Elmore Leonard, Frank Herbert and Herman Wouk. All of the contributing authors’ pieces are
extremely brief.
King describes this passage in Robert Penn Warren’s All The King’s Men and states he likes it
because of the way that it ‘invites the reader in’: ‘To get there you follow Highway 58...You look up
the highway and it is straight for miles...with the black line down the center coming at you and at
you...and the heat dazzles up from the white slab so that only the black line is clear, coming at
you...and if you don’t quit staring at that line and don’t take a few breaths and slap yourself hard on
the back of the neck you’ll hypnotize yourself and you’ll come to just at the moment when the right
front wheel hooks over into the black dirt shoulder off the slab...and maybe you’ll try to reach to turn
off the ignition just as she starts to dive. But you won’t make it, of course.’
This piece appeared in the June 2, 1985 edition of The New York Times Book Review. This is an
important publication and many significant libraries hold microfilm or microfiche copies in their
archives.
The Politics of Limited Editions (June-July 1985)
This two-part essay explains that booksellers are angry with King for offering limited-edition
only books, especially considering his ‘brand name’ status: ‘I want to tell you why a lot of
booksellers in the United States are currently pissed off with me, and I want to tell you why I think it
is wrong for them to feel that way, and most of all I want to talk about the amazing way in which we
have come to perceive books—but first I need to tell you a story. In fact, I need to tell you three
stories. The conclusion of each of these little tales provides one-third of the reason for the current
state of piss-off among booksellers, at least as regards your humble correspondent.’
The article deals mainly with the reasons each of the three books discussed was published in a
limited edition format. King starts with The Dark Tower I: The Gunslinger and explains he published
this book for several reasons: ‘First, the five stories had been well-received in their magazine
publication192; second, I thought the entire story would make more sense when read as a whole; third,
Don Grant is exclusively a fantasy publisher with strong ties to the fantasy and science-fiction
community, and I wanted to say thank you to that community, which has provided me with creative
nourishment since my earliest youth and for all of my life as a writer. There were also at least three
reasons for doing it expressly as a limited edition: First, it was an oddity—set in a world more like
the perfervid Hyperborean landscape of Robert E. Howard than the common rural/suburban mileu
(sic) of the archetypal Stephen King novel. Second, I believed then and believe now that more
general readers would feel both shocked and cheated by the book’s lack of resolution—it is, after all,
the first section of a much longer work...Third, my mass-market publishers—New American Library
and Viking Press—had become increasingly uneasy about overexposure in the marketplace.’
Next, King talks about the limited edition of Cycle of the Werewolf. He relates the project began
as an idea for a calendar, with twelve vignettes written to cover each month of the year, but quickly
grew into a short novel, which The Land of Enchantment Press published as a limited. He felt Cycle,
like The Gunslinger wasn’t what his fans would expect. He then moves on to The Eyes of the
Dragon published by his own imprint, Philtrum Press and relates how this work was originally
conceived: it ‘began as a story for my daughter, who likes fantasy fiction but cares not at all for tales
of horror. She’s read little of my work, and quite simply put, I wanted to please her, and reach her. I
had an idea for something like a fairy tale—but because my daughter is 14 and a fairly sophisticated
reader, it was a fairy tale with teeth.’
In the second part of this lengthy and important essay, King defends his decisions and the idea of
limited editions in general. Closing with this theme he argues, ‘A real limited edition, far from being
an expensive autograph stapled to a novel, is a treasure. And like all treasures do, it transforms the
responsible owner into a caretaker, and being a caretaker of something as fragile and easily destroyed
as ideas and images is not a bad thing but a good one...and so is the reevaluation of what books are
and what they do that necessarily follows. So: that is why I did it...and why I may well do it again.
And again.’ As most King fans will know, King has continued to do it, most notably with the limited-
edition only collection Six Stories; and many limited editions of other novels, which were also
published in trade editions. With the exception of the original version of The Plant all King’s limited
edition fiction has seen print in a mass-market version; and the vast majority of the original The Plant
was included when the Internet edition of that tale was released.
This article was published over two parts in Castle Rock: The Stephen King Newsletter, in the
June and July 1985 issues. Back issues of Castle Rock can be obtained relatively easily from sources
that specialize in King publications.
Lists That Matter (No. 14) (October 1985)
Lists That Matter was a series of five-minute radio spots recorded for King’s Bangor, Maine
radio station, WZON in 1985 (see our King’s Unpublished Non-Fiction chapter for the story behind
these features). (No.14) opens: ‘It occurred to me the other day that in least one way I’m quite a bit
more fortunate than other men. Women, even in our liberated society, are sometimes allowed to show
fear, but men are supposed to be rough and macho no matter what. If you admit you’re frightened in
some situation, you are labeled a wimp or a scaredy-cat. But because I write scary stuff for a living,
I’m allowed to admit that I’m sometimes afraid. In fact, today I’d like to share ten of my fears with
you—and if you’ve ever shivered inwardly at one of these things, join the club.’
The ten fears are: being halfway across the ocean during a transcontinental flight; checking the
circuit breaker in a dark cellar; being hit by lightning; showering and thinking about the infamous
scene from Psycho; elevators; contracting a terrible disease from a street vendor; someone in the
backseat of a vehicle; getting a telephone call late at night; being on top of a skyscraper and hearing
the building creak on a windy day; and he leaves the last fear blank for the reader (or, as this was
broadcast on WZON Radio before it was printed, listener) to fill in.
Four other Lists That Matter articles were published: Lists That Matter (see below); Lists That
Matter (Number 7) and Lists That Matter (Number 8) (both covered in our Opinion—Radio, Music,
Film and Television chapter), all in Castle Rock: The Stephen King Newsletter; and His Creepiest
Movies (Opinion—Radio, Music, Film and Television chapter), in USA Today.
This piece appeared in the October 1985 edition of Castle Rock: The Stephen King Newsletter;
copies are easily secured from specialist King resellers.
What Ails the U.S. Male: Fire and Ice Cream (November 1985)
While King is often witty and entertaining in his non-fiction, he is serious here and opens: ‘Men
need all kinds of things from women. We need to be mothered—sometimes even by our mothers. We
need to be challenged, and to be pushed, occasionally, to do our best. We need love from women—
and we need admiration. And I think that women give us an outlet through which we can explore our
more tender emotions.’ This piece of only a few paragraphs carries important insights and closes, ‘In
fact, I think women are very glad to be able to offer a man a little comfort, a little rest. But they also
know there are a lot of times when it’s a bunch of bullshit.’
This piece appeared in the November 1985 issue of Mademoiselle magazine, copies of which
may be secured from used magazine sources and King resellers. It is also archived by some libraries.
My Say: Stephen King (December 20, 1985)
Here King responds to a ‘My Say’ column by Ron Busch (published in the November 15, 1985
issue of Publishers Weekly): ‘It’s wonderful that Ron Busch has had some time to think about the
problems in paperback publishing...He has pinpointed the problem, but has missed the clearest
cause.’
As a major author and after some years of involvement with the publishing business, King shows
he understands the ins and outs of the matter of declining paperback sales. Offering his own solution
to the problem he writes, ‘Sales potential exists now. Realization of that potential depends upon the
willingness of paperback publishers to develop their own stable of reliable, salable writers (and this,
as Busch indicates, depends to a large degree on the willingness of houses who sell both hard and
soft to separate their trade and to drum into the heads of all concerned an 11th commandment: Thou
Shalt Not Covet Thy Neighbor’s Scribbler) and to widen their commitment to sell books not already
pre-sold, either by the name of the writer or by their own megabuck investments.’
King concludes, ‘Paperback publishers need to go back to the beginning and start looking not
just for bucks but for good writers; to form a supportive bond with these writers. In the past,
paperback publishers have been reapers. Now they must begin to plant and cultivate as well.’
This article first appeared in the December 20, 1985 issue of Publishers Weekly magazine; and
is reprinted in The Stephen King Companion, edited by George Beahm; and in The Lost Work of
Stephen King by Stephen J. Spignesi. Publishers Weekly may be secured from secondhand magazine
sources and these issues often appear on eBay and at specialist King resellers. Also, many libraries
archive the journal.
Lists That Matter (January 1986)
This unnumbered installment of King’s Lists That Matter begins: ‘Today it’s time to accentuate
the positive by beginning to enumerate the Best Things in Life—not necessarily free, but definitely the
best. There are certain universals when it comes to the best things, but for today I’d ask you to chew
on this: isn’t a person’s idea of the best there is really a function of that person’s age? I’m positive
that it is. A kid’s idea of the best TV show might be Masters of the Universe, but it’s very unlikely
that his father would list the same show as the best thing on the tube. It’s not impossible—it’s
possible to be a dad and still have the brain of a retarded Chihuahua dog, I suppose—but unlikely. So
with that idea in mind, I’d like to offer my list of the ten best things at the ten ages of a person’s life.’
These ages are: seven, fourteen, twenty-one, twenty-eight, thirty-five, forty-two, forty-nine, fifty-
six, sixty-three and seventy. For the age of seven, King claims, ‘the best thing is an ice cream cone,
especially if it’s your favorite flavor and a double-dip.’ At the other end of the spectrum, at seventy
the best thing is ‘to still be alive, healthy, and with most of your brain-cells still working. Man, if I
make it that far I’m gonna throw the biggest party of my life.’ He concludes, ‘We could go on—the
bests don’t stop at 70—but it makes a convenient place to pack it in. As for me, I hope that today
you’re having the best day of the best year of a remarkably fine life.’
Four other Lists That Matter articles were published: Lists That Matter (Number 14) (see
above); Lists That Matter (Number 7) and Lists That Matter (Number 8) (both covered in our
Opinion—Radio, Music, Film and Television chapter); all in Castle Rock: The Stephen King
Newsletter; and His Creepiest Movies (see our Opinion—Radio, Music, Film and Television
chapter), in USA Today.
This article appeared in the January 1986 edition of Castle Rock: The Stephen King Newsletter.
Copies of the newsletter are easily secured from specialist King resellers.
Tough Talk and Tootsies, Just 25 Cents (May 23, 1986)
King wonders: ‘ Was there a Golden Age for paperback originals—that is, books that were never
published as hardbacks before they appeared in softcovers? Part of me wants to deny the idea
(Confucius says: When a man begins to believe in golden ages, he is on his way to being a golden
ager). A larger part, however, insists there was such an age.’ King fondly recalls certain hard-boiled
crime novelists whose names recur frequently in his writing and to whom he owes a debt of both
inspiration and entertainment—John D. MacDonald, Donald E. Westlake 193, and Evan Hunter/Ed
McBain194.
Regarding paperback originals by these and similar authors: ‘And they don’t cost a quarter
anymore. Fancy foil lettering has in many cases replaced the illustrations of tough men and willing
women, and publishers of paperback originals continue their retreat from the arena of the general
novel and into the safe pens of such genres as romance, science-fiction, mystery, and horror. But there
was a time when you could have...well, the girl, the gold watch, and everything. Which just happens
to be the name of a John D. MacDonald paperback original which sold for...Yeah, you guessed it.’ (In
that theme this piece was originally titled Escape for a Quarter.)
King has always had an interest in the hard-boiled crime story. In fact, when asked to write a
blurb for editor Charles Ardai’s series of mass-market paperback crime originals under the Hard
Case Crime imprint, King instead turned in the short novel The Colorado Kid, which Ardai published
in the fall of 2005.
This piece (and its sidebar, The Camus of Crime, discussed below) both appeared in the May
23, 1986 issue of USA Today. Only a few major libraries archive this newspaper. Original copies
appear, although rarely, on eBay and with King resellers.
The Camus of Crime (May 23, 1986)
This extremely short piece (a sidebar to Tough Talk and Tootsies, Just 25 Cents, discussed
above) is about crime novelist Jim Thompson, one of King’s favorites195. He writes fondly: ‘Most
paperback originals of that time (like most of today’s) were schlock—but behind some of those garish
covers lurked talents that would be overlooked for years; in the case of some, until long after the
writers were dead. The greatest may have been Jim Thompson, who died in 1977.’
Stephen King Comments onIT(July 1986)
Here King responds to an article by Michael R. Collings— IT: Stephen King’s Comprehensive
Masterpiece, printed in the same publication. Collings is a noted King critic and author of several
King books, including: The Shorter Works of Stephen King, The Stephen King Phenomenon,
Stephen King as Richard Bachman, and Horror Plum’d: An International Stephen King
Bibliography and Guide—1960-2000.
He opens: ‘Dear Michael, Thank you for your kind letter and the accompanying essay. I’m
pleased that you liked the book so well. Actually, I like it pretty well myself, but when I saw that
ludicrous stack of manuscript pages, I immediately fell into a defensive crouch. I think the days when
any novel as long as this gets much of a critical reading are gone. I suspect part of my defensiveness
comes from the expectation of poor reviews, partly from my own feeling that that book really is too
long.’
King describes the genesis of It, one of his most widely loved novels (discussed in more detail
in How IT Happened, below); and details comparisons of the fictional city in the novel, Derry to his
hometown of Bangor, Maine. King had discussed this before, in A Novelist’s Perspective on Bangor
(see above). ‘Derry is no more Bangor than Gordie Lachance in The Body is the young Steve King.
Derry 1985 has the characteristics of Bangor, geographically, but Derry 1958 is Stratford,
Connecticut, where I was eleven,’ he writes and closes, ‘Well, the hour groweth late and the dog
needeth to be walked. So I close. But thanks. And I’ll be around if you want to pull my chain.’
This important article only appeared in the July 1986 issue of Castle Rock: The Stephen King
Newsletter and is deserving of a wider audience. Back issues may be obtained from the usual King
dealers.
Solving the Mystery of Bobby’s Return toDallas(August 30—September 5, 1986)
TV Guide asked several people (including Roy Blount, Jr., Judith Krantz, Cyra McFadden and
Erich Segal) to give their theories on Bobby Ewing’s return to the television show, Dallas (a major
media event in the network TV of the time). King’s answer was part of this article. His contribution
was only one paragraph and, as with all the other contributors, is very tongue-in-cheek: ‘The answer
to the question of how Bobby Ewing comes back is very simple. Bobby Ewing is still dead. He has
been reanimated, probably by enemies of J. R.’s with access to certain arcane books and rituals.’
This piece appeared in the August 30-September 5, 1986 issue of TV Guide. Back issues of this
magazine may be found at various online magazine dealers and occasionally from the usual King
sellers and eBay. As millions of these magazines are printed each week the original is not rare and
collectors should not have to pay more than a small fee.
The Novelist Sounds Off (October 6, 1986)
This short article consists of nine different areas on which King gives his brief opinion (a
paragraph or less for each): On ‘important’ fiction; On childhood; On exorcism; On writing; On
horror; On psychoanalysis; On Success; On the competition; and On his own novels. The response to
this last area is a self-deprecating description oft used by the author and of his own making: ‘The
literary equivalent of a Big Mac and a large fries from McDonald’s.’ It should be noted that King has,
in more recent years, accepted at least some of his deserved position in the recent literary pantheon
and generally desisted from comparing his work to fast food.
The piece appeared in the October 6, 1986 issue of Time magazine. As this magazine is a major
publication most significant libraries will archive bound hard copies or issues on
microfilm/microfiche. If readers wish to own the original magazine the issue is generally available
from a variety of secondhand and online resources.
Untitled (October 31, 1986)
Unusually, this piece is an advertisement the Kings took out in their local newspaper notifying
people the family would not be at home that Halloween. One sentence of text accompanies a
Halloween-themed drawing of their Bangor home. It appeared in the October 31, 1986 edition of the
Bangor Daily News newspaper. Copies of Bangor Daily News pieces may be secured from the
microfiche files at the Fogler Library of the University of Maine at Orono (at no charge, if you
actually visit), from the newspaper direct (at a significant fee), or from visiting the Maine State
Library in Augusta.
HowITHappened (October 1986)
In this piece, King explains where the ideas for his stories originate (even though, as we well
know, this is a difficult question to answer). More specifically, he deals with the genesis of his
blockbuster novel It: ‘When an idea comes, it comes all at once. It’s so bright it blinds you like a
flashbulb in a darkroom. Without reflection—which is to say, a close look at the after-image—it’s
meaningless. I thought of the fairy tale called “The Three Billy-Goat’s Gruff” and wondered what I
would do if a troll called out from beneath me, “Who is trip-trapping upon my bridge?” All of a
sudden I wanted to write a novel about a real troll under a real bridge. I stopped, thinking of a line by
Marianne Moore, something about “real toads in imaginary gardens,” only it came out “real trolls in
imaginary gardens.”’
One of the major themes King has dealt with throughout his career is childhood. More so than
perhaps any of his other works, It tackles this subject: ‘I started to remember Stratford, Connecticut,
where I had lived as a kid. In Stratford there was a library where the adult section and children’s
section were connected by a short corridor. The architecture of the adult section was Victorian; that
of the children’s library was 1950s modern. I decided that the corridor was also a bridge, one across
which every goat of a child must risk trip-trapping to become an adult.’
This important piece first appeared in the October 1986 issue of Book-of-the-Month Club News
and was later excerpted as Writing the #1 Bestseller...How IT Happened in the April 1987 edition of
The Writer magazine. Perhaps in recognition of its importance King allowed a reprint of the full
article in the Book-of-the-Month Club collection Secret Windows: Essays and Fiction on the Craft
of Writing. While the original appearance is difficult to secure (King resellers are the best option)
The Writer is collectable and appears regularly at used magazine sources and King resellers. Secret
Windows is often offered for sale at used booksellers and King resellers.
Why I WroteThe Eyes of the Dragon(February 1987)
King explains here he wrote The Eyes of the Dragon for his daughter, Naomi. He had
previously explained his reasons when this novel was only available in a limited edition, in The
Politics of Limited Editions, covered earlier in this chapter. He says: ‘I’m afraid I don’t make the
Top Ten on her list of favorites; in fact, I think I can say with some conviction that I’m not even on the
Top Forty. She’s made it clear that she loves me, but has very little interest in my vampires, ghoulies,
and slushy crawling things. Very well. I decided that if the mountain would not go to Mohammed, then
Mohammed must go to the mountain...except that my daughter is no more a mountain than I am a
prophet. I sat down one night in our western Maine house to start this story, which was started out
(sic) being called The Napkins. It was the perfect time and place to start such a story: I was alone in
the house, there was a screaming northeaster blowing snow across the frozen lake outside, and I was
sitting in front of the woodstove with a yellow legal pad in my hand and a cold beer on the table.’
It is clear from this essay that Eyes is close to King’s heart. It may have been a departure from
his usual output but, as we have seen in the past (and will continue to see in the future), such
departures are nothing new to this particular author. He closes: ‘Writing The Eyes of the Dragon was
a satisfying and exciting act; like Naomi, I was a little sorry to see it end. If I hadn’t wanted to please
her I would have missed that excitement and satisfaction, so I guess that’s one I owe the kid, isn’t it?’
This important piece appeared in the February 1987 edition of Castle Rock: The Stephen King
Newsletter and is deserving of a wider audience. Back issues of Castle Rock may be obtained from
the usual King dealers. A Postscript to ‘Overdrive’ (see our Opinion—Venturing into Politics
chapter) also appeared in this issue.
Turning the Thumbscrews on the Reader (June 1987)
Writers and writing has been a theme in King’s work from the very beginning (in fact, in recent
years he has suffered some criticism for allegedly ‘over-using’ writer characters). Prominent
examples of King merging his own craft into his fiction include The Shining, The Dark Half, Secret
Window, Secret Garden and Bag of Bones. This short essay was published close to the release of
another of his works dealing heavily with the subject: ‘I got done with Misery and I could hardly
believe what I’d done. I’d written a book that consisted of two characters in one room. In some ways,
I worked harder on that book than on anything before. It’s not like anything I ever wrote. In a lot of my
other books there are characters who are writers, but the books are not about writing; Misery is.’
Obviously, prose is King’s forte and he accepts as much in other non-fiction pieces, including
On Writing (see also our Opinion—The Craft of Writing chapter). Although he has dabbled in
directing (Maximum Overdrive), movie and TV production, a proposed stage show, and even rock
music (he was a member of a band of writers and critics, The Rock Bottom Remainders) he knows
where home is. King writes of his place in life and compares himself to Misery’s protagonist as this
piece ends: ‘Writing books is the only thing I know how to do really. I’m like Paul, the hero in
Misery, in that way. I lead a fairly boring life, except when I write. And when I write, man, I have
wonderful adventures.’
This notable piece first appeared in the June 1987 issue of Book-of-the-Month Club News and
was reprinted in the Book-of-the-Month Club collection Secret Windows: Essays and Fiction on the
Craft of Writing. While the original appearance is difficult to secure (King resellers are the best
option) Secret Windows is often offered for sale at used booksellers and King resellers.
On John D. MacDonald (1987)
If readers don’t know John D. MacDonald from his novels (and the many times King has written
of him and his work) they may well have noticed his Introduction to King’s early collection, Night
Shift. In this piece, King recalls the editing process for Night Shift and his editor, Bill Thompson,
asking whom he would want to write the introduction. King’s answer—John D. MacDonald: ‘His
agreement to do that introduction and its prompt arrival a couple of weeks later pleased and
impressed me more than the kind things the essay itself had to say about my work; MacDonald’s
generosity to a young writer who he’d never met helped to keep that young writer open to the needs—
and wistful hopes—of other young writers, and I have tried to pay him back for his kindness by
passing it on. In other words, I’ve tried to heed the dictum to go and do thou likewise.’ Indeed King
has written many introductions and similar pieces for other writers; see our chapter Introducing the
Work of Others.
King delivers some of the most heartfelt words he’s ever written in appreciation of a fellow
author: ‘The death of a writer who has spoken so clearly from his own heart into your own is always
a painful, scouring thing, and I’m in a little too much grief to find any uplifting conclusion (although,
as John would have pointed out, you sure could if the editor was screaming for it over the phone at
the same time your wife was screaming for a loaf of bread from the kitchen). It doesn’t seem right to
me, somehow, that a voice like that should ever be stilled...Man, he was a good writer, wasn’t he?
When you went out to the drugstore to grab a paperback, most times you got a bologna sandwich.
With John, you got the whole fucking delicatessen. And man, he was a good man. Jesus, John. I miss
you.’
This obscure but important piece, deserving of reprint and a broader circulation, appears only in
The Mystery Scene Reader: A Special Tribute to John D. MacDonald, edited by Ed Gorman. That
book was published in a limited edition (of 1500) in trade paperback format by Fedora in 1987.
Copies appear from time to time at Internet based used booksellers and King resellers.
Entering the Rock Zone, Or, How I Happened to Marry a Rock Station from Outer Space
(October 1987)
King begins this oddly titled piece, ‘I ended up owning a small AM rock and roll station in my
hometown about the same way most people get married: one happy accident followed by a chain of
circumstances, followed by the preacher and the vows. In my case, the happy accident was getting a
rental car which only had an AM radio at Logan Airport in Boston. I protested this vigorously and got
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