Between 1977 and 1984 Stephen King published five novels under the pseudonym Richard Bachman. Though many fans and critics surmised that Bachman was King, which he would deny, the truth wasn’t uncovered until Washington, DC bookstore clerk Steve Brown noticed similarities to King’s writing and did some investigating. He found copyright info for one of the Bachman books in King’s name at the Library of Congress. Brown went to King’s publishers to ask what he should do with the information and King himself told him he should write an article about it and gave an interview to Brown.
Rage (originally title Getting it On) was begun in 1966 when King was still in high school, and The Long Walk shortly thereafter. They were published in 1977 and 1979 respectively. These were two of the (five!) novels written before Carrie, which would launch King into literary stardom. Roadwork was written in response to the death of King’s mother in 1974 and published in 1981. The Running Man was written in a week(!) and published in 1982. It was adapted to screen in 1987 and starred Arnold Schwarzenegger. Thinner was published in 1984 and shortly thereafter King's reign as Bachman, right when Bachman was gaining his own steam, ended. Thinner was adapted by Tom Holland in 1996.
But this time it's mainly about the books. The Bachman Books in particular, which offered up a virtual smörgåsbord of "new" King material to sink my teeth into. The tales include a dangerously unstable teenager, a man brought to his breaking point, two dystopian future worlds where deadly games are played, and an oddly specific gypsy curse.
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