Dean R. Koontz
[Article found on Biography Reference Center]
Pseudonym: Owen West; Aaron Wolfe; Richard Paige; Leigh Nichols; John Hill; Anthony North; K. R.
Dwyer; Brian Coffey; Deanna Dwyer; David Axton; Leonard Chris
Also known as: Dean Koontz
Born: July 9, 1945; Everett, Pennsylvania
Quick Reference
American novelist
Principal Works - Dean R. Koontz
children’s literature
Oddkins: A Fable for All Ages, 1988
Santa’s Twin, 1996 (illustrated by Phil Parks)
The Paper Doorway: Funny Verse and Nothing
Worse, 2001 (illustrated by Phil Parks)
Every Day’s a Holiday: Amusing Rhymes for Happy
Times, 2003 (illustrated by Phil Parks)
Robot Santa: The Further Adventures of Santa’s
Twin, 2004
edited text(s)
Night Visions 6, 1988 (with Paul Mikol)
long fiction
Star Quest, 1968
Fear That Man, 1969
The Fall of the Dream Machine, 1969
Anti-Man, 1970
Beastchild, 1970
Dark of the Woods, 1970
Hell’s Gate, 1970
Hung, 1970 (as Leonard Chris)
The Dark Symphony, 1970
The Crimson Witch, 1971
A Darkness in My Soul, 1972
Starblood, 1972
The Flesh in the Furnace, 1972
Time Thieves, 1972
Warlock, 1972
A Werewolf Among Us, 1973
Demon Seed, 1973
Hanging On, 1973
The Haunted Earth, 1973
After the Last Race, 1974
Strike Deep, 1974 (as Anthony North)
Invasion, 1975 (as Aaron Wolfe; also known as
Winter Moon, 1994)
Nightmare Journey, 1975
The Long Sleep, 1975 (as John Hill)
Night Chills, 1976
Prison of Ice, 1976 (as David Axton; revised as
Icebound, 1995)
The Vision, 1977
Whispers, 1980
Phantoms, 1983
The Door to December, 1985 (as Richard Paige)
Twilight Eyes, 1985
Watchers, 1987
Lightning, 1988
Midnight, 1989
Cold Fire, 1991
Hideaway, 1992
Dragon Tears, 1993
Mr. Murder, 1993
Dark Rivers of the Heart, 1994
Tick Tock, 1995
From the Corner of His Eye, 2000
One Door Away from Heaven, 2001
By the Light of the Moon, 2002
The Taking, 2004
Dean Koontz’s Frankenstein: City of Night, 2005
Dean Koontz’s Frankenstein: Prodigal Son, 2005
(with Kevin J. Anderson)
Dean Koontz’s Frankenstein: Dean and Alive, 2007
The Darkest Evening of the Year, 2007
Your Heart Belongs to Me, 2008
Relentless, 2009
What the Night Knows, 2011
long fiction (as Brian Coffey)
The Face of Fear, 1977
The Voice of the Night, 1980
long fiction (as Deanna Dwyer)
Children of the Storm, 1971
Demon Child, 1971
Legacy of Terror, 1971
The Dark of the Summer, 1972
Dance with the Devil, 1973
long fiction (as K. R. Dwyer)
Chase, 1972
Shattered, 1973
Dragonfly, 1975
long fiction (as Leigh Nichols)
Key to Midnight, 1979
The Eyes of Darkness, 1981
The House of Thunder, 1982
Twilight, 1984 (also known as The Servants of
Twilight, 1988)
Shadowfires, 1987
long fiction (as Owen West)
The Funhouse, 1980 (revised 1992)
The Mask, 1981
long fiction (Mike Tucker series; as Brian Coffey)
Blood Risk, 1973
Surrounded, 1974
The Wall of Masks, 1975
long fiction (mystery and detective)
Darkfall, 1984 (pb. in England as Darkness Comes)
Strangers, 1986
The Bad Place, 1990
Intensity, 1996
Sole Survivor, 1997
Fear Nothing, 1998
Seize the Night, 1998
False Memory, 1999
The Face, 2003
Life Expectancy, 2004
Velocity, 2005
The Husband, 2006
long fiction (mystery and detective; Odd Thomas
series)
Odd Thomas, 2003
Forever Odd, 2005
Brother Odd, 2006
Odd Hours, 2008
nonfiction
Writing Popular Fiction, 1972
How to Write Best-Selling Fiction, 1981
Life is Good! Lessons in Joyful Living, 2004
Christmas is Good! Trixie Treats and Holiday
Wisdom, 2005
nonfiction (with Gerda Koontz)
Bounce Girl, 1970 (also known as Aphrodisiac Girl)
The Pig Society, 1970
The Underground Lifestyles Handbook, 1970
poetry
The Time, the Place, 1969
Selected Poems, 1971
screenplay(s)
Phantoms, 1998 (adaptation of his novel)
short fiction
Strange Highways, 1995
short fiction (as Owen West)
Soft Come the Dragons, 1970
Biography
Dean Ray Koontz is one of the United States’ most prolific modern authors. He was born on July 9,
1945, the only child of Ray and Florence (called Molly) Koontz. He was raised in Everett, Pennsylvania.
From his fifth year, the family lived in a four-room shack built by his grandfather. It had a leaky, tar-paper
roof and no indoor plumbing until Koontz was nine or ten. His childhood was not happy, as his father was
an alcoholic and a philanderer, did not have regular work, was given to violence, and was in later life
diagnosed as a borderline schizophrenic. As a result, there was a daily worry as to whether there would be
somewhere to live or enough food to eat; books were not a priority. (In later life, though, Koontz would
accumulate a vast library.) His mother, a talented musician, tried to protect him. She died at the age of
fifty-three. Despite these problems, Koontz supported his father for the last fifteen years of his life before
he died at age eighty-one. Koontz’s early experiences gave him the insight to write about his troubled
characters with sympathy, many of them having been troubled children. Often his novels, whatever the
genre, deal with real issues like the ones he faced.
Because of his home life, Koontz became a voracious reader and includes Theodore Sturgeon, Charles
Dickens, Robert Heinlein, and Ray Bradbury among his favorite authors. As three of these are sciencefiction writers, it is not surprising that his earliest attempts at writing were science fiction. At a young age,
he created books by writing stories on tablet paper, drawing the covers, and stapling them together. The
results were sold to family members.
Koontz was educated at Shippensburg State College, gaining a B.A. in English in 1966. That year he
married Gerda Cerra, whom he had met at high school in Bedford, Pennsylvania, four years earlier. The
same year, at the age of twenty, he won a short-story competition run by The Atlantic Monthly for a story
called “The Kittens.”
After graduating from college, he worked as a teacher and counselor for the Appalachian Poverty
Program (1966-1967), where he attempted to educate and counsel potentially gifted children from poor
families. During this time he sold stories to F&SF: The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction.
Between 1967 and 1969 he taught English at a high school in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. In 1968 he sold
his first science-fiction novel, Star Quest, to Ace publishers. By the following year Koontz had sold three
novels, including Fear That Man and The Fall of the Dream Machine, as well as more than twenty short
stories. On the strength of this, his wife, Gerda, offered to support him as a full-time writer for five years.
This was in 1970, when he was still only twenty-five.
In 1971, his novella Beastchild was nominated for a Hugo Award, the most prestigious award in the
science fiction, voted on by the readers of the genre. Several of his later books and stories were also
nominated for awards. The following year, as well as the appearance of four more science fiction novels,
he sold his first pseudonymous work, the suspense novel Chase, which was published by Random House
under the byline of “K. R. Dwyer.” From then on, he sold a string of other titles, nearly all of which
appeared under pseudonyms because he was writing in radically different genres, such as suspense,
horror, and gothic. Pseudonyms he has used include David Axton, Brian Coffey, Deanna Dwyer, John
Hill, Leigh Nichols, Anthony North, Richard Paige, Owen West, and Aaron Wolfe. Later he would
republish much of his pseudonymous work under his own name. His success meant that in 1975, Gerda
was able to give up her job as a receptionist to work for Koontz full time, handling the ten thousand fan
letters he receives each year and assisting in research. In 1976 they moved to Southern California.
During the early years of his career, while he was dabbling with everything from fantasy to gothic
romance, he was edging toward the suspense genre, with works such as Chase and A Werewolf Among
Us. Publishers were beginning to label him a science-fiction writer, especially after his 1973 novel Demon
Seed (in which a woman is terrorized by an intelligent computer with ideas of world domination) was
filmed with Julie Christie as the star. Nevertheless, he increasingly set novels in the real world. Night
Chills deals with mind manipulation, and his 1977 novels, The Face of Fear and The Vision, are
believable portraits of insane characters. Koontz was a prolific journeyman writer in the various genres
but was receiving low advances and relatively little recognition. A number of his other books have been
filmed but he has often been unhappy with the treatment, something he was able to remedy by writing the
screenplay for Phantoms when it was filmed in 1998.
In 1979, he created his most successful pseudonym, Leigh Nichols. Under this byline he wrote
romantic mysteries, entering American best-seller lists with The Key to Midnight. The first best-seller
under his own name was Whispers, which brought him to the attention of a wider audience, and
subsequent novels showed increased sales. Since then, Koontz has become one of the big names in
popular fiction worldwide, with enough commercial clout to command substantial advances. Another
indication of his popularity can be seen in the increasing number of limited or special editions of his
work. His books have been published in thirty-eight languages. Koontz is a member of the Science
Fiction Writers and Fantasy of America and was elected the first president of the Horror Writers
Association in 1986-1987.
Essay by: Pauline Morgan
Bibliography
Greenberg, Martin. The Dean Koontz Companion. Riverside, Calif.: Berkley Trade, 1994. Includes
interviews with Koontz as well as essays on topics ranging from film versions of his work to the
idiosyncrasies of his style.
Kotker, Joan G. Dean Koontz: A Critical Companion. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1996.
Examines each of Koontz’s novels in terms of genre, theme, setting, plot, and character development.
Provides conventional and alternative readings of his works.
Koontz, Dean. How to Write Best-Selling Fiction. Cincinnati, Ohio: Writer’s Digest Books, 1972.
Koontz’s advice to writers sheds light on his own writing.
Koontz, Dean. Writing Popular Fiction. Cincinnati, Ohio: Writer’s Digest Books, 1981. In describing
how to write popular fiction, Koontz draws on his own experiences. Provides an insight into his works.
Kotker, Joan G. Dean Koontz: A Critical Companion. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1996. Kotker
examines Koontz’s mature fiction, focusing on novels such as Dark Rivers of the Heart, Intensity,
Lighting, and Watchers, providing both conventional and alternative readings of each.
Ramsland, Katherine. Dean Koontz: A Writer’s Biography. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997.
This full-length biography presents Koontz’s life from the days of his childhood to the mid-1990’s.
Ramsland draws parallels between Koontz’s writings and his life, sometimes to an illuminating effect.
Source: Cyclopedia of World Authors, Fourth Revised Edition, January 2003, p1, 2p
Item: 103331CWA22489810003274
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chor=toc
Try taking notes.
Your name _________________________________________ Period _______
Slide 1
The cover slide includes your hero’s name,
6 points
a picture of your hero, and your
name
Key – answers Dean R. Koontz
-- Coraline
Adams B5
will vary
Slide 2
Before He/She Became Famous
12 points
 He was born on July 9, 1945.
(Information
 He was born in Everett, Pennsylvania.
slide)
 His parents were Ray and Florence Koontz.
 He was an only child.
Include a graphic and four bullet-points of information.
Slide 3
How He/She Became Famous
12 points
 He went to college and earned a Bachelors degree in
(Information
English in 1966.
slide)
 He sold his first science fiction novel in 1968.
 In 1970 his wife offered to support him for five years
while he tried to make it as a writer.
 By 1975 his wife was able to quit work and work for
him.
Include a graphic and four bullet-points of information.
Slide 4
12 points
(Information
slide)
Slide 5
12 points
(Information
slide)
Obstacles He/She Faced (or) Why He/She is a Hero
 His family lived in a four room shack.
 He didn’t have books in his home, and he was often
hungry.
 His father was a violent alcoholic.
 His mother died when she was fifty-three.
Include a graphic and four bullet-points of information.
His/Her Major Accomplishments
 He has won major awards such as the Hugo Award.
 He has written over 100 (I will count them) books.
 Several of his books have been made into movies.
 His books have been published in thirty-eight
languages.
Slide 6
12 points
(Information
slide)
Include a graphic and four bullet-points of information.
His/Her Personal Life
 He married Gerda Cerra in 1966.
 In 1976 they moved to Southern California.
 I will find more information from my other sources.
 I will find more information from my other sources.
Slide 7
12 points
(Information
slide)
Include a graphic and four bullet-points of information.
Other Interesting Information
 He supported his father for fifteen years before his
father died, even though his father had been a violent
alcoholic when Dean was young.
 He receives ten thousand fan letters a year.
 He was elected the first president of the horror writer’s
association.

Include a graphic and four bullet-points of information.
Try taking notes. Your name _________________________________________ Period _______
Slide 1
The cover slide includes your hero’s name,
6 points
a picture of your hero, and your name
Dean R. Koontz
-- Coraline Adams
Slide 2
12 points
(Information slide)
Before He/She Became Famous
For this exercise, place
pieces of underlined
information from the
article where it would fit
on this chart.

Slide 3
12 points
(Information slide)



Include a graphic and four bullet-points of information.
How He/She Became Famous

For this exercise, place
pieces of underlined
information from the
article where it would fit
on this chart.

Slide 4
12 points
(Information slide)
Obstacles He/She Faced (or) Why He/She is a Hero
For this exercise, place
pieces of underlined
information from the
article where it would fit
on this chart.

Slide 5
12 points
(Information slide)
For this exercise, place
pieces of underlined
information from the
article where it would fit
on this chart.
Slide 6
12 points
(Information slide)
For this exercise, place
pieces of underlined
information from the
article where it would fit
on this chart.
Slide 7
12 points
(Information slide)
For this exercise, place
pieces of underlined
information from the
article where it would fit
on this chart.


Include a graphic and four bullet-points of information.



Include a graphic and four bullet-points of information.
His/Her Major Accomplishments




Include a graphic and four bullet-points of information.
His/Her Personal Life




Include a graphic and four bullet-points of information.
Other Interesting Information




Include a graphic and four bullet-points of information.