Author William Peter Blatty, best known for The Exorcist, dies at 89
The son of an impoverished Lebanese Catholic immigrant, Blatty graduated valedictorian of his high school class and graduated from Georgetown University and George Washington University with degrees in English literature. He spent most of his early years in various menial jobs, then spent a few years in the Air Force, where he became a public relations guru, a job he'd hold throughout most of the 1950s.
His literary breakthrough came with his book
Which Way to Mecca, Jack?, a humorous memoir of his PR days. He also concocted the fictional Arabian Prince Xeer; in an appearance on
You Bet Your Life, the ruse failed to fool Groucho Marx, but Blatty did win the $10,000 necessary to quit his day job and pursue writing full-time.
He wrote a number of screenplays in the 1960s, then returned to writing books in the 1970s. He remains best known for 1973's
The Exorcist, for which he wrote the original book and the screenplay for the film adaptation. He eventually returned in the late 1980s to write the sequel
Legion and direct the film version (renamed
The Exorcist III). His other prominent work was
Twinkle Twinkle Killer Kane! and its film version
The Ninth Configuration.
Blatty continued to write up until his death.
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