Peter Soyer Beagle (born April 20, 1939) is an American writer who creates stories and scripts, especially for fantasy fiction. His most famous book is The Last Unicorn (1968), which Locus readers voted the number five "best fantasy novel of all time" in 1987. Over the past 25 years, he has received many literary awards, including a World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement in 2011. He was named Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master by SFWA in 2018.

Early life

Beagle was born on April 20, 1939, in the Bronx, New York City. He was the son of Simon Beagle and Rebecca Soyer. His father worked as a history teacher. Three of his uncles were well-known painters: Moses, Raphael, and Isaac Soyer.

Beagle said that reading The Wind in the Willows, a classic children's book by Kenneth Grahame, made him interested in fantasy stories.

He is Jewish. He married Enid Elaine Nordeen in 1964. They were married until 1980 and had three children together: Kalisa, Dan, and Victoria, who is Enid's daughter from a previous marriage. He married the author and visual artist Padma Hejmadi in 1988. This was his third marriage.

Career

Beagle was born and raised in The Bronx, New York. He graduated from the Bronx High School of Science in 1955. He received early recognition from The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, which gave him a scholarship to the University of Pittsburgh for a poem he wrote as a high school senior. Beagle graduated from the university with a degree in creative writing. After spending a year overseas, he earned the graduate Stegner Fellowship in creative writing at Stanford University, where he worked with writers Ken Kesey, Gurney Norman, and Larry McMurtry.

Beagle wrote his first novel, A Fine and Private Place, when he was 19 years old. He later wrote a memoir titled I See by My Outfit, which was published in 1965.

He wrote an introduction for an American print edition of The Lord of the Rings. He and Chris Conkling co-wrote the screenplay for the 1978 Ralph Bakshi-animated version of The Lord of the Rings. Twenty years later, he wrote the teleplay for "Sarek," episode 71 of the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation.

With David Carlson as composer, Beagle adapted his story "Come, Lady Death" into the libretto for an opera titled The Midnight Angel, which premiered at the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis in 1993.

In 2005, Beagle published a coda to The Last Unicorn, a novelette titled Two Hearts. He also began work on a full-novel sequel. Two Hearts won the Hugo Award for Best Novelette in 2006 and the Nebula Award in 2007. It was also nominated 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, he won the inaugural WSFA Small Press Award for "El Regalo," published in The Line Between (Tachyon Publications).

He is also a winner of the Jack Trevor Story Cup, also known as the Prix du Goncourt, awarded to an outstanding humorous writer.

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 and reached #2 on the New York Times Hardcover Graphic Novel bestseller list.

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 musician Phildel on a new track titled "Dark Water Down," combining poetry and music. They performed together at a concert at Cafe Du Nord in San Francisco.

Beagle’s book The Last Unicorn was made into an animated film of the same name in 1982, based on a screenplay he wrote. In 1979, Beagle signed a contract with ITC Entertainment, giving him 5% of the net profits from the animated film and 5% of the gross revenues from any film-related merchandise. Since 1999, the film has been controlled by Granada Media International, a subsidiary of ITV plc.

From 2003 through 2011, Beagle was involved in a financial dispute with Granada over unpaid profit and merchandising shares. On July 29, 2011, Beagle announced at an Otakon event that he and ITV had reached an agreement that satisfied all parties and pleased fans of The Last Unicorn. On October 14, 2011, he announced the first results of the deal at a New York Comic Con appearance.

In 2015, Beagle sued his former manager, Connor Cochran, for $52 million. A judge ruled that Cochran was guilty of financial elder abuse, fraud, and breach of duty, awarding Beagle $325,000 and an additional $7,500 for defamation, as well as an undetermined amount in attorney’s fees.

Cochran declared bankruptcy 16 hours before the trial was scheduled to begin. Beagle was unable to collect the money Cochran owed, and the rights to Beagle’s work remained in legal limbo. In February 2021, Beagle regained the intellectual property rights by purchasing them from the bankruptcy for $600,000, money raised from business partners and friends.

Awards

These are yearly awards that recognize the best books of the year. There are three exceptions to this rule (‡).

In 1987, Locus magazine placed The Last Unicorn at number five in a list of the 33 best fantasy novels ever, according to a survey of its readers. In 1998, the same survey counted book series as single entries and ranked The Last Unicorn at number 18.