Highly Collectible and Controversial. This is a set of three UK First Edition novels written by Stephen King under the pseudonym Richard Bachman.
Due to the controversial content, Stephen King has decided that the novel "Rage" will never be reprinted.
London, New English Library. "Rage", "The Long Walk", "Roadwork" Stephen King writing as Richard Bachman. UK First Printings. Three of the four early Bachman novels. Softcover wraps in original condition without any marks, writing, or stamps. All three books appear unread with square and tight spines. Includes custom matching traycase. Please allow 2-4 weeks for design and fabrication.
Three softocover UK First Edition books in one shipment:
1) "The Long Walk", UK First Printing with "First NEL Paperback Edition September 1980" on copyright page. Cover Price £1.25. 253 pages.
2) "Rage", UK First Printing with "First NEL Paperback Edition February 1983" on copyright page. Cover Price £1.50. 211 pages.
3) "Roadwork", UK First Printing with "First NEL Paperback Edition June 1983" on copyright page. Cover Price £1.50. 273 pages.
Richard Bachman is a pen name (as well as a fictional character) of American horror fiction author Stephen King, adopted in 1977 for the novel Rage. King hid the link between himself and Bachman, until allowing for his identification in 1985. He collected the first four Bachman novels into The Bachman Books. Rage became controversial for being about a school shooting and was allowed to go out of print after the 1997 Heath High School shooting. Three more novels were published under the Bachman name, "The Long Walk", "Roadwork", and "The Running Man".
King portrays an unrelated character named Richard Bachman in the third season of the FX television series Sons of Anarchy (2010).
Rage
"His twisted mind turned a quiet classroom into a dangerous world of terror." A slightly twisted boy named Charles Decker holds the 24 other students of his algebra class at gunpoint after shooting 2 teachers.
Rage (written as Getting It On) is a psychological thriller novel by American writer Stephen King, the first he published under the pseudonym Richard Bachman. It was published in 1977 and then it was collected in the 1985 hardcover omnibus The Bachman Books. The novel describes a school shooting, and has been associated with actual high school shooting incidents in the 1980s and 1990s. In response, King allowed the novel to fall out of print, and, in 2013, he published a non-fiction, anti-firearms violence essay titled "Guns".
The End of Publication
When King decided to let Rage fall out of print in the United States, it remained available only as part of The Bachman Books. In contrast, the other novels that appeared in that compilation—The Long Walk, Roadwork, and The Running Man—are available separately in the US. Rage remained available in the United Kingdom and other countries in The Bachman Books for a time, but later appeared to become unavailable. New editions of The Bachman Books do not include Rage. In a footnote to the preface of the novel Blaze, dated January 30, 2007, King wrote of Rage: "Now out of print, and a good thing."
King said, in his keynote address at the VEMA Annual Meeting on May 26, 1999: "The Carneal incident was enough for me. I asked my publisher to take the damned thing out of print. They concurred." King went on to describe his view on this subject, which acknowledged the role that cultural or artistic products such as Rage play in influencing individuals, particularly troubled youths, while also declaring that artists and writers should not be denied the aesthetic opportunity to draw upon their own culture—which is suffused with violence, according to King—in their work. King went on to describe his inspiration for stories such as Rage, which drew heavily upon his own frustrations and pains as a high school student.
In an article on the ominous writings of Virginia Tech shooter Seung-Hui Cho for Entertainment Weekly, King said: "Certainly in this sensitized day and age, my own college writing—including a short story called 'Cain Rose Up' and the novel Rage—would have raised red flags, and I'm certain someone would have tabbed me as mentally ill because of them..." After the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, he elaborated in a non-fiction essay, titled "Guns" (2013), on why he let Rage go out of print. King's website states: "All profits from 'Guns' will benefit the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence."
Source: Wikipedia.
The Long Walk
In this #1 national bestseller, master storyteller Stephen King, writing as Richard Bachman, tells the tale of the contestants of a grueling walking competition where there can only be one winner—the one that survives.
Against the wishes of his mother, sixteen-year-old Ray Garraty is about to compete in the annual grueling match of stamina and wits known as the Long Walk. One hundred boys must keep a steady pace of four miles per hour without ever stopping...with the winner being awarded “The Prize”—anything he wants for the rest of his life. But, as part of this national tournament that sweeps through a dystopian America year after year, there are some harsh rules that Garraty and ninety-nine others must adhere to in order to beat out the rest. There is no finish line—the winner is the last man standing. Contestants cannot receive any outside aid whatsoever. Slow down under the speed limit and you’re given a warning. Three warnings and you’re out of the game—permanently...
Roadwork
Roadwork is a thriller novel by American writer Stephen King, published in 1981 under the pseudonym Richard Bachman as a paperback original. It was collected in 1985 in the hardcover omnibus The Bachman Books. The story takes place in an unnamed city of the Midwestern United States in 1972–1974. Grieving over the death of his son and the disintegration of his marriage, a man is driven to mental instability when he learns that both his home and his workplace will be demolished to make way for an extension to an interstate highway. A film adaptation of the novel was announced in August 2019, with Pablo Trapero as director and Andy Muschietti (director of It and It Chapter Two) and Barbara Muschietti as producers.
Stephen King
Stephen Edwin King (born September 21, 1947) is an American author. Called the "King of Horror", he has also explored other genres, among them suspense, crime, science-fiction, fantasy and mystery.[3] He has also written approximately 200 short stories, most of which have been published in collections. His debut, Carrie (1974), established him in horror. Different Seasons (1982), a collection of four novellas, was his first major departure from the genre. Among the films adapted from King's fiction are Carrie, Christine, The Shining, The Dead Zone, Stand by Me, Misery, Dolores Claiborne, The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile and It. He has published under the pseudonym Richard Bachman and has co-written works with other authors, notably his friend Peter Straub and sons Joe Hill and Owen King. He has also written nonfiction, notably On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft.
Several of King's works have won the Bram Stoker and August Derleth Awards. He has also won awards for his overall contributions to literature, including the 2003 Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters,[5][6] the 2007 Grand Master Award from the Mystery Writers of America[7] and the 2014 National Medal of Arts.[8] Joyce Carol Oates called King "a brilliantly rooted, psychologically 'realistic' writer, for whom the American scene has been a continuous source of inspiration, and American popular culture a vast cornucopia of possibilities."[9]
- Publisher:
- New English Library
- Edition:
- UK First Edition, First Printing
- Binding:
- Softcover
- Author:
- Stephen King
- Author:
- Richard Bachman
- Title:
- Rage
- Title:
- The Long Walk
- Title:
- Roadwork