The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle

Peter Soyer Beagle (born April 20, 1939) is an American fantasist and author of novels, nonfiction, and screenplays. He is also a talented guitarist and folk singer. He won early recognition from The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards as a high school senior for a poem; the award was accompanied by a scholarship to the University of Pittsburgh, where he graduated with a degree in creative writing. He wrote his first novel, A Fine and Private Place, when he was only 19 years old. Today he is best known as the author of The Last Unicorn, which routinely polls as one of the top ten fantasy novels of all time, and at least two of his other books (A Fine and Private Place and I See By My Outfit) are considered modern classics.

He wrote the teleplay for episode 71 of the television series Category: Star Trek: The Next Generation - , titled "Sarek." He wrote the screenplay for the 1978 Ralph Bakshi-animated version of The Lord of the Rings, the film which first inspired a teenaged Peter Jackson to read J.R.R. Tolkien, and he wrote an introduction page for the American edition of The Lord of the Rings in the early 1970s.

His work as a screenwriter interrupted his early career direction as a novelist, magazine nonfiction author, and short-story writer. But in the mid-'90s he returned to prose fiction of all lengths, and has produced new works at a steady pace since.

In addition to his own body of work, he is heir to the literary estates of science fiction author Edgar Pangborn, Edgar's sister and sometime collaborator Mary, and their mother Georgia Wood Pangborn. Since 2003 he has been working to bring the best of these three authors' fiction back into print.

Category: Image - :Peter S Beagle-2006 Inkpot Award.jpg|Peter S. Beagle with Inkpot award at the San Diego Comic-Con in 2006|thumb

In 2005 he finally published a coda to The Last Unicorn, a novelette entitled "Two Hearts," and began work on a full-novel sequel. In 2006, "Two Hearts" won the prestigious Hugo Award for Best Novelette and in 2007 it won the Nebula Award in the same category. The story was also nominated as a short fiction finalist for the World Fantasy Award. In 2006, Beagle won the Inkpot Award for Outstanding Achievement in Science Fiction and Fantasy. In 2007, Beagle won the inaugural WSFA Small Press Award for "El Regalo," published in The Line Between (Tachyon Publications).

Peter S. Beagle now lives in Oakland, California.