Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} Jaws by Peter Benchley Why the author of ‘Jaws’ wished he never wrote it. Peter Benchley was 27 when he quit his job writing for President Johnson to write a book about a villainous killer shark that stalked, and ate, members of a small island community. The book sold more than 10 million copies and turned Benchley into a millionaire. He regretted writing it. “What I now know, which wasn’t known when I wrote Jaws, is that there is no such thing as a rogue shark which develops a taste for human flesh,’’ Benchley told the Animal Attack Files in 2000. “No one appreciates how vulnerable they are to destruction.’’ Benchley, who first became interested in sharks while spending summers on Nantucket, spent the rest of his life advocating for oceanic conservation. Simon Thorrold, a senior scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, said Jaws legitimized the hunting of sharks. Humans kill between 50 and 100 million sharks each year, he said, but sharks only kill a handful of humans. “If you bought into the fact that you had this rogue, cold-blooded killer going around hunting humans, then obviously anything you could do to stop those sharks was good,’’ he said. “It provided cover for people who simply wanted to go out and kill sharks under the guise of somehow making people safer, which there’s no evidence that was the case at all.’’ Instead, Thorrold said the only thing killing sharks does is reduce the population size. The Shark Research Institute found that the populations of eight shark species declined more than 50 percent from 1986 to 2000. How to cite “Jaws” by Peter Benchley. Formatted according to the APA Publication Manual 7 th edition. Simply copy it to the References page as is. If you need more information on APA citations check out our APA citation guide or start citing with the BibGuru APA citation generator. Benchley, P. (2012). Jaws . Pan Books. Chicago style citation. Formatted according to the Chicago Manual of Style 17 th edition. Simply copy it to the References page as is. If you need more information on Chicago style citations check out our Chicago style citation guide or start citing with the BibGuru Chicago style citation generator. Benchley, Peter. 2012. Jaws . London, England: Pan Books. MLA citation. Formatted according to the MLA handbook 8 th edition. Simply copy it to the Works Cited page as is. If you need more information on MLA citations check out our MLA citation guide or start citing with the BibGuru MLA citation generator. Benchley, Peter. Jaws . Pan Books, 2012. Other citation styles (Harvard, Turabian, Vancouver, . ) BibGuru offers more than 8,000 citation styles including popular styles such as AMA, ASA, APSA, CSE, IEEE, Harvard, Turabian, and Vancouver, as well as journal and university specific styles. Give it a try now: Cite "Jaws" now! Publication details. This is not the edition you are looking for? Check out our BibGuru citation generator for additional editions. Peter Benchley Books In Order. Peter Benchley was an American author of mystery and thriller novels best known as the author of Jaws and co-wrote the novel subsequent film adaptation alongside Carl Gottlieb. Several of the author’s novels were adapted into movies include, The Island, The Deep, White Shark, and Beast. Later in life, the author came to regret writing such thriller which he felt increased fear and caused unnecessary culls of sharks as predators in the ocean ecosystem. This led him to become an active advocate for marine conservation. Peter was the son of Marjorie and Nathaniel Benchley. Nat Benchley, his younger brother, is an actor and a writer. Peter was an alumnus of Harvard University, Allen-Stevenson School, and Phillips Exeter Academy. Immediately after graduating from college in 1961, the author traveled across the globe for one year. The experience is narrated in his first book, Time and a Ticket published in 1964. After his return to America, the author spent half a year in the Marine Corps and worked as a reporter for The Washington Post. By 1971, Peter took several freelance jobs to support his wife and children. It’s during this time when he declared making a final attempt as a writer that his agent arranged meetings with several publishers. Jaws was released in 1974 and became a bestseller for 44 weeks. According to Steven Spielberg, the man who directed the film version of the novel stated that he initially found many characters unsympathetic and wanted the shark to win. The film adaptation of Jaws starred Richard Dreyfuss, Roy Scheider, and Robert Shaw and was released in the summer of 1975 which was considered as the graveyard season for movies. The film was positively received and grossed over $500 million worldwide. The Island published in 1979 is a story of the descendants of 17th-century pirates who reign terror in the Caribbean and are the source of Bermuda Triangle Mystery. Peter Benchley wrote the screenplay for the film adaptation. The film starred Michael Caine and David Warner but failed when it premiered in 1980. In the bestselling novel Jaws by Peter Benchley, we are introduced to a small summer town known as Amity. In this town, people have to make money from tourist trade and of course in the few months when the sun is shining bright. The fourth of July is particular a crucial month when the town’s population skyrockets from just 1000 people to 10,000 people in just 24 hours. But unfortunately something deadly and hungry, something that lives in the deep waters is visiting the small town. Peter Benchley describes in graphic details what this fish does on the next pass. Politics fuel this story and readers get to see the struggles between the town council and Sheriff Martin Brody as the debate about public safety and commerce heats up. If the local town beach is closed down, the town dies with it, but if the beaches are open, then someone must die, and that is a chance that the council feels they have to take. The author has also created subplots that explain in detail the special interest that controls the decision making of the town council. However, these subplots are not included in the movie version of the book. Sheriff Brody’s wife Ellen plays a bigger role in the narrative. She is not contented with her life, and she feels that she married below her social class when she decided to get married to a police officer. She is from the country club, sailing, tennis and spending money on luxurious things, but she misses more than just clubs and money. She misses her people. When Matt Hooper returns to town, Brody’s wife instantly feels comfortable with him. It turns out that Ellen dated Matt’s elder brother David and the memories of that time still flood her even today. Ellen’s obsession with Matt creates tension between her husband and Matt. Brody conjectures the worst, and with the shark in the water and piranha on the town council, he does not need any other distraction. In desperation to finally put an end to the fish menace, the town counsel turn to a local fisherman named Quint. His rates are incredibly high, and at first, he is doing it for the money, but as the fish continues to show higher intelligence and even foxes him severally, he becomes obsessive. Killing the shark becomes his quest. A couple honeymooning dives off the coast of Bermuda when they discover a shipwreck and a small vial that will forever change their lives. When the two return to their hotel room with the glass vial, a mysterious man approaches them claiming that the glass vial is rare to find but they refuse claiming that they need to find out what is in the vial before they can sell it to anyone. A man who doesn’t even exist hires them to find more of these vials, and the couple soon discovers that the vials contain pure morphine. This only marks the start of their adventure as the couple work with the local light housekeeper to find as many of these vials before they land into the wrong hands. Two men and a boy are lazing out during one of the hottest hours of the Caribbean day when they discover a cameo that seems to be drifting. They maneuver their boat alongside the cameo, and one of the men reaches out to pull back the tarpaulin, and the reveals whatever it contains and the reader get a jolting shock which reminds them of those first few pages of the bestselling novel, Jaws. This begins one of the many strange marine incidents that over the years have held different explanations. New York reporter Blair Maynard is shocked by the variety of explanations, but it is not until he arrives to the place where silence reigns and realizes that he is on to something extremely extraordinary. He lands on the strangest island in the West Indies, and his investigation becomes even more intriguing with each discovery he makes. Peter Benchley, 65; ‘Jaws’ Author Became Shark Conservationist. Peter Benchley, whose first novel, “Jaws,” sold 20 million copies and helped invent the Hollywood summer blockbuster film when Steven Spielberg made the tale of a bloodthirsty shark into a 1975 movie, has died. He was 65. Benchley, who became a conservationist and expressed regret over portraying sharks as killing machines, died Saturday of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, a progressive and fatal scarring of the lungs, at his home in Princeton, N.J., his wife, Wendy, said. The movie became one of the top-10 grossing films of all time, when adjusted for inflation, according to Box Office Mojo, a website that tracks theatrical receipts. It also caused ocean-goers to be terrified of even dipping a toe into the sea. “Spielberg certainly made the most superb movie; Peter was very pleased,” Wendy Benchley told Associated Press. “But Peter kept telling people the book was fiction, it was a novel, and that he took no more responsibility for the fear of sharks than Mario Puzo took responsibility for the Mafia,” she said, referring to Puzo’s screenplay and novel “The Godfather.” “Jaws” was “entirely fiction,” Peter Benchley repeated in a London Daily Express article that appeared last week. “Knowing what I know now, I could never write that book today,” said Benchley, who also co-wrote the screenplay for “Jaws.” “Sharks don’t target human beings, and they certainly don’t hold grudges.” The 1974 novel, about a shark that terrorizes an East Coast resort community, spent more than 40 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list and made Benchley one of the most successful first novelists in literary history. Some critics took issue with the tale of blood and horror for its weak characterizations, subplots and allusions to Herman Melville’s “Moby Dick,” especially in the final scene. “None of the humans are particularly likable or interesting,” Rolling Stone said in 1974. “The shark was easily my favorite character -- and one suspect’s Benchley’s also.” Originally titled “Silence in the Water,” the book got its concise name after Benchley asked his father, children’s author Nathaniel Benchley, to help him think of a title. His 200 suggestions included “Wha’s That Noshin’ On My Laig.’ ” For a time “The Jaws of Leviathan” was a candidate until someone pointed out that Leviathan, a monstrous sea creature, was a mammal. “Jaws” was the only word that editor and author could agree on, the Los Angeles Times reported in 1974. Many of Benchley’s novels relied on the formula of an ocean setting and menace lurking under the waves. “The Deep” (1976) included sharks, but the main threat came from drug dealers trying to protect their cargo of heroin on the sea floor. “The Island” (1979) dealt with Caribbean pirates in the 17th century, a topic that Benchley researched extensively. Both books became movies. Peter Bradford Benchley was born May 8, 1940, in New York City. He traced his interest in the sea, and sharks, to visits to Nantucket Island in Massachusetts. When he was 15, his father offered him a small salary to write every day for a summer. By the time Peter turned 21, he had a literary agent from the same firm that represented his father. His grandfather was the celebrated humorist Robert Benchley. After graduating from Harvard University in 1961, Benchley became a reporter at the Washington Post and spent three years as an associate editor at Newsweek. He later went to the White House, where he wrote “difficult” speeches about the Vietnam War for President Johnson, his wife told Associated Press. His interest in using sharks as the main character of a novel grew in 1965 when he read a story about a huge shark caught off Montauk, Long Island. Doubleday gave Benchley $1,000 for an option and asked him to submit 100 pages. The first five pages of the manuscript drew raves, but the rest required much revision. The result was a symbol of fear that lingers more than 30 years later. Benchley’s other novels included “The Girl of the Sea of Cortez” (1982), an idyllic take on a young girl’s fascination with the sea and its inhabitants, and “Q Clearance” (1986), which he described as “a spy comedy.” The Times’ 1986 review of “Q Clearance” said the book’s appeal rested in its “merciless sendup” of easily recognized bureaucrats and called it a “prime example of that vanishing literary species, the comic novel.” With “Beast” (1991), Benchley returned to the familiar formula of “lethal creatures, relentless pursuers and vast quantities of saline solution,” Time magazine said in 1991. “White Shark” (1994) was more of the same. He seemed to use the 2002 nonfiction book “Shark Trouble” as a way to make up for the earlier shark hysteria he had caused. The book begins with Benchley chiding the media for naming 2001 “the year of the shark attack,” noting that there were no more attacks that summer than any other. In recent years, Benchley became an active advocate for shark protection. He campaigned against shark fisheries and traveled around the world to make undersea documentaries that had him swimming with sharks and whales. He also lectured on marine conservation. His final book, the nonfiction “Shark Life” (2005), was aimed at educating young readers about the dangers of the sea. Near the end of his life, Benchley expressed a revisionist take on his tale of ocean-going terror to the Daily Express. “I hope that ‘Jaws’ will have brought sharks into the public interest at a time when we desperately need to reevaluate our care for the environment,” he said. Besides his wife, Benchley is survived by three children and five grandchildren. A numerology interpretation of International Bestselling book … A 365 Pin Code numerology interpretation of International Bestseller Jaws by Peter Benchley. By 1971, Benchley was doing various freelance jobs in his struggle to support his wife and children. During this period, when Benchley would later declare he was “making one final attempt to stay alive as a writer”, his literary agent arranged meetings with publishers. Benchley would frequently pitch two ideas, a non-fiction book about pirates, and a novel depicting a man-eating shark terrorizing a community. This idea had been developed by Benchley since he had read a news report of a fisherman catching a 4,550 pounds (2,060 kg) great white shark off the coast of Long Island in 1964. The shark novel eventually attracted the attention of Doubleday editor Thomas Congdon, who offered Benchley an advance of $1,000 leading to the novelist submitting the first 100 pages. Much of the work had to be rewritten as the publisher was not happy with the initial tone. Benchley worked by winter in his Pennington office, and in the summer in a converted chicken coop on the Wessons’ farm in Stonington. The idea was inspired by the several great white sharks caught in the 1960s off Long Island and Block Island by the Montauk charterboat captain Frank Mundus. Jaws was published in 1974 and became a great success, staying on the bestseller list for 44 weeks. Steven Spielberg, who would direct the film version of Jaws, has said that he initially found many of the characters unsympathetic and wanted the shark to win. Book critics such as Michael A. Rogers of Rolling Stone shared the sentiment, but the book struck a powerful chord with readers. Benchley co-wrote the screenplay with Carl Gottlieb (along with the uncredited Howard Sackler and John Milius, who provided the first draft of a monologue about the USS Indianapolis) for the Spielberg film released in 1975. Benchley made a cameo appearance as a news reporter on the beach. The film, starring Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw, and Richard Dreyfuss, was released in the summer season, traditionally considered to be the graveyard season for films. However, Universal Studios decided to break tradition by releasing the film with extensive television advertising. It eventually grossed over $470 million worldwide. We start this analysis by presenting you with the 365 Pin Code numbers of Peter Benchley, as outlined within the strategic framework provided by The World’s Best Numerology Report . His numbers have been calculated around 1974, the year Jaws was published… Numerology of Peter Benchley, The World’s Best Numerology Report: Part A. Numerology of Peter Benchley, The World’s Best Numerology Report: Part B. Numerology of Peter Benchley, The World’s Best Numerology Report: Part C. Numerology of Peter Benchley, The World’s Best Numerology Report: Part D. Once all these numbers have been calculated, we create a complex data table which when completed has much relevance, strategic thinking, and planning value. The data table below presents unique lines of annual experiential coding. This table belongs to Peter Bradford Benchley, author of Jaws , born on the 8 th of May 1940. It is constructed using a complex predictive numerology model (see Futurist Numerology , a specialist research line wholly unique to 365 Pin Code) which uses many critically important numbers sourced directly from Benchley’s Date of Birth (DOB), Full Birth Name (FBN) and Other Data Sources (ODS). The model delivers lines of code which are driven by what we call Annual Experience Numbers, or AENs, which define the major numerology theme of a given year. As per the exhaustive Numerology Research we’ve done tod ate, the way we calculate 365 Pin Code AENs, and more importantly, strategically interpret them, has been proven to be bulls-eye accurate (e.g. the research we did into Steve Jobs’s 2004 pancreatic cancer ; the research we did into why Steve Wozniak quit Apple in 1985 ; the research we did into why 2020 will be a nightmare year for current CEO Tim Cook ; the research we did into why things went south the way they did for Apple’s 4 th CEO , John Scully; the research we did into why Apple co-founder Ronald Wayne quit shortly after start-up etc.). 365 Pin Code Numerology Table of Annual Experience Numbers [AENs] for Peter Benchley, author of Jaws. The critically important timeline events around Jawsby Peter Benchley, are: Benchley’s being commissioned to write it in 1971 The book being published in February 1974 The Spielberg blockbuster movie, Jaws, being released in July 1975. So, what important 365 Pin Code numerology numbers are in play during these years? 1971 – Benchley is commissioned to write Jaws. If you scan the above line of code for 1971, you see two red blocks which connect a set of 5’s. The one red block (left) signals a significant personal emotional event, whilst the other (right) signals a significant professional emotional event. 1971’s AEN [as in Annual Experience Number] is 23//5. In applied numerology, the number 23 must always be read, or interpreted, as numerology number 3 (creativity, communication, self- expression, imagination etc.) expressing itself through the numerology number 2 (teamwork, cooperation, collaboration, supporting others etc.) in order to achieve numerology base number 5 (change, personal freedom, adventure, the 5-senses driven human experience etc.). Being born in May [5 th month of the year] 1940 [1940 = 1+9+4+0 = 14 = 1+4 = 5] signals that his No5 AEN of 1971 synchronised powerfully with family and career, in other words, it was offering him the opportunity of a lifetime to create much positive change family and career wise. And, if you pause for a moment and think about what took place back in 1971, with Benchley’s being commissioned to write Jaws, a book which would become both an international bestseller and blockbuster movie, this was exactly what happened. Its always such a beautiful thing to see your core numerology numbers presenting magical moments of opportunity, exactly as per the code laid down when you we born. All you must to do is to then ensure you do not waste the opportunity; in other words, stop dilly-dallying and get on with it and do the work! That’s why understanding your numerology number sequences, and especially AENs, provides such incredible strategic insights life path wise. Once you’ve had your life path mapped, you can then look at all the AENs, past, present and future. This helps you to make so much sense of what happened back then, is happening right now, and is on its way to you. This really is next level personal intelligence and allows you to put yourself in harmony if you will, with your Intelligent Mathematical Blueprint (IMB). So. 1974, February: Jawsis published. When Peter Benchley wrote Jaws in the early 1970s, he meticulously researched all available data about shark behaviour. Over the ensuing decades, Benchley was actively engaged with scientists and filmmakers on expeditions around the world as they expanded their knowledge of sharks. During this time, there was an unprecedented upswing in the number of sharks killed to make shark-fin soup, and Benchley worked with governments and non-profits to sound the alarm for shark conservation. He encouraged each new generation of Jaws fans to enjoy his riveting tale and to channel their excitement into support and protection of these magnificent, prehistoric apex predators. Benchley’s innate caring for Nature and being aware of how finely balanced our environment is, is in keeping with his number 9 life path and number 9 shadow / emotional life path [ see data points 1 and 2 in his 100 Table ]. In 1974, Benchley still has his 23//5 AEN in play. 1974 was a Number 7 personal year and a Number 7 Professional Year for him. As per the data displayed within Benchley’s 100 Numerology Data Points Table [ refer to data point 56 in his 100 Table ], he has a Number 7 Hidden Passion Number (the analyst, the researcher, the seeker of deeper truths, the thinker, the one who draws inspiration from Nature etc.). Whenever years with hidden passion numbers coded into them present, expect much can happen. 1975, July: Jaws the movie is released “You’re Going to Need a Bigger Boat” Jaws didn’t just make filmgoers afraid to go in the water or give birth to one of the most misquoted taglines of all time. It made film history in more ways than one. Jaws set precedents in Hollywood and changed the way the industry did business. It also changed the way people in America go to the movies and introduced one of our most prolific and talented directors to the world. While Jaws’ box office records have long-since been surpassed, its mammoth effect on Hollywood is still felt today. The box office earnings were so staggering that a new term “blockbuster movie” was coined. Before Jaws, film distribution companies worked on a much different schedule. There were rarely big opening weekends, and few mass-market media campaigns to draw attention to upcoming releases. Instead, movies usually opened in a few cities, then slowly rolled out to theatres around the country. Jaws changed all of that. Universal Pictures put on an aggressive television marketing campaign to build excitement, and then opened the film nationwide in over 400 theatres. The results were instantaneous — eager moviegoers lined up around the block to see what all the excitement was about. They loved the movie — and they told their friends. It grossed $7 million in its first weekend, breaking records and adding to its historic hype. Soon, the film expanded to more theatres, and within weeks Jaws was a bonafide success. Its earnings at the box office were so significant, analysts even coined a new term — “blockbuster.” After Jaws’ monumental success, most film companies were eager to replicate its rollout strategy. 1975 brings The World in to play for Peter Benchley. Note how Benchley’s AEN shifts from 23//5 in 1974 to 21//3 in 1975. 21 is a truly magical number. It is if you will, the pinnacle of creative communication, with the masculine 1 expressing itself through the feminine 2 to deliver the ultra-creative, base number 3 . That’s why the number 21 in tarot is depicted as major arcana, The World. When numerology number sequence 21//3 presents itself AEN wise along your life path’s coding, it heralds a very potent period in which the old makes way for the new. This newly revealed world offers ultimate realisation of your plans, hopes and wishes. Plans that have been in play for quite a while may suddenly come to a successful completion, with much accompanying reward. Also, at this time, your subconscious might well be developing at a much faster pace which may bring about a vastly elevated psychic state. For Benchley, 1975 presented a Number 8 personal year and a Number 8 professional year. The number 8 is linked with manifestation, results, money, power, status, authority, wealth etc. And, in 1975, when Jaws by Peter Benchley went blockbuster status, he earned, like he had a never imagined possible! The Number is also linked with Benchley’s personal number [ Born 8 th ; see data point 3 in his 100 Table ]. Jaws by Peter Benchley might just be the Best Film ever Made! Jaws welcomed in a new era of mass movie marketing and merchandising. It also made summer the new breeding ground for big-budget, big box office movies when the period had before been reserved for films which studios felt wouldn’t make a lot of money. Jaws was the first film to break $100 million at US box office. Jaws made Steven Spielberg. The film had originally been budgeted at $4 million but Spielberg ended up making it for $9 million. All was quickly forgotten when the first weekend’s box office receipts came in! Jaws the film was better than the book. Benchley’s book may have a great premise but it’s a damp squib in comparison to the movie. Jaws demanded shooting ocean scenes that were actually in the sea; this added incredible realism that could never be achieved in a studio tank. Jaws iconic score. Simple yet so effective. John Williams’ reoccurring notes – only two of them, an E and F played alternately – has become pop culture’s theme tune of impending doom. Jaws isn’t a horror movie aimed just at adults, it’s a film the whole family can enjoy. Given the worldwide success of Jaws, both as a book and movie, Peter Benchley certainly lived up to his Master Number 22 [as in The Master Builder] professional attainment number [ see data point 13 in his 100 Table; 1948//22//4 ]. Congratulations sir!