Peter S. Beagle

Dennis Wilson Wise (University of Arizona)

Ed. by Dimitra Fimi, University of Glasgow
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 3.2.4: American (US) Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary, 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Sofia Ahlberg (Uppsala University), Patrick Chura (University of Akron), Emory Elliott (University of California, Riverside), Dale Enggass (University of Utah), Christopher Hugh Gair (University of Glasgow), Matthew Hofer (University of New Mexico), Nicole Kennedy (University of Newcastle), Stephen E. Meats (Pittsburg State University), Kerry Myler (Birmingham Newman University), Justin Parks (UiT - The Arctic University of Norway), Sean Seeger (University of Essex), Nick Selby (University of East Anglia)

Dates

Born 20 Apr 1939
Activity 1960-ongoing

Places

Active in United States

Activities

Primary

Novelist

Resources

Although known mostly for his 1968 novel The Last Unicorn, Peter S. Beagle (1939-) has nevertheless had a long, productive career as a literary fantasist, winning nearly every major accolade, including a World Fantasy Award for Lifetime Achievement. His fiction focuses on the borderlands between reality and the fantastic, often touched by themes of maturity, self-realization, love, and friendship.

Early Life and Career

Born on April 20th 1939 in the Bronx, New York, Beagle was the son of two teachers of Russian-Polish Jewish descent, Simon and Rebecca Soyer Beagle. Almost immediately from birth, Beagle was surrounded by the arts. Three maternal uncles were painters, his grandfather Abraham Soyer wrote books and articles in Hebrew and Yiddish, and both Beagle’s parents cherished music, a passion inherited by their son and often infused into his fiction. During...

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1657 words

Citation: Wise, Dennis Wilson. "Peter S. Beagle". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 21 November 2019 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=14481, accessed 14 December 2025.]