As often authors and other public figures find out, there is sometimes an underlying price to be paid for fame. And for Peter S. Beagle, the author of The Last Unicorn, he has found this to be true. "I could happily live out the rest of my time on the planet without ever having another thing to do with unicorns. . . I've been stuck with the beasts for twenty-seven years now," wrote Beagle in the first volume of Immortal Unicorn (HarperPrism, 1998).
Even though it had never been a bestseller, The Last Unicorn remains at the top of the list as one of the most prized works of fantasy literature in the world. Translated into fourteen languages, dramatized, and made into an animated film, the story of the unicorn who one day discovers she may be the last unicorn in the world holds power over audiences young and old even today.
Born in 1939, Beagle had always been interested in literature, reading, and writing in childhood, and his parents had encouraged him to pursue his chosen career as a writer. After graduating from the University of Pittsburgh with a creative writing major and traveling for some time, he settled down in California, married, and began work as a freelance writer and has been doing this for years.
The Last Unicorn was first published in 1968, and it became so successful over the years that it made Beagle write in 1978, "The Last Unicorn is the book that people know who don't know anything else I've ever written; it will probably haunt the rest of my career. . ."
Indeed, it has.
Since its debut in 1968, the book has never gone out of print and has been published by many companies. |
