The Life, Death and Afterlife of Richard Bachman – by R J Dent
A study of Richard Bachman, Stephen King’s dead alter-ego.
It is now fairly common knowledge that best-selling horror novelist Stephen King sometimes uses the pseudonym Richard Bachman for publishing his novels. So far, the novels Rage, Roadwork, The Long Walk, The Running Man, Thinner, The Regulators and Blaze have all been published by King as Richard Bachman.
Long before Stephen King’s ‘official’ first novel, Carrie was published, he had written two novels called Getting It On and The Long Walk, which he couldn’t get published. After the successes of Carrie and ’Salem’s Lot, King (obviously in a stronger position) decided to resurrect what he considered were his other good books.
On the advice of his publishers, who cautioned King on the dangers of over-saturating the market, Getting It On (renamed Rage) was published under the pseudonym of Richard Bachman, and a new author was born. Read more…
R J Dent says: ‘I wrote The Life, Death and Afterlife of Richard Bachman because I was intrigued by the way Richard Bachman evolved from being a simple pseudonym into a semi-living person with his own life and death and posthumous ‘story’; his own biography that was carefully constructed/ invented/ created by King; and finally, his own bibliography. In many ways, Richard Bachman is Stephen King’s most fully realised character.’
Books by Richard Bachman:
Rage
The Long Walk
Roadworks
The Running Man
Thinner
The Regulators
Blaze
The Life, Death and Afterlife of Richard Bachman
Copyright © R J Dent (2009)
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