rsu@cbscc.UUCP (Rick Urban) (02/01/85)
I have heard that on the January 29th editin of "Entertainment Tonight", the hosts put forth the rumor that the novel, "Thinner", attributed to a man named Richard Bachman, was in reality written by Stephen King. Although a photo of the gentleman appears on the inside of the dust jacket, and the book is dedicated to his wife (Claudia Inez Bachman?), the only info about this person is under the photo: "Richard Bachman lives and works in New Hampshire". Could the rumor be true? Anyone out there who could shed some light on this issue? Also, a personal note to Jerry Boyajian: As usual, I am having trouble getting through to you on the net. Please contact me, and give me your address in case I can't post anything to you on this blasted network. Thanks. Rick Urban ihnp4!cbscc!rsu
kalash@ucbcad.UUCP (02/04/85)
> the hosts put forth the rumor that the novel, "Thinner", attributed to a man > named Richard Bachman, was in reality written by Stephen King. This rumour has been floating around for awhile. The latest round came when Loyd Currey (a major name in SF and Fantasy collecting) started claiming he has "proof" that King is Bachman. I haven't seen anything yet, but rumour (sigh) has it that Currey has a letter from King to his publishers (signet) talking about the sales of the Bachman books. You may take this with as large, or as small a grain of salt as you choose. For what it is worth, here are the known Bachman books Road Work Rage The Running Man The Long Walk <the above are all paperbacks from Signet> Rage <a hardback from NAL> Just for more fuel, note that King's agent and Bachman's agent are the same person (Kirby McCaulley). Joe Kalash kalash@berkeley ucbvax!kalash
boyajian@akov68.DEC (Jerry Boyajian) (02/12/85)
The quoted message only appeared in net.books, but I'm cross-posting to net.sf-lovers because this subject came up there a couple of months ago. > From: cbscc!rsu (Rick Urban) > I have heard that on the January 29th editin of "Entertainment Tonight", > the hosts put forth the rumor that the novel, "Thinner", attributed to a man > named Richard Bachman, was in reality written by Stephen King. Although a > photo of the gentleman appears on the inside of the dust jacket, and the book > is dedicated to his wife (Claudia Inez Bachman?), the only info about this > person is under the photo: "Richard Bachman lives and works in New Hampshire". > Could the rumor be true? Anyone out there who could shed some light on this > issue? Well, a few days ago, I was going to post a message that presented my reasoned opinion on why I didn't believe that "Richard Bachman" was Stephen King. That rumor has been floating around for a few years, but after a hiatus in which it wasn't brought up at all, it resurfaced with a vengeance last fall. Anyways, all that is inoperative now, as it was revealed yesterday (Monday, 11 February) in the papers (The Boston Globe anyway) and on ENTERTAINMENT TONIGHT that King has admitted that he did indeed write the five Richard Bachman novels that have been published so far. All the rumors have conflicted (and none of them were convincing to me) as to why King hid under this pseudonym, especially since he has been denying it ever since the rumor first appeared. Well, the reason given in the papers was that he didn't want there to be a "glut" of Stephen King novels on the market. I will still stick by my guns, though, and say that there are *lots* of passages in THINNER that do not read at all like King. He must have been consciously attempting to disguise his style. Oh, well, once again, I'm wrong (I've been wrong much too much lately; it's getting to be a bad habit...) So whose picture is that on the THINNER dustjacket? Well, ah, you see, it's a photo of, er, Richard Bachman. Apparently, Bachman *is* a real person, a lawyer from Minnesota, presumably an old friend of King's agent, Kirby McCauley (who comes from Minnesota). King has, I would assume con permisso, been borrowing Bachman's name and, recently, his likeness. I guess King finally had to fess up when the s**t hit the fan after ET annouced the rumor a couple of weeks ago. As for the Bachman novels, there are five altogether: ROADWORK, RAGE, THE LONG WALK, THE RUNNING MAN, and THINNER. The last is horror (and better than half the novels King has published under his own name), the middle two are dystopian science fiction, and the first two are supposed to be non-horror-fantasy thrillers (I don't have either of them, so I don't really know --- I hadn't even *heard* of ROADWORK until very recently). THINNER is, of course, in print in hardcover, and THE LONG WALK recently (in the past year or so) had a new printing. The other three are out-of-print. And, of course, since this news broke out, there is a run on these titles at the local bookstores (a friend and I stopped at a local bookstore last night looking for some magazines, and when I, as a joke, mentioned to him that we should see if they had any Bachman books, the cashier looked at us as if she was about to cry). If you want to read them, fear not, I'm sure that within a few months, they'll all be in print again with: STEPHEN KING writing as Richard Bachman! emblazoned on the covers. If you want first editions for your collection, Good Luck. See you at the used book stores! In case you're wondering, the reason I have THE LONG WALK and THE RUNNING MAN is because I picked them up when they first came out because they were somewhat-obscure sf novels. Sometimes, being a completist is a blessing. --- jayembee (Jerry Boyajian, DEC, Maynard, MA) UUCP: {decvax|ihnp4|allegra|ucbvax|...} !decwrl!dec-rhea!dec-akov68!boyajian ARPA: boyajian%akov68.DEC@DECWRL.ARPA