Peter Kortner; Novelist, Television Writer

Peter Kortner, 66, a writer whose TV credits included “Playhouse 90,” “The DuPont Show of the Week,” “The Farmer’s Daughter” and others. Kortner left Hollywood for London after the demise of live drama and wrote three novels, “Jim for Sale,” “A Slightly Used Woman” and “Breakfast With a Stranger.” He returned to the United States in 1975, where he was artist in residence at the University of Illinois before returning to California. In Sonoma on Saturday of respiratory failure.