STEPHEN KING
THE NON-FICTION
R OCKY W OOD
AND
J USTIN B ROOKS
CEMETERY DANCE PUBLICATIONS
Baltimore
Copyright © 2011 by
Rocky Wood and Justin Brooks
My Little Serrated Security Blanket © by Stephen King was first
published in the December 1995 issue of Outside Magazine.
Cemetery Dance Publications Digital Edition 2011
ISBN 978-1-58767-246-0
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Argument
A Note About King Resources
Early Columns—King’s Garbage Truck
Danse Macabre, On Writing
Baseball—Faithful; Head Down and the Red Sox Obsession
Opinion—The Craft of Writing
Author’s Notes and Introductions to His Own Work
Later Columns—The Pop of King
Introducing the Work of Others
Book Reviews
Letters to the Editor, Guest Columns
Opinion—Radio, Music, Film and Television
Opinion—Venturing into Politics
Miscellany
My Little Serrated Security Blanket by Stephen King
King’s Unpublished Non-Fiction
Addendum
A Final Argument
Footnotes
Bibliography and Index
Acknowledgements, Dedication and About the Authors
ARGUMENT: A GUIDE TO
KING’S NON-FICTION
Fiction, after all, is lies and more lies...which is why the Puritans could never really get
behind it and go with the flow. In a work of fiction, if you get stuck you can always make
something up or back up a few pages and change something around. With nonfiction, there’s all
that bothersome business of making sure your facts are straight, that the dates jibe, that the names
are spelled right....
—From Danse Macabre.
In the Afterword to the original version of The Dark Tower—The Gunslinger Stephen King
revealed the genesis of a term that would feature in his epic Dark Tower Cycle: “I believe that I
probably owe readers who have come this far with me some sort of synopsis (“the argument”, those
great old romantic poets would have called it) of what is to come....” He later presented such an
Argument in each of the second, third and fourth volumes of the Cycle, as a summary of the action in
the saga to date. For Wolves of the Calla (the fifth book) he presented a new title, The Final
Argument, without indicating why he considered it unnecessary to present such reviews for the last
two installments, The Song of Susannah and The Dark Tower.
Using King’s definition—‘synopsis’—here is our Argument.
Stephen King, the world’s most popular author, and an acknowledged expert on the craft of
fiction writing, had this to say in the Forenote to his study of horror, Danse Macabre:
“Fiction, after all, is lies and more lies...which is why the Puritans could never really get behind
it and go with the flow. In a work of fiction, if you get stuck you can always make something up or
back up a few pages and change something around. With nonfiction, there’s all that bothersome
business of making sure your facts are straight, that the dates jibe, that the names are spelled right....”
This is exactly what the authors have tried to achieve with this volume—total accuracy.
Wherever possible we used original sources in developing this work, finding and reading the
original material (rather than transcriptions), preferably and in almost every case in the context of the
complete publication in which it appeared. As a result we have been able to correct previous errors
of fact, including incorrect citations such as pagination, date of publication and in some cases even
the publication name and name of the piece! While this was a lengthy, time-consuming and sometimes
expensive task, it was ultimately rewarding. Any errors in this volume should be our own and not that
of previous researchers or sources, although we take care to note such sources and credit them for
original material, or that we were unable to otherwise confirm.
In considering the mass of King’s non-fiction writings we were cognizant that Stephen King:
The Non-Fiction would be the first significant review dedicated to this area of the master author’s
canon. 1 Rocky Wood had already published an extensive review of King’s unpublished fiction,
Stephen King: Uncollected, Unpublished2; and an encyclopedic 6000+ page reference work
covering all King’s fiction, published or not3. Justin Brooks was also able to cite most of the material
covered in this book in his Stephen King: A Primary Bibliography of the World’s Most Popular
Author4, although that volume had a cut-off date of 31 December 2005. Further material came to light
after that manuscript was submitted and is included here (for instance Band Uniforms).
We understood that most fans and readers knew King had written three non-fiction books and
may have noticed his introductions and author’s notes to his own works; but also that few knew of his
hundreds of columns, articles, book reviews and criticism. With over 590 pieces of non-fiction in our
research files, and dozens of those unknown or little known to the King community and to his broader
fan base, it was instantly clear that such a volume would benefit both present and future academia,
King researchers and readers.
In the process of our research we were able to uncover quite a number of pieces of non-fiction
previously unknown to the King community. This was achieved through a number of different research
methods including: reviewing the entire microfiche file of The Maine Campus (the University of
Maine at Orono student newspaper) during the period King attended; an in-depth review of the files
of the Bangor Daily News (King’s ‘local’ newspaper, for which he has written numerous articles and
letters to the editor); two research trips to Maine, including visits to Durham, Lisbon Falls, Augusta,
Bangor and Rockland; the valued assistance of King’s office (even they lack some of the works; we
were proud to be able to provide a number to expand their files); and the assistance of King
researchers, super-collectors and collectors worldwide.
Among the pieces reviewed in detail for the first time here are:
* From King’s high school days, as sports reporter for the Lisbon Enterprise- Progno For
Tourney Go: Steve Thinks Chances Slim and Tit For Tat At Tourney: Lisbon High Hot And
Cold (these are additional to similar pieces King describes in On Writing)
* A non-fiction piece from his high school newspaper, The Drum— Band Uniforms
* A 1967 column in The Maine Campus supporting US troops in Vietnam
* From The Maine Campus— a review of the Spring 1969 issue of Ubris (Ubris is the Best
Ever); an amazing movie review (‘No Vietnamese Ever Called Me Nigger’); and a number of
letters to the editor
* 23 unpublished pieces of non-fiction, including Culch and Your Kind of Place
* Previously unknown letters to the editor
* Introductions to the work of other authors; and book reviews published in unusual venues
* Comprehensive reviews of King’s non-fiction in the Bangor Daily News and other Maine
newspapers, some of it quite controversial
* King’s early baseball writing, mostly published in Maine newspapers
Every known piece of King’s published and unpublished non-fiction work is covered here. We have
divided this huge number of works into a series of chapters organized by subject matter, and most of
those are then presented in chronological order. This will allow readers to get a strong feel for
King’s opinions on a particular subject and their evolution. We also indicate how a reader might
obtain a copy of each piece and how difficult a task that might be.
We have split the chapters between ‘Major’ Non-Fiction and more ‘Minor’ works. These are the
groupings you will find in this book:
King’s Major Non-Fiction:
Early Columns—King’s Garbage Truck
Danse Macabre, On Writing
Baseball—Faithful; Head Down and the Red Sox Obsession
Opinion—The Craft of Writing
Author’s Notes and Introductions to His Own Work
Later Columns—The Pop of King
King’s Minor Non-Fiction:
Introducing the Work of Others
Book Reviews
Letters to the Editor, Guest Columns
Opinion—Radio, Music, Film and Television
Opinion—Venturing into Politics
Miscellany
Following these chapters is a special section covering King’s Unpublished Non-Fiction; and a
Bibliography listing of all King’s non-fiction (with detailed citations).
Stephen King is one of the most successful authors of all time in terms of sales and readership.
As the years have passed his work has progressed in literary opinion and the author has begun to
receive acknowledgement for the high quality of his writing as well as the sheer power of his stories.
Even the august magazine The New Yorker has taken to regularly publishing King’s stories. But until
recently most awards have come from within the Horror, science-fiction and Fantasy literary
communities and recognition from one’s own peers is likely to have brought King a certain degree of
satisfaction, considering his early roots as a hard-core fan and consumer of these genres.
The Bram Stoker Awards have been awarded since 1987 by members of the Horror Writers
Association. King has won Best Novel for Misery (in a tie with McCammon’s epic, Swan Song), The
Green Mile and Bag of Bones; Best Fiction Collection for Four Past Midnight; Best Long Fiction
for Lunch at the Gotham Café; and Best Non-Fiction for On Writing. He has been nominated a
further 18 times. In 2003 the Association awarded him its Lifetime Achievement Award.
The World Fantasy Awards are nominated by members of the World Fantasy Convention and
selected by a panel of judges to acknowledge excellence in fantasy writing and art. King has won the
Convention Award and the Short Fiction Award, for The Man in the Black Suit.
The British Fantasy Society has awarded King the August Derleth Award for Best Novel in
1983 (Cujo), 1987 (It), 1999 (Bag of Bones) and 2005 (The Dark Tower); Best Short Story for The
Breathing Method in 1983; and a Special Award in 1981.
Stepping outside genre to more mainstream awards even an O. Henry has been awarded to King.
The O. Henry Awards are an annual collection of the year’s best stories published in American and
Canadian magazines and written by American or Canadian authors. King won first prize (in other
words judged to have been the best story written by a North American and published in a North
American magazine) in 1996 for The Man in the Black Suit. In doing so he joined William Faulkner,
Irwin Shaw, Truman Capote, John Cheever, John Updike, Joyce Carol Oates, Bernard Malamud, Saul
Bellow and Alice Walker as winners of the year’s best stand-alone story.
Even greater recognition was accorded King in September 2003, when the National Book
Foundation announced it would award him its 2003 Medal for Distinguished Contribution to
American Letters. King delivered the keynote address at the Awards Dinner to some 1000 authors,
editors, publishers and friends of the book industry. Previous recipients of the Medal include Saul
Bellow, Studs Terkel, John Updike, Ray Bradbury, Arthur Miller and Philip Roth.
In giving the award the Foundation said, “Stephen King’s writing is securely rooted in the great
American tradition that glorifies spirit-of-place and the abiding power of narrative. He crafts stylish,
mind-bending page-turners that contain profound moral truths—some beautiful, some harrowing—
about our inner lives. This Award commemorates Mr. King’s well-earned place of distinction in the
wide world of readers and booklovers of all ages.” King said, “This is probably the most exciting
thing to happen to me in my career as a writer since the sale of my first book in 1973.” Amusingly
enough, King and John Grisham once purchased their own tickets to the annual National Book
Awards presentation by the Foundation, King telling TheNew York Times somewhat tongue-in-cheek,
“… that was the only way we were going to get in the door.”
Of course, all these rewards largely recognize King’s fiction. Outside the genre, King’s On
Writing appears to have become a standard text and has received wide praise. His and O’Nan’s
Faithful, detailing the incredible 2004 Boston Red Sox season, appears to be well regarded by
baseball fans. Then there’s Danse Macabre, initially not as well received in the horror community as
one might expect, this volume is now regarded as a classic text. While many wish King would update
it he has consistently refused to do so, considering it ‘too much work’.
Yet, even these are only the volumes of dedicated non-fiction. As related earlier there are
around 590 more individual pieces, ranging from lengthy and very important essays to notes of little
more than one or two sentences—yet somehow this facet of King’s work has received little attention.
Undoubtedly this is partly due to his success as a writer of fiction— his non-fiction being not so much
a mirror image as a backing to his fictional mirror. On the other hand it is his ‘brand name’ that has
allowed the publication of the vast majority of this non-fiction, as editors sought King’s opinion and
the value of his name to promote their magazines and books.
When King writes non-fiction it is generally for a very specific reason. In his fiction the muse
must strike, generally as a result of a ‘What If’ scenario combining two unusual factors, before King
will launch into a short story, novella or novel. We sometimes see these lightning strikes of
inspiration in his non-fiction but most often he is addressing a specific issue—in his columns (at the
University of Maine; more recently in Entertainment Weekly; and a lesser known series in Adelina);
his book reviews; his political opinion pieces; his familiar communications with ‘Constant Readers’
in his own books; his passion for and accurate musings about baseball; the act and craft of writing and
the genres he works in, or delights in reading; and his opinion pieces about popular culture.
The power of King’s non-fiction canon is not to be underestimated. Noted King expert Stephen
Spignesi had this to say of King’s essay for Nightmares in the Sky, encapsulating perfectly a key
reason why King’s non-fiction is so powerful: ‘[It] is more evidence that Stephen King may
justifiably be considered a thinker first and a writer second. King may not like such a distinction, but
this essay is proof of a powerful mind, one that is constantly deliberating, analyzing, thinking, and that
such reflection persists whether he chooses to write his thoughts down or not.’5
A reader wanting to secure and read all these pieces will find the task requires a lot of
dedication, patience and not inconsiderable sums of money. Many were published in very obscure
locations indeed (King is a true agnostic when it comes to venues for publication and deliberately
supports small publications by providing pieces to them), often in low print runs; or in newspapers,
programs or other publications that are quickly discarded by readers. Also, as King was an
‘unknown’ before the mid-1970s, many of his early pieces exist today in single original copies. There
are a small number of published works of which no known copy, in published or manuscript form,
exists and others that are so difficult to find as to be effectively unobtainable—even the author
himself and his office do not have copies!
There are also twenty-four identified unpublished non-fiction works, a handful of which may be
read if a reader/researcher has the right contacts.
So, we invite you to dive into the World of Stephen King—the Non-Fiction. As you finish your
tour, in closing the Unpublished Non-Fiction chapter, we summarize with what we regard as the core
theme of this body of work—but that, of course, is your reward. We’ll see you there—at the clearing
at the end of this particular path!
A Note About King Resources
In the following chapters we offer advice on accessing the various pieces covered. In many
cases we refer to King resellers, or resources. Among those operating at the time of writing, and of
sound repute, are:
* Betts Bookstore in Bangor, Maine; the longest established King specialist. Website:
www.bettsbooks.com Email: Bettsbooks@msn.com eBay name: PA-22-108
* Overlook Connection Bookstore and Press. Offering thousands of King collectibles since
1987. Website: www.overlookconnection.com
Email: overlookcn@aol.com
* Chaos-Consultants are experts in hard-to-find King items, including magazines. Wherever you
are on the web just search for ‘chaos-consultants’
* Hutch’s Rare Books, specializing in Stephen King.
Website:www.marketworks.com/StoreFrontProfiles/
default.aspx?sfid=30007
* James Beach sells rare Stephen King appearances, focusing on short fiction and non-fiction in
periodicals and anthologies. See:
http://search.ebaycom/_W0QQsassZjaybeehorror
* Critical Path Fine Books, King specialists. Email: cblakey@kc.rr.com Website:
http://home.kc.rr.com/criticalpath/index.htm
* Camelot Books. Website: http://www.camelotbooks.com/
* Mark V Ziesing, Bookseller. Website: http://www.ziesingbooks.com/
*
Barry
R
Levin
science-fiction
and
Fantasy
Literature.
Website:
http://www.raresf.com/bhome.html
* Bad Moon Books. Website: www.badmoonbooks.com/home.php
* Jim Orbaugh Bookseller, at www.abebooks.com
* L W Currey, Inc. Website: http://www.lwcurrey.com/home.php
* Very Fine Books. Website: www.veryfinebooks.com/
EARLY COLUMNS—
KING’S GARBAGE TRUCK
“In the early 1800’s a whole sect of Shakers, a rather strange religious persuasion at best,
disappeared from their village (Jeremiah’s Lot) in Vermont. The town remains uninhabited to this
day. On the night before one of my high school friends died in a car accident I dreamed of a
hideous man with a scarred face hanging from a black gibbet against a green sky. The incident
sticks in my mind because the hanged man was wearing a card around his neck bearing this
friend’s name. I woke with a sweaty premonition that on the night before I kicked off I would
dream the dream again, only this time the card would bear my name.”
—From King’s Garbage Truck for December 18, 1969.
Stephen King attended the University of Maine at Orono (UMO) from the Fall of 1966,
graduating with a Bachelor of Science degree in English and teacher’s certification on 5 June 1970.
Apart from gaining the degree and certificate King met his future wife Tabitha Spruce on campus and
was exposed to a cultural and literary milieu, and faculty members who both encouraged and
believed in him.
In the latter part of his time at UMO he wrote a series of columns for the campus newspaper,
under the title King’s Garbage Truck. He also wrote a number of individual non-fiction pieces,
letters to the editor, and a serialized satirical Western, Slade6 for the newspaper, The Maine Campus
(published as The Maine Summer Campus or The Summer Campus during the long break between
academic years). The non-fiction pieces and letters, some of which were ‘rediscovered’ in research
for this book by Rocky Wood, are covered here, in our chapters indicated in parentheses, and are:
* Opinion, November 16, 1967 (Opinion— Venturing into Politics)
* From the Nitty-Gritty, February 22, 1968 (Letters to the Editor, Guest Columns)
* Lurching Charm, January 16, 1969 (Letters to the Editor, Guest Columns)
* Ubris is the Best Ever, April 17, 1969 (Book Reviews)
* No Vietnamese Ever Called Me Nigger, October 23, 1969 (Opinion—Radio, Music, Film
and Television)
* King Cat, December 11, 1969 (Letters to the Editor, Guest Columns)
* Cancelled Stamp, February 5, 1970 (Letters to the Editor, Guest Columns)
* A Possible Fairy Tale, May 8, 1970 (Opinion— Venturing into Politics)
* Someone Shouted J’accuse, July 2, 1970 (Miscellany)
* More Truck, November 5, 1970 (covered in this chapter)
* Toothy Trauma, January 7, 1971 (Letters to the Editor, Guest Columns)
The forty-six King’s Garbage Truck columns ran from February 20, 1969 to May 21, 1970 (one was
reprinted). We speculate that King became involved in penning the columns after writing a Letter to
the Editor published in The Maine Campus for January 16, 1969 (titled ‘Lurching Charm’ by a sub-
editor), which is covered in some depth in our Letters to the Editor, Guest Columns chapter. The
‘Editorial editors’ of the newspaper (there’s a clumsy term for you) responded in print—‘Dear Mr.
King—we sincerely believe you’re nuts, NUTS!!! However, we can use people like you. Could you
please stop into our office (106 Lord Hall) any time you have time and are any where (sic) near the
place?’ The editor of The Maine Campus at the time was Marcia Due (and the Editorial Editor Tom
Atwell). Perhaps they convinced King to attempt a regular column, considering the first Garbage
Truck appeared only five weeks later?
As to an origin for the column’s title, in a new Introduction for the 1999 Pocket Books edition
of Carrie King says: “I had written a column (‘King’s Garbage Truck,’ it was called—the editor-in-
chief’s name for it, not mine) in the college paper for two or three years....” Presumably then, the title
was Ms. Due’s idea. In this same Introduction King describes his columns as “slaphappy,
sarcastic”—this will often prove out as we undertake our review. However, we will also find some
very serious matters discussed, in very serious tones and some interesting, even surprising, opinion
pieces.
King expert George Beahm quotes an unnamed ‘staffer’ on the paper as saying this of the
columnist: ‘King was always late. We would be pulling our hair out at deadline. With five minutes or
so to go, Steve would come in and sit down at the typewriter and produce two flawless pages of
copy. ’7
These columns are important as they shine a light on the young Stephen King, the man and the
writer; remind us of student life on a campus in the heady days of the late 1960s; provide a view of
his social awakening; and an early helping of his literary, movie, television and musical tastes.
Another King expert, Stephen Spignesi says King’s ‘narrative voice in the “Garbage Truck” columns
is incredibly mature, insightful, and confident, at a time when King was just a twenty-two-year-old
college student writing a column in a campus newspaper while also juggling classes and all the other
responsibilities...of university life.’
In 1990 The Maine Campus planned to reprint the Garbage Truck columns as a separate book,
claiming they held copyright. King’s office demurred and King’s legal representatives wrote to the
proposed book’s editor, stating that King ‘feels embarrassed by these early columns and considers
them juvenilia...[He] has a faithful readership which expects the high caliber of literary materials
customarily handwritten (sic) by him.... The material you want to reprint is not up to this standard.’
Having originally intended to take King on legally, reason prevailed when the newspaper (and, one
presumes, the University administration) decided to let the issue lie. 8
We review each of these columns in chronological order. Correct pagination for each piece was
confirmed by Rocky Wood during a trip to UMO’s Fogler Library in October 2005 (a number of
previous sources listed incorrect pagination for certain columns) and these are included in Justin
Brooks’ Stephen King: A Primary Bibliography of the World’s Most Popular Author 9. All of the
columns may be copied from microfiche at the Fogler (someone with more interest in personal gain
than history apparently stole the Library’s original copies10) and this chapter was compiled from
original microfiche printouts.
February 20, 1969. The first Garbage Truck appeared in Volume LXXII, Number 18 of The
Maine Campus under the byline that would be used for all these pieces, ‘Steve King’. ‘The Goddard
College dancers, seven students from a small liberal arts school in Vermont, put on a program called
Why We Dance last Sunday night in Hauck Auditorium.’ These are the opening lines of King’s
Garbage Truck columns. It is not nearly as memorable as say, ‘The man in black fled across the
desert and the gunslinger followed.’ Still, a beginning, and in these columns we will recognize King’s
voice and high quality of prose, particularly for a twenty-one year old. He reviews the dance group’s
performance, which ‘ranged from the very good to the astonishingly awful’; and put in a plug for an
upcoming auditorium showing of the movie Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte. In the latter section King
pans the ‘smarty pants ABC censors who would probably like to see Halloween outlawed’ and
praises the movie’s star, Bette Davis.
February 27, 1969. This week’s installment provides an effusively supportive review of Franco
Zeffirelli’s 1968 movie Romeo and Juliet, starring Leonard Whiting (‘makes a fine Romeo, young,
strong as a Missouri bull, not always too bright, or even particularly co-ordinated’) and Olivia
Hussey (‘merely perfect’)11. King opens, ‘You really have to feel sorry for William Shakespeare.
He’s been the victim of his own publicity men’, complaining that despite the fact he wrote about the
same old things (‘sex, murder, love, honor, draft-dodgers, kings, commoners, fat men, skinny men,
idiots and saints’) his work is so over-analyzed that a ‘student tends to approach him the way
porcupines make love—very cautiously.’ Zeffirelli, on the other hand, ‘puts back all the juice that the
critics, the writers, and (alas!) the teachers try so hard to take out’ of the master storyteller (keep ‘in
mind that Shakespeare was an Elizabethan writing for and about real flesh-and-blood people’,
despite ‘the half-comprehensible Elizabethan jargon that is just more trouble than it’s worth,’ King
opines).
March 6, 1969. In this column King delivers a satirical set of suggested game shows for the
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