Fritz Peters (author)

{{Short description|American author (1913–1979)}} {{Infobox writer | embed = | honorific_prefix = | name = Fritz Peters | honorific_suffix = | image = | image_size = | image_upright = | landscape =  | alt =  | caption = | native_name = | native_name_lang = | pseudonym = | birth_name = Arthur Anderson Peters | birth_date = 1913 | birth_place = Madison, Wisconsin | death_date = 1979 | death_place = Las Cruces, New Mexico | resting_place = | occupation = | language = | nationality =  | citizenship =  | education = | alma_mater = | period = 1949-1978 | genre =  | subject =  | movement = | notable_works = ''Finistère'' (1951)<br>''Boyhood with Gurdjieff'' (1964) | spouse =  | partner =  | children = | relatives = Margaret C. Anderson<br>Jane Heap | awards = | signature = | signature_alt = | signature_size = | signature_type = | years_active = | module = | website =  | portaldisp =  }} '''Fritz Peters''' (1913–1979) was an American author who wrote on themes of spirituality, mental illness, homosexuality, self and society. A nonconformist, Peters' most successful novel was ''Finistère'', published in 1951, which sold over 350,000 copies and was an influential and unapologetic work of early gay literature.

== Early life and education == Peters was born Arthur Anderson Peters in Madison, Wisconsin<ref name="NYT">{{cite web |title=Arthur A. Peters, Writer Of Psychological Novels |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1979/12/28/archives/arthur-a-peters-writer-of-psychological-novels.html |website=New York Times}}</ref> where he spent the early years of his life.<ref name="CTAuthor">{{cite news |last1=Babcock |first1=Frederic |title=Among The Authors |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/370382881/?match=1&terms=%22Fritz%20Peters%22%20born%20madison |publisher=Chicago Tribune |date=4 February 1951}}</ref> Due to instability in his family life, Peters spent his childhood between Europe and the United States. Fritz's parents' divorce and his mother’s nervous breakdown in the mid-1920s left young Fritz adrift.<ref name="SMH">{{cite web |title=An Untidy Prophet |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/123808443/?match=1&terms=%22Fritz%20Peters%22%20%2B%20%22The%20Descent%22 |website=The Sydney Morning Herald}}</ref> His aunt, Margaret Anderson, and her lover, Jane Heap stepped in to care for him and his brother. They took Fritz to France, where he met Gertrude Stein, Hemingway, E.E. Cummings, and other significant figures of the ''avant garde''.<ref name="Boyhood">{{cite book |last1=Peters |first1=Fritz |title=Boyhood with Gurdjieff |date=1972 |publisher=Penguin Books |location=Baltimore |isbn=088496146X}}</ref> Fritz lived and studied at the Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man, founded by the controversial Russian mystic, G. I. Gurdjieff.<ref name="Boyhood"/> Gurdjieff became a father figure, eventually naming Fritz his "successor" and "true son".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Peters |first1=Fritz |title=Balanced Man |date=1978 |publisher=Wildwood House | location=London |isbn=0704503646 |page=11}}</ref>

== Career == Peters was described by ''Variety'' as someone who "wrote frank and intimate depictions of homosexuality, spirituality, and mental health struggles."<ref name="VarEmile">{{cite web |last1=Donnelly |first1=Matt |title=Emile Hirsch to Narrate Audiobooks of Pioneering Queer Author Fritz Peters |url=https://variety.com/2024/film/news/emile-hirsch-audiobook-fritz-peters-1236025261/ |website=Variety|date=5 June 2024 }}</ref> He released ''The World Next Door'' in 1949.<ref name="CTAuthor"/> The novel is a story of a veteran hospital and a subject's experience while living there.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Derleth |first1=August |title=Minority Report |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/522635809/?match=1&terms=%22Fritz%20Peters%22%20born%20madison |publisher=The Capital Times |date=8 October 1949}}</ref> It was later adapted into a play for Broadway by Stanley Young.<ref>{{cite web |title=Pickwick for Pickwickians |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HSMQAAAAIAAJ&dq=the+world+next+door+fritz+peters+bestseller&pg=RA12-PA33 |website=Saturday Review of Literature |date=July 1952}}</ref> In 1951, Peters release his second novel, ''Finistère''.<ref name="CTAuthor"/> The novel is about a teenager who falls in love with his tennis instructor at a boarding school he was placed in after moving to France.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Laski |first1=Marghanita |title=New Novels |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/258852569/?match=1&terms=%22Fritz%20Peters%22%20homosexuality |publisher=The Observer |date=11 February 1951}}</ref> It details the issues on the effects of divorce and the problems faced with homosexual relationships during that time period.<ref>{{cite news |title=A Pair of Recent Novels |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/762757139/?match=1&terms=%22Fritz%20Peters%22%20homosexuality |publisher=The Cincinnati Post |date=10 March 1951}}</ref> It was a bestseller, receiving a first printing run of 350,000 copies.<ref name="VaEarly">{{cite web |last1=Donnelly |first1=Matt |title=Fritz Peters, Early LGBTQ Literary Icon, Coming to Screens and Bookshelves in New Rights Deal |url=https://variety.com/2022/film/news/fritz-peters-novels-movies-hirsch-giovanni-1235188495/ |website=Variety|date=23 February 2022 }}</ref> He also released ''The Descent'' in 1952.<ref>{{cite web |title=Pagan-Christian Conflict Is High in New Novels |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/385779564/?match=1&terms=%22Fritz%20Peters%22%20%2B%20%22The%20Descent%22 |website=The Los Angeles Times}}</ref> Peters released a series of memoirs, including ''Boyhood with Gurdjieff'', released in 1964, ''Gurdiieff Remembered'', released in 1971, and ''Balanced Man'', released in 1978, which detailed his experience with Georges Gurdjieff.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Petsche |first1=Johanna |title=A Gurdjieff Genealogy: Tracing the Manifold Ways the Gurdjieff Teaching has Travelled |url=https://www.academia.edu/5838275 |website=Academia|date=2013 |volume=4 |issue=1 |page=49 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Back to Gurdjieff |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/259588882/?match=1&terms=%22Fritz%20Peters%22%20%2B%20%22balanced%20man%22 |website=The Guardian}}</ref> == Bibliography == === Novels === * ''The World Next Door'' (1949) * ''Finistère'' (1951) * ''The Descent'' (1952) === Memoirs === * ''Boyhood with Gurdjieff'' (1964) * ''Gurdjieff Remembered'' (1971) * ''Balanced Man'' (1978) == Death and legacy == Peters died in 1979 in Las Cruces, New Mexico.<ref name="NYT"/> The movie and publishing rights to his books were acquired by Hirsch Giovanni Entertainment in 2022.<ref name="VaEarly"/> In 2024, the books ''Finistère'' and ''Boyhood with Gurdjieff'' were released in audiobook format, voiced by Emile Hirsch.<ref name="VarEmile"/> ''Unapologetically Fritz'', a documentary on his life, also went into production the same year.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Stewart |first1=Sophia |title=A pioneering Queer Novelist, Reissued by an Unlikely Publisher |url=https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/publisher-news/article/95148-a-pioneering-queer-novelist-reiussed-by-an-unlikely-publisher.html |website=Publishers Weekly |date=5 June 2024}}</ref> == References == {{reflist}} == External links == *{{Official|https://www.fritzpeters.com/}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Peters, Fritz}} Category:1913 births Category:1979 deaths Category:20th-century American novelists Category:Writers from Madison, Wisconsin Category:Students of George Gurdjieff Category:20th-century American writers

Fritz Peters (author)

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