William Peter Blatty

William Peter Blatty (b. 1928) is an American writer and filmmaker. The novel The Exorcist, written in 1971, is his most well-known novel; he also penned the subsequent screenplay version of the film, for which he won an Academy Award. In 1960 Blatty published Which Way to Mecca, Jack?, which dealt humorously with both early life and his work at the United States Information Agency in Lebanon. It was at this point that Blatty began a fruitful collaboration with director Blake Edwards, writing scripts for comedy films such as A Shot in the Dark (1964). Blatty’s latest works are the novels Elsewhere (2009), Dimiter (2010) and Crazy (2010).