After graduating from Harvard, Peter Benchley worked as a reporter for The Washington Post, then as an editor at Newsweek and a speechwriter in the White House. His novel Jaws was published in 1974, followed by The Deep, The Island, The Girl of the Sea of Cortez, Q Clearance, Rummies, and Beast, among others. He wrote screenplays for three of his novels, and his articles and essays appeared in such publications as National Geographic and The New York Times. He wrote, narrated, and appeared in dozens of television documentaries and was a member of the national council of Environmental Defense and a spokesman for its Oceans Program.
