Jaws (novel) Jaws (novel) Jaws is a 1974 novel by American writer Peter Benchley. It tells the story of a great white shark that preys upon a small resort town and the voyage of three men trying to kill it. The novel grew out of Benchley's interest in shark attacks after he learned about the exploits of shark fisherman Frank Mundus in 1964. Doubleday commissioned him to write the novel in 1971, a period when Benchley struggled as a freelance journalist. Through a marketing campaign orchestrated by Doubleday and paperback publisher Bantam, "Jaws" was incorporated into many book sales clubs catalogues and
Shark popular fictional works about shark attacks, such as the "Jaws" film series. "Jaws" author Peter Benchley, as well as "Jaws" director Steven Spielberg, later attempted to dispel the image of sharks as man-eating monsters. To help avoid an unprovoked attack, humans should not wear jewelry or metal that is shiny and refrain from splashing around too much. Until recently, only a few benthic species of shark, such as hornsharks, leopard sharks and catsharks, had survived in aquarium conditions for a year or more. This gave rise to the belief that sharks, as well as being difficult to capture and transport,