Whitley Strieber  Louis Whitley Strieber (; born June 13, 1945) is an American writer best known for his horror novels "The Wolfen" and "The Hunger" and for "Communion", a non-fiction account of his alleged experiences with non-human entities. He has maintained a dual career of author of fiction and advocate of paranormal concepts through his best-selling non-fiction books, his Unknown Country web site, and his Internet podcast, Dreamland. Strieber was born in San Antonio, Texas, the son of Kathleen Mary (Drought) and Karl Strieber, a lawyer. He attended Central Catholic High School in San Antonio, Texas. He was educated at the University of Texas at Austin and the London School of Film Technique, graduating from each in 1968. He then worked for several advertising firms in New York City, rising to the level of vice president before leaving in 1977 to pursue a writing career. Strieber began his career as a novelist with the horror novels "The Wolfen" (1978) and "The Hunger" (1981), both of which were made into feature films, followed by the less successful horror novels "Black Magic" (1982) and "The Night Church" (1983). Strieber then turned to speculative fiction with social conscience. Collaborating with James Kunetka, he wrote "Warday" (1984), about the dangers of limited nuclear warfare, and "Nature's End" (1986), a novel about environmental apocalypse. He independently authored "Wolf of Shadows" (1985), a young adult novel set in the aftermath of a nuclear war. In 1986, Strieber's fantasy novel "Catmagic" was published with co-authorship credited to Jonathan Barry, who was billed as an aerospace industry consultant and a practicing witch. In the 1987 paperback edition, Strieber states that Jonathan Barry is fictitious and that he is the sole author of "Catmagic". Strieber's personal publishing company, Walker & Collier, is named after two characters in "Catmagic". Later, less successful thrillers by Strieber include "Billy" (1990), "The Wild" (1991), "Unholy Fire" (1992) and "The Forbidden Zone" (1993). The author's short stories were collected in the 1997 limited edition volume "Evenings with Demons". More recent short stories include "The Good Neighbor", published in "", and "The Christmas Spirits" (2012), a modern retelling of Charles Dickens's "A Christmas Carol".