VJ Books presents Whitley Strieber!

Louis Whitley Strieber

Whitley Strieber was born in San Antonio, Texas, the son of Karl Strieber, a lawyer, and Mary Drought Strieber. He attended Central Catholic Marianist High School in San Antonio, Texas. He was educated at the University of Texas at Austin and the London School of Film Technique, graduating from both in 1968. He then worked for several different advertising firms in New York City, rising to the level of vice president before quitting in 1977 to become a free-lance writer.

Strieber began his career as a novelist with the horror novels The Wolfen (1978) and The Hunger (1981), both of which were later made into movies, followed by Black Magic (1982) and The Night Church (1983).

Strieber then turned to speculative fiction. He wrote Warday (1984), a New York Times bestseller about the dangers of limited nuclear warfare, and Nature's End (1986), a novel about environmental apocalypse, both in collaboration with longtime friend James Kunetka. He is also the author of Wolf of Shadows (1985), a young adult novel set in the aftermath of a nuclear war.

Later thrillers by Strieber (all now out of print) include Billy (1990), The Wild (1991), Unholy Fire (1992), and The Forbidden Zone (1993). He later returned to the vampire saga that began with The Hunger, adding The Last Vampire (2001) and Lilith's Dream (2002) to the storyline. His novel of alien abduction The Grays (2006) makes use of his own personal experiences of the phenomenon. The author's short stories were collected in the 1997 limited edition volume Evenings with Demons.

On December 26, 1985, Strieber reportedly had an experience in which he believed he was abducted from his cabin in upstate New York by non-human beings of some kind. He wrote about these experiences in his first non-fiction book, Communion (1987). Communion is generally interpreted as a claim of alien abduction, but Strieber says that he draws no firm conclusions about the nature or source of his experience. He refers to the beings as "the visitors," a name chosen to be as neutral as possible, and leaves open the possibility that they are not extraterrestrials and even that they exist only in his mind. He has repeatedly expressed his frustration with what he feels are fantastic claims incorrectly attributed to him.

Communion was a Number 1 New York Times bestseller in the Non-Fiction category. Strieber went on to write three more autobiographical books about his experiences with the visitors, Transformation (1988), Breakthrough (1995), and The Secret School (1996). Each was commercially less successful than the last, with Transformation the only other title besides Communion to make the New York Times bestseller list. Strieber wrote the screenplay for the 1989 film Communion, directed by Philippe Mora and starring Christopher Walken as Strieber. The movie covers material from both Communion and Transformation and introduces some new themes not present in the books.

Whitley Strieber is a Roman Catholic and was formerly associated with the Gurdjieff Foundation. He left the Foundation shortly before the experiences reported in Communion, but remains interested in the mystical teachings of G. I. Gurdjieff and P. D. Ouspensky and makes frequent references to them in his non-fiction writings.

Strieber is married to Anne Strieber. They have a son, Andrew, who appears in Communion and several of Strieber's novels.

His website: www.unknowncountry.com

Critical Mass Signed First Edition	Lilith's Dream Signed First Edition	The Hunger Signed UK Edition	Secret School Signed First Edition	Confirmation Signed 1st Edition	The Grays Signed First Edition