear his ideas for books.
Congdon wasn't very interested in Benchley's ideas for non-fiction books. But he really liked the idea for a novel about a shark causing terror at a beach resort. Benchley sent a page with his idea to Congdon. The editor then paid him $1,000 for the first 100 pages of the story. These pages became the first four chapters of the book.
It took Benchley about a year and a half to finish writing the book. After making several changes and rewrites, he gave in his final version in January 1973.
Benchley was also inspired by real shark attacks that happened in 1916. These were called the Jersey Shore shark attacks of 1916. Between July 1 and July 12, 1916, four people died and one was badly hurt from shark attacks. This happened in a vacation town on the Atlantic coast. The story is very similar to Benchley's book. A killer shark haunts a beach town, and people are hired to hunt it down.
Images for kids
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Peter Benchley was inspired by a shark caught near Montauk, New York.
See also
In Spanish: Tiburón (novela) para niños
