by George Beahm
Plate 3: “Gunslinger ‘88: Roland” © 1988. The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger (NAL: Plume, 1988).
Plate 4: “The Gunslinger: On the Beach” © 1982. Illustration for The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger (Donald M. Grant, Publisher, 1982).
Plate 5: “The Gunslinger: The Dead Town” © 1982. Illustration for The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger (Grant, Publisher, 1982).
Plate 6: “The Gunslinger stood in his dusty boots” © 2008. Illustration for Little Sisters of Eluria (Grant, Publisher, 2008).
Plate 7: “The Dark Tower: The Gate of Eluria.” Illustration for The Little Sisters of Eluria (Grant, 2008). Original version © 2005, revised version [Roland on horse] © 2014.
Plate 8: Interior illustration for The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower © 2004, for Part Two: Blue Heaven, Chapter V: “Steek-Tete” (Grant, Publisher, 2005).
Plate 9: “Father Callahan” © 2010, for a Web site game, “Discordia” (Stephen King’s official website).
Plate 10: “The Dark Tower: Algul Siento” © 2003. Illustration for The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower (Grant, Publisher, 2004).
Plate 11: “The Gunslinger followed” © 2005. Illustration for The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger, published in The Little Sisters of Eluria (Grant, Publisher, 2008).
Plate 12: “Legends of the Gunslinger” © 2008. Illustration for The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger, published in The Little Sisters of Eluria (Grant, Publisher). Original version of art © 1998, revised art © 2000.
Artwork by Michael Whelan: A Portfolio
Part Two: Blue Heaven, Chapter V: Steek-Tete
Firestarter
Gunslinger ’88, Roland
The Gunslinger: On the Beach
The Gunslinger: The Dead Town
“The Gunslinger stood in his dusty boots.”
The Dark Tower: The Gate of Eluria
Part Two: Blue Heaven, Chapter V: Steek-Tete
The Dark Tower: Callahan
The Dark Tower: Algul Siento
“The Gunslinger followed.”
Legends: The Gunslinger
ABOUT THE WRITERS
George Beahm is a New York Times bestselling author whose books on popular culture and business have been translated into over twenty languages worldwide.
A leading authority on Stephen King, Beahm has published extensively about the writer and his work, including The Stephen King Companion (first and second edition), The Stephen King Story; Stephen King: America’s Best-Loved Boogeyman; Stephen King Country; Stephen King Collectibles; Stephen King from A to Z; and Knowing Darkness: Artists Inspired by Stephen King.
He has published books on pop culture figures, including Vaughn Bodé, Tim Kirk, Michael Jordan, Anne Rice, Patricia Cornwell, J. R. R. Tolkien, J. K. Rowling, C. S. Lewis, Philip Pullman, Stephenie Meyer, Caribbean pirates, Indiana Jones, the television show The Big Bang Theory, and Lee Child.
His Web site is at www.georgebeahm.com. You can sign up for author updates here
Michael R. Collings is an educator, literary scholar and critic, poet, novelist, essayist, columnist, reviewer, and editor whose work over the past three decades has concentrated on science fiction, fantasy, and horror, with emphasis on the works of Stephen King and related writers. He has served as Guest, Special Guest, and Guest of Honor at a number of cons, professional as well as fan-oriented, including two-time Academic GoH at the World HorrorCon. He has been twice nominated for the Bram Stoker Award® from the Horror Writers Association, once for non-fiction and once for poetry. Now retired after nearly thirty years as an English professor at Pepperdine University, he lives in Idaho with his wife and number-one fan, Judi, and writes and writes and writes. His Web site is http://michaelcollings.blogspot.com.
Burton N. Hatlen (1936–2008) was a Professor of English at the University of Maine for more than forty years. As a young assistant professor in the late ‘60s, he and colleague Jim Bishop were faculty members of an extracurricular writers’ workshop group that lasted for years. Stephen and Tabitha (nee Spruce) King were members. Later, he served as Chair of the English Department and Dean of the College of Arts and Humanities. The recently published Historical Atlas of Maine (eds. S. Hornsby and R. Judd) is dedicated to him in recognition of the role he played at the inception of the project when he was Dean by calling together a committee of key scholars, spearheading a critical NEH grant, and working with the Dean of Engineering to hire a master cartographer. Reviewers have called it the best historical atlas in the U.S.
His most sustained service to the profession was achieved as director of the National Poetry Foundation founded by Carroll Terrell, and as editor of Sagetrieb, a journal of modern poetry in the tradition of Ezra Pound, William Carlos Williams, Hilda Doolittle, and Charles Olsen.
His scholarly and teaching interests were broad: over the years, he edited a number of scholarly collections for NPF and published elsewhere more than 100 articles, reviews, and enyclopedia entries on such figures as Stephen King, Shakespeare, Mary Shelley, George Oppen, Kay Boyle, Milton, Henry Adams, Zukovsky, Robert Creeley, Ezra Pound, Hilda Doolittle, Charles Olsen, and the Language poets; and on such topics as the teaching of rhetoric and composition and the nexus of politics and poetry in the 20th century.
His first book of selected poems, I Wanted to Tell You, was published in 1988 by the NPF, and a second selection, Late Poems and Valedictions, will be published by the same press.
Stephanie Klose is the media editor for Library Journal and the audiobooks editor for School Library Journal.
Hans-Åke Lilja is the webmaster for Lilja’s Library: the World of Stephen King, and author of the books Lilja’s Library: The World of Stephen King and The Illustrated Stephen King Movie Trivia Book. Lilja is one of the leading voices on the Internet covering and reporting on Stephen King’s books and news, which he’s covered for two decades. His website is an international watering hole for fans wanting more information. Lilja’s reviews of King’s books and interviews with notable figures in the King community, including King himself, have proven to be invaluable for King students and scholars. Lilja’s Web address is www.Liljas-Library.com.
Dave Lowell is a Maine writer whose non-fiction first appeared in the official Stephen King newsletter, Castle Rock. His novels for adults include Ghost Trap, Say Uncle, and Blackbird. His novels for younger readers include Shadow Point and School-Bots. His Web site is www.DaveLowell.com.
Tony Magistrale is Professor of English at the University of Vermont. He is the author of several books about Stephen King, his novels and films adapted from his work. He is currently writing a new book on The Shawshank Redemption entitled The Shawshank Experience.
Kevin Quigley got hooked on King when he was nine years old and read Creepshow, and became a lifelong King fan. In 1997 he began one of the best fan Web sites on King, Charnel House (charnelhouse.tripod.com). He’s published several chapbooks about King for Cemetery Dance, including Blood In Your Ears, Chart of Darkness, Ink in the Veins, and Wetware.
Stephen Spignesi is a university professor and bestselling author whose more than 60 published works include books about Stephen King, the Beatles, American and world history, the Titanic, George Washington and the American Presidents, John F. Kennedy Jr., world disasters, Robin Williams, the work of Woody Allen, as well as books on TV, popular culture, Native American history, the lost books of the Bible, and even real estate, jewelry and a cookbook. He is also the author of Dialogues (Bantam Dell), a novel praised for “reinventing the psychological thriller.” Spignesi blogs and occasionally publishes short stories and essays on his Web site, www.stephenspignesi.weebly.com.
Sanford Phippen grew up on the coast of Maine and received his B.A. in English from the University of Maine and his M.A. from Syracuse University. He has been a teacher for 51 years at both the high school and college levels in Maine and New York. He has published 13 books and for six years he was the editor of the Puckerbrush Review literary journal. He has written for the New York Times, Maine Times, Down East magazine,
Portland magazine, Maine Life, the Bangor Daily News, and other periodicals. His email is: [email protected].
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Title Page
Copyright Notice
Dedication
A Note to the Reader
Foreword: The Learn’d Astronomer by Stephen J. Spignesi
Introduction: The Golden Years by George Beahm
PART ONE: MAINE ROOTS
1. Family Roots
2. Durham, Maine
3. EC Comics
4. “Three Durham Lads Publishing Bright Hometown Newspaper”
5. A Special Occasion: Chris Chesley’s Friendship with Stephen King
6. Stephen King at the University of Maine: A Writer in the Making by Sanford Pippen
KING GRADUATES: A BLESSED EVENT?
7. Rick Hautala: Maine’s Other Horror Writer
RICK HAUTALA: AN INTERVIEW
8. Burton Hatlen: An Interview
9. Crossing the Kittery Bridge into Maine’s Heart of Darkness
10. From Student to Teacher: Stephen King and Carroll Terrell
PART TWO: PRE-CARRIE: A HARDSCRABBLE LIFE
11. A Writer’s Nightmare, a Writer’s Dream
12. “A Good Angel”: Cavalier Editor Nye Willden
13. The Bones of the Family Business: Writing
PART THREE: DOUBLEDAY BOOKS: MAGIC TIME—THE MAKING OF THE MASTER OF HORROR
14. King’s Classic Books: An Overview
15. William G. Thompson: Another Good Angel
16. Nellie Ruth Pillsbury King: The Future Queen of Durham
RUTH P. KING OBITUARY
17. Carrie
18. “Campus Columnist Publishes Novel” by Burton Hatlen
STEPHEN KING: AMERICAN GOTHIC
19. ’Salem’s Lot
ON ‘SALEM’S LOT AS THE GREAT AMERICAN NOVEL
STEPHEN KING AND FRANK DARABONT ON LIMITED EDITION BOOKS
20. The Shining
THE STANLEY HOTEL SHINES ON
21. Night Shift
KEEP ON TRUCKING: MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE
22. The Stand
TAKING A STAND AGAINST DOUBLEDAY
23. Cemetery Dance’s Deluxe Special Editions of the Doubleday Books
24. The Early Bachman Books: Rage (1977), The Long Walk (1979), Roadwork (1981), The Running Man (1982)
PART FOUR: “THE BESTSELLASAURUS REX” STOMPS OVER TO NEW AMERICAN LIBRARY
25. Turning the Page: King Goes to New American Library
26. The Dead Zone
27. The Kings’ Maine Haunt in Bangor
TERRY STEEL ON THE KING’S FENCE
“BATS AND SPIDERS”
28. Firestarter
29. Dark Forces: “The Mist”
30. Frank Darabont on “The Mist” An Interview Conducted by Hans-Åke Lilja
31. Cujo
COMING CLEAN: KING’S ADDICTION
32. Danse Macabre
33. Stephen King’s Creepshow
34. Drawn to Darkness: Bernie Wrightson, an Artist Inspired by Stephen King
35. Stephen King: A Chautaqua in Pasadena, California
36. Different Seasons
37. The Road to the Dark Tower: Roland’s Quest
38. Michael Whelan: Illustrating the Dark Tower
39. Christine
THE KING’S AND QUEEN’S CARS
40. Rock and Roll Haven: Stephen King’s Station, WKIT 100.3 FM
41. Pet Sematary
42. Thinner
43. The Talisman
ANTHOLOGIST PETER STRAUB
44. Douglas E. Winter’s Stephen King: The Art of Darkness
45. The Eyes of the Dragon
ILLUSTRATOR KENNY RAY LINKOUS
46. Castle Rock: “All the News That’s Fit to Print”
47. Cycle of the Werewolf
BERNIE WRIGHTSON AND CYCLE OF THE WEREWOLF
48. Skeleton Crew
49. J. K. Potter: Illustrating the Limited Edition of Skeleton Crew
50. Off the Beaten Path: Stephen King’s Office
51. Marsha DeFelippo: An Interview by Hans-Åke Lilja
FAN MAIL
52. It
“STEPHEN KING, THE MASTER OF POP DREAD”
MICHAEL COLLINGS ON STEPHEN KING AS STORYTELLER
53. SK Tours of Maine: Stephen King’s Maine Haunts
54. Misery
“HAPPINESS IS A WARM GUN”
55. Making Whoopee: Stephen King’s “Gift of Gotta”
HARRY, CARRIE, AND GARP: STEPHEN KING AT THE PRESS CONFERENCE
56. Where Do You Get Your Ideas?
57. The Tommyknockers
STEPHEN KING ON THE TOMMYKNOCKERS
58. Bag of Nerves: Meeting Stephen King
59. The Dark Half
60. The Stand: The Complete and Uncut Edition
61. Stephen King Draws on Bernie Wrightson to Illustrate The Stand
“I NEARLY JUMPED OUT OF MY SKIN”
62. A Dark Treasure: The Limited Edition of The Stand
63. Michael Collings on Four Past Midnight
64. Rock Bottom Remainders
65. Quotes by and About the Rock Bottom Remainders
66. Needful Things
67. Gerald’s Game
68. Philtrum Press
69. Nightmares and Dreamscapes
70. Dolores Claiborne
71. Michael Collings on Insomnia
72. Rose Madder
73. Clive Barker: Demon Fabulist
CLIVE BARKER ON STEPHEN KING
74. Desperation and The Regulators
A BULLETED BOOK
75. The Green Mile
PART FIVE: SCRIBNER: BUILDING BRIDGES
76. The Winter of King’s Discontent
77. Michael Collings on Bag of Bones
78. Storm of the Century: An Original Screenplay
ON STORM OF THE CENTURY
79. The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon
80. The Day That Changed King’s Life: The Accident—June 19, 1999
“THE BONUS ROUND” AND GALLOWS HUMOR
81. Hearts in Atlantis
CODA: “SQUAD D”
82. On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft and Secret Windows: Essays and Fiction on the Craft of Writing
83. Dreamcatcher
84. Black House, with Peter Straub
85. The Ultimate Stephen King Horror Story: Retirement?
THE ONION’S TAKE
86. From a Buick 8
87. Stephen King Receives the National Book Award
88. Take Stephen King. Seriously.
89. Everything’s Eventual
90. Faithful
“NOT IN MY LIFETIME. NOT IN YOURS, EITHER”
91. Stewart O’Nan: An Interview by Hans-Åke Lilja
92. The Colorado Kid
93. How to Speak Like a “Mainah”
A MAINER ON ACTORS’ MAINE ACCENTS BY DAVE LOWELL
94. Cell
95. Lisey’s Story
96. Blaze
97. The Haven Foundation: A Place for Freelance Artists
98. Duma Key
99. The Kings’ Main Home in Florida
TOURING “DUMA KEY”
100. Just After Sunset
THE STORY BEHIND “THE CAT FROM HELL”
101. Under the Dome
THE TV ADAPTATION OF UNDER THE DOME
102. Blockade Billy
THE SKELETON CREW AT CEMETERY DANCE
103. Full Dark, No Stars
104. 11/22/63
“Q&A: RUSSELL DORR, STEPHEN KING’S RESEARCHER” INTERVIEWED BY STEPHANIE KLOSE
105. The Dark Man
GLENN CHADBOURNE: AN INTERVIEW BY GEORGE BEAHM
106. Joyland
107. Doctor Sleep
OSCAR THE CAT
108. Mr. Mercedes
109. World Fantasy and World Horror Conventions
110. Revival
111. Stephen King’s Revival Book Tour
STEPHEN KING ON DEATH
112. Are You There, God? It’s Me, Stevie
113. “I Hear Time’s Winged Chariot Drawing Near”
114. Finders Keepers
115. The Bazaar of Bad Dreams
PART SIX: MOVIES: SCREAMPLAYS
116. Stephen: A Box Office King
117. Ten Notable Films in Chronological Order
UNEARTHED AND UNTOLD: THE PATH TO PET SEMATARY
118. Frank Darabont: An Interview by Hans-Åke Lilja
119. The Real Thing: Drew Struzan: A Profile by George Beahm
PART SEVEN: THE CRITICS’ CORNER
120. Stephen Spignesi: An Interview by George Beahm
121. Stephen King and the Critics: A Personal Perspective by Michael Collings
122. Steve’s Take: An Interview with Stephen King by Tony Magistrale
123. The King and I: Further Adventures with Stephen King by Sanford Phippen
PART EIGHT: STEPHEN KING IN CYBERSPACE
124. Top Web Sites for King Fans
GLASS ONION GRAPHICS: MICHAEL WHELAN’S DARK TOWER PRINTS
125. Lilja’s Library: An Interview with Hans-Åke Lilja by George Beahm
126. An Interview with David A. Williamson of Betts Books by George Beahm
127. Making the Grade: Assessing Book Condition
A Chronology of Stephen King’s Life: Personal and Professional, 1947–2015
Acknowledgments
About the Writers
About the Artists and Photographers
Further Copyright Information
Michael Whelan’s Color Portfolio
THOMAS DUNNE BOOKS.
An imprint of St. Martin’s Press.
