Jaws is a 1974 novel by
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 grows 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 where Benchley struggled as a freelance journalist.