Peter Benchley’s personal collection heads to auction Oct. 29

Willow Auction House will sell nearly 300 lots from Peter Benchley’s estate in Lincoln Park, New Jersey, with proceeds benefiting ocean conservation groups WildAid and Beneath the Sea. The sale includes Jaws memorabilia, White House mementos, diving gear, manuscripts and historical artifacts that trace Benchley’s life as an author, speechwriter and conservationist.

Why it matters: - The auction offers a rare, personal look at Peter Benchley beyond Jaws, showing how the author’s career, collecting habits and ocean advocacy overlapped. - Proceeds will benefit WildAid and Beneath the Sea, linking the sale directly to marine conservation, ocean education and exploration. - The collection connects a pop-culture landmark to Benchley’s later role as a defender of sharks and the ocean.

What happened: - Willow Auction House will present The Peter Benchley Collection: Jaws, A Life of Writing, A Legacy of Stories on Thursday, Oct. 29, 2026, at 11:00 a.m. ET in Lincoln Park, New Jersey. - The sale features nearly 300 lots from the personal collection of Peter Benchley, who lived from 1940 to 2006. - Online bidding will be available.

The details: - The auction includes original Jaws production photographs and memorabilia, Benchley’s 1975 Jaws one-sheet movie poster, personal typewriters, books, research materials, awards and personal effects. - A Jaws T-shirt gifted directly to Benchley by director Steven Spielberg is among the highlights. - The collection also includes White House photographs, presentation pieces and personal material tied to President Lyndon B. Johnson and First Lady Lady Bird Johnson. - Several of those White House-related pieces were recently shown at the LBJ Presidential Library in Austin, Texas, in the 2025 exhibition From the White House to the Deep Ocean: LBJ, Jaws and Conservation. - Items from that group include Benchley’s White House place card, professional identification and personal desk items. - The sale also reflects Benchley’s family legacy through paintings by his father, Nathaniel Benchley, and an original pen-and-ink family drawing by caricaturist Al Hirschfeld. - Historical highlights include a 13th-century French vellum Bible leaf, a royal decree signed by Philip II of Spain, documents associated with Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile, and an early copy of The Massachusetts Spy. - Maritime works in the sale include Christopher Blossom’s Ship Allerton and Thomas Hoyne’s First and Saucy, each estimated at $6,000 to $8,000. - Additional sea-related material includes marine paintings, maps, photographs and nautical artifacts. - The collection also features Benchley’s diving equipment, a Henderson titanium wetsuit, shark teeth, fossils and archaeological artifacts recovered by Peter and Wendy Benchley, including objects linked to Bermuda shipwrecks. - Photographs of Benchley diving with sharks and manta rays document his shift from Jaws author to ocean advocate.

Between the lines: - The breadth of the collection suggests Benchley saw himself as more than a novelist; the auction frames him as a White House insider, historian, collector and conservationist. - The mix of literary, political and maritime items underscores how Jaws became only one part of a larger public legacy. - The auction also reflects a broader cultural reappraisal of sharks, from fear-driven symbolism to conservation conversation.

What’s next: - Bidding will open when Willow Auction House sells the collection on Oct. 29, 2026. - Conservation groups WildAid and Beneath the Sea will receive the auction proceeds. - The sale could draw interest from Jaws collectors, literary buyers, political-history enthusiasts and maritime collectors alike.

The bottom line: - Benchley’s estate sale is not just about a blockbuster novel. It is a curated snapshot of a life shaped by writing, power, the sea and the effort to protect it. - More information is available from Willow Auction House.