Jay Anson

{{Short description|American author}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=April 2020}}

{{sources|date=February 2021}}

{{Infobox writer

|name = Jay Anson

|image =

|caption = Jay Anson as he appeared in a 1979 episode of In Search Of...

|birth_name =

|birth_date = {{birth date|1921|11|04}}

|birth_place = New York City, U.S.

|death_date = {{death date and age|1980|03|12|1921|11|04}}

|death_place = Palo Alto, California, U.S.

|residence =

|nationality =

|other_names =

|notableworks = The Amityville Horror

|education =

|alma_mater =

|employer =

|occupation = Writer, author

}}

Jay Anson (November 4, 1921 – March 12, 1980) was an American author whose most famous work was The Amityville Horror.{{Cite news|date=2006-05-11|title=George Lutz, 59, Who Found Horror in Amityville, Dies (Published 2006)|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/11/obituaries/11lutz.html|access-date=2021-02-15|issn=0362-4331}}{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1978/01/22/archives/behind-the-best-sellers-jay-anson.html|title=BEHIND THE BEST SELLERS|author=Judy Klemesrud|website=The New York Times |date=

January 22, 1978}} After the runaway success of that novel, he wrote 666, which also dealt with a haunted house. He died in 1980.

His work, The Amityville Horror, was sold as "a true story", and it was based on the reported experiences of George Lutz and Kathleen Lutz at 112 Ocean Avenue in December 1975. The Lutzes had sold the rights to the book to Anson, who had added to and adapted some of the Lutz's original claims. A film was later made of the book in 1979, which exemplified these additions. Anson died a year later.