Jay Anson

Jay Anson was an American author best known for writing The Amityville Horror (1977), a purportedly true account of paranormal events experienced by a family in a Long Island house that became a major bestseller and influenced the horror genre through its book, film, and cultural adaptations. The claims in the book have been widely disputed and are considered a hoax by many investigators and critics.

Born in New York on November 4, 1921, Anson began his professional life as a copy boy at the New York Evening Journal in 1937 before working as a newspaperman for the New York Herald Tribune and later in publicity, advertising, and film promotion. For about 15 years prior to his breakthrough, he was a partner in a company that produced promotional featurettes—short behind-the-scenes films about movies—and accumulated screenwriting credits on various short films and uncredited rewrites. He wrote The Amityville Horror based on extensive taped interviews with George and Kathy Lutz, supplemented by discussions with local police, a priest, and historical society members, presenting their claims in straightforward prose while maintaining that he reported their sincere beliefs without independently verifying supernatural elements. Anson composed much of the manuscript during a three-month recovery from a heart attack shortly after agreeing to the project. His book served as the basis for the 1979 film adaptation. He died on March 12, 1980.

Jay Anson was born on November 4, 1921, in New York, USA. Multiple biographical sources specify his birthplace as New York City. He was American by birth and grew up in the New York area, which later served as the base for his early professional work in journalism and film.

Jay Anson began his professional career in 1937 as a copy boy at the New York Evening Journal. He subsequently worked in advertising and publicity. After World War II, he transitioned to publicity roles related to the film industry.

These early positions in journalism and related fields established his foundation in media and communications before his later work in documentary production.

Following World War II, Jay Anson worked as a publicity man for a movie studio. For approximately the final 15 years of this phase of his career, from around 1964 to 1979, he was a partner in a company that specialized in producing featurettes. These featurettes, often described as “a movie about a movie,” consisted of short behind-the-scenes films typically lasting 10 to 12 minutes and frequently aired on television following the main feature. Anson wrote approximately 500 such featurettes during this period. His projects included making-of featurettes for films such as Klute , Deliverance , and The Exorcist . This work in featurette production overlapped with his activities in documentary scriptwriting.

Jay Anson built his early career as a documentary film writer in New York City, where he was employed at Professional Films on midtown Broadway. Described in contemporary accounts as a mild-mannered professional in the field, he specialized in crafting scripts for documentary productions.

One documented project from his time in this role was a short documentary featurette he wrote in 1973 about the making of the film The Exorcist, during which he spent time on set and formed a connection with the film's technical consultant, Father John Nicola.

His background in documentary scriptwriting, which required a focus on factual presentation and research, later influenced his approach to writing in a realistic, truth-seeking style.

Jay Anson transitioned from a long career in documentary film and television to literature later in life, beginning his work as a book author after decades in the industry. He had spent the preceding 15 years as a partner in a company producing featurettes—short behind-the-scenes films often aired on television—and had written scripts for approximately 500 such projects.