{"id":203,"date":"2017-01-13T17:05:01","date_gmt":"2017-01-13T17:05:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/foreverinourhearts\/?p=203"},"modified":"2017-01-13T17:05:01","modified_gmt":"2017-01-13T17:05:01","slug":"william-peter-blatty-writer-exorcist-died","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/foreverinourhearts\/2017\/01\/william-peter-blatty-writer-exorcist-died.html","title":{"rendered":"William Peter Blatty, Writer of \u201cThe Exorcist,\u201d Has Died"},"content":{"rendered":"

William Peter Blatty, the man behind what is considered to be the most frightening movie in all cinematic history, has passed away on January 12th<\/sup>, just days after his 89th<\/sup> birthday.<\/p>\n

Blatty wrote the novel, \u201cThe Exorcist,\u201d in 1971, and went on to also write the screenplay for the infamous film adaptation that most are familiar with. For his screenplay, Blatty won a well-earned Academy Award.<\/p>\n

The son of Lebanese parents who emigrated to America, Blatty was well-acquainted with religion from an early age. His mother, the deeply Catholic niece of a Bishop, raised him alone after his father, Peter Blatty, left the family.<\/p>\n

Blatty attended a Jesuit school, and later, George Washington University, where he earned a master\u2019s degree in English Literature, but went on to take on a series of odd jobs, even enlisting in the U.S. Air Force and working within its Psychological Warfare Division for a time.<\/p>\n

But when a friend reminded him of an old, lost dream\u2014the dream of publishing and entertaining\u2014Blatty finally found his calling.<\/p>\n

After penning a series of well-reviewed comic novels, Blatty rented a remote chalet within the darkened forests bordering Lake Tahoe. It was here that he would write the novel that brought him to fame.<\/p>\n

The Exorcist, a story about a young girl who is possessed by a demonic entity, tapped into something primal and fearful within readers, and remained on the New York Times bestseller list for 57 weeks, and at the top spot for 17 of those weeks.<\/p>\n

Later, his novel was adapted by director William Fredkin and himself into \u201cThe Exorcist\u201d\u2014the most famous horror movie of all time, which went on to win not only an Academy Award, but Golden Globes for best picture and best writing. The success of his work brought wealth, fame, and security to a man who grew up poor and \u201ccomfortably destitute\u201d.<\/p>\n

Blatty\u2019s experience with the supernatural wasn\u2019t confined to his writing. A man of faith, Blatty\u2019s upbringing by a Catholic mother, and by the surrogate Jesuit fathers which passed through his life, left him with all the tools he needed to be a deeply effective Catholic writer.<\/p>\n

In the acknowledgements for \u201cThe Exorcist,\u201d Blatty thanks English Professor Bernard Wagner for \u201cteaching me to write,\u201d and the Jesuits for \u201cteaching me to think\u201d.<\/p>\n

The seeds of his interest in supernatural evil were sown one day as a Georgetown professor mentioned a case of demonic possession that had occurred nearby. \u201cI remember thinking, \u2018Boy, if somebody would dig into this and authenticate it and show that it\u2019s the real thing, what a gift to the faith,\u201d said Blatty, in an interview with Washingtonian. \u201cIt stayed in my mind, and I thought maybe someday I\u2019d try to write a nonfiction account.\u201d<\/p>\n

But while his novel did end up in the realm of fiction, Blatty never intended \u201cThe Exorcist\u201d to be mere entertainment.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an argument for God,\u201d he said, of the novel and subsequent film. \u201cI intended it to be an apostolic work, to help people in the in faith. Because I thoroughly believed in the authenticity and validity of that particular event.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rare are men like Blatty\u2014figures of faith that dare to venture into the darkness in order to help us better appreciate the light. But we\u2019re not bereft of this with Blatty\u2019s passing; contemporary directors like Scott Derrickson have taken up the torch and continue to bring audiences face-to-face with evil through the lens of faith.<\/p>\n

William Peter Blatty, though, left a mark on our culture that will never fully fade away\u2014a mark that connects the literary world with the realm of faith, and one that connects audiences to the possibilities and mysteries of the spiritual world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

William Peter Blatty, the man behind what is considered to be the most frightening movie in all cinematic history, has passed away on January 12th, just days after his 89th birthday. Blatty wrote the novel, \u201cThe Exorcist,\u201d in 1971, and went on to also write the screenplay for the infamous film adaptation that most are…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":605,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[76,77,78,75,74],"class_list":["post-203","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-catholicism","tag-exorcism","tag-ministry-of-exorcism","tag-the-exorcist","tag-william-peter-blatty"],"yoast_head":"\nWilliam Peter Blatty, Writer of \u201cThe Exorcist,\u201d Has Died<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/foreverinourhearts\/2017\/01\/william-peter-blatty-writer-exorcist-died.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"William Peter Blatty, Writer of \u201cThe Exorcist,\u201d Has Died\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"William Peter Blatty, the man behind what is considered to be the most frightening movie in all cinematic history, has passed away on January 12th, just days after his 89th birthday. Blatty wrote the novel, \u201cThe Exorcist,\u201d in 1971, and went on to also write the screenplay for the infamous film adaptation that most are…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/foreverinourhearts\/2017\/01\/william-peter-blatty-writer-exorcist-died.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Where Hope Lives\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-01-13T17:05:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Wesley Baines\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"William Peter Blatty, Writer of \u201cThe Exorcist,\u201d Has Died","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/foreverinourhearts\/2017\/01\/william-peter-blatty-writer-exorcist-died.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"William Peter Blatty, Writer of \u201cThe Exorcist,\u201d Has Died","og_description":"William Peter Blatty, the man behind what is considered to be the most frightening movie in all cinematic history, has passed away on January 12th, just days after his 89th birthday. Blatty wrote the novel, \u201cThe Exorcist,\u201d in 1971, and went on to also write the screenplay for the infamous film adaptation that most are…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/foreverinourhearts\/2017\/01\/william-peter-blatty-writer-exorcist-died.html","og_site_name":"Where Hope Lives","article_published_time":"2017-01-13T17:05:01+00:00","author":"Wesley Baines","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/foreverinourhearts\/2017\/01\/william-peter-blatty-writer-exorcist-died.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/foreverinourhearts\/2017\/01\/william-peter-blatty-writer-exorcist-died.html","name":"William Peter Blatty, Writer of \u201cThe Exorcist,\u201d Has Died","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/foreverinourhearts\/#website"},"datePublished":"2017-01-13T17:05:01+00:00","dateModified":"2017-01-13T17:05:01+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/foreverinourhearts\/#\/schema\/person\/a73d65fbed41cccc5f85a830c49fe296"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/foreverinourhearts\/2017\/01\/william-peter-blatty-writer-exorcist-died.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/foreverinourhearts\/2017\/01\/william-peter-blatty-writer-exorcist-died.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/foreverinourhearts\/2017\/01\/william-peter-blatty-writer-exorcist-died.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/foreverinourhearts"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"William Peter Blatty, Writer of \u201cThe Exorcist,\u201d Has Died"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/foreverinourhearts\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/foreverinourhearts\/","name":"Where Hope Lives","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Tributes","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/foreverinourhearts\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/foreverinourhearts\/#\/schema\/person\/a73d65fbed41cccc5f85a830c49fe296","name":"Wesley Baines","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/authors\/w\/wesley-baines.aspx"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/foreverinourhearts\/author\/wbaines"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/foreverinourhearts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/foreverinourhearts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/foreverinourhearts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/foreverinourhearts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/605"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/foreverinourhearts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=203"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/foreverinourhearts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":204,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/foreverinourhearts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203\/revisions\/204"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/foreverinourhearts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/foreverinourhearts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/foreverinourhearts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}