Stephen King : trente ans de terreur
(Stephen King, Thirty Years of Terror)
Hugues Morin et al.
(As an excerpt, in addition to the Table of Contents and the Foreword, here is Chapter 6, in which Hugues Morin presents the specialized publications revolving around King's work. Please note that the illustrations related to this article in the book are not reproduced here.) Table of Contents
Introduction . . . 13
Notes on the organization of this book. . . 17Part One
1. Chrono-biographical Data on Stephen King, the Writer, by Hugues Morin. . . 21
2. Stephen King and the Rock Bottom Remainders, by Hugues Morin. . . 35
3. The Art of Fear, by Alain Bergeron. . . 39
4. Collector's Items in French, by Hugues Morin. . . 61
5. A Kiss in the Dark: When Stephen King Writes Short Stories, by Guy Sirois. . . 65
6. Specialized Publications: A Historical Survey, by Hugues Morin. . . 87
7. The Dark Tower: The Quest of Roland of Gilead, by Laurine Spehner. . . 97
8. Philtrum Press: Stephen King's Own Publishing House, by Hugues Morin . . . 113
9. The Green Line: King Visits Dickens, by Hugues Morin . . 115
10. Other Adaptations of King's Works, by Hugues Morin . . . 127
11. Beneath Richard Bachman's Mask, by Daniel Conrad. . . 131
12. The Unpublished Works of Stephen King, by Hugues Morin. . . 151
13. Images of the "Insomnia Tour," by Hugues Morin and Jim Lawrence. . . 155Part Two
14. Comments on the Works of Stephen King Available in French, by Hugues Morin . . . 167
15. Trivial Information about a Few Untranslated Works, by Hugues Morin. . . 209
16. Stephen King: A Bibliography (Originals and Translations) [Code "A"], by Hugues Morin. . . 217
17. An Annotated Filmography: Adaptations of Stephen King's Works and Movies Inspired Them [Code "B"], by Hugues Morin. . . 237
18. Studies on Stephen King: A Selective Bibliography [Code "C"], by Norbert Spehner . . 255
19. Various References [Code "D"], by Hugues Morin. . . 287
20. Conclusion: August 5, 1997... Stephen King on the Internet, by Hugues Morin. . . 301Bibliographical notes. . . 305
Index. . . 307
Introduction
The year 1997 is the thirtieth anniversary of Stephen King's first professional publication (a short story, "The Glass Floor," published in Startling Mystery Stories, in 1967). During those thirty years, the Maine's author has published more than 175 texts (novels, short stories, novelettes, novellas and poems). It is obvious from these numbers alone that he is quite a prolific writer. In addition, there have been about fifty TV or movie productions adapted from or inspired by his works. In short, Stephen King appeals to huge numbers of people and he certainly is one of the world's most popular literary celebrities. What is more, the loyalty of his readers is a rather rare phenomenon in the publishing world (even in genre literature).
Personally, I have been reading King and taking an interest in his work for a long time. Over the years, I have discovered many reference books about him. They were, of course, American books, written in English. For some time now I have been dreaming of a reference book in French on this author. I have unearthed many special issues of magazines, many fanzines dedicated to King, but not a single book. In fact, before 1996, the only noteworthy reference francophone readers could sink their teeth into was a six-year-old issue of the magazine Phénix dedicated to King (reissued in 1995). The same publisher has since made available a translation of the excellent book by George Beahm, The Stephen King Companion. But since this book is from the United States, it provides no information about French editions of his work.
In November of 1995, when Norbert Spehner suggested that I might edit a reference book on King, adapted to a francophone readership, I thought about it for a few minutes and then we just shook on it. After all, I told myself, if there are no books about King in French, why not write one?
That's how this book was born. And although its contents have been modified as it evolved over time and with King's continuing publications, I have always had two main goals: first of all, to write a book that would be interesting to read as soon as you opened it, and second, to create a useful reference work. In fact, those two goals can be summed up with one simple, overarching notion: give the francophone readership with the book on King that I had been dreaming for years of discovering in a bookstore. Each choice has therefore been subordinated to this question: "As a reader, what would I like to find in this book?"
Of course, as I was getting more involved in it, I realized that the ideal book I was imagining was impossible to write, unless it was a massive work of more than 2000 pages! Difficult choices had to be made.
So, the book we are offering you now makes no claim to contain all the available information about King's body of work or to offer exhaustive details of the author's life. However, we wanted it to provide the widest range possible of information on King's works, while discussing at greater length their most significant aspects, all the while, of course, adapting the whole project to francophone readers.
I hope that Stephen King: Trente ans de terreur will provide you with many hours of reading, as interesting as they will be instructive, and that you will find it a key reference, easy and practical to use.
Happy reading!
Hugues Morin
Saint-Hyacinthe, Québec, November 1995
Roberval, Québec, June 1997
Specialized publications. A Historical Survey
There are more books written about King than books written by King, which is surprising, considering the author's output. However, studies about King all have the same flaw (inherent to all studies of contemporary authors, and this book is not immune): they are incomplete as soon as the author publishes another work.
Partly to make up for that problem, and partly to permit exchanges between various groups of King's fans, several publications dedicated to him and his works have appeared over the years.
The first of these was Castle Rock: The Stephen King Newsletter [D5a] published from 1985 to 1989. Castle Rock [CR] was born out of a personal initiative of Stephanie Spruce Leonard, one of King's two secretaries (and also Tabitha's sister). She was editor of the newsletter until December 1988, and Christopher Spruce filled that position during the last year.
The primary reason for the creation of CR was the enormous quantity of mail received from the fans, which Stephanie could no longer manage to answer without excessive delays. Six months behind with the mail, and realizing that many questions came up again in letter after letter, she decided to "answer everyone at once" by creating a fanzine.
The zine was thus founded, with Stephen's approval, as long has he was not personally involved, according to Stephanie. In issue #1, Stephanie notes that it is not a fan club. "Any suggestion of a fan club terrifies [Stephen]." King has always stated that he is uneasy with this publication dedicated to himself. He was relieved, in fact, when the fanzine was discontinued, says Christopher Spruce.
In its heyday, the print run was more than 5000 copies. This is one of the reasons Stephanie stopped publishing CR: managing it had become even more time-consuming than the mail problem that had led to its creation. For King's fans, every issue of CR is now a collector's item.
The high point for CR was the publication, in five instalments, (#2 to #6) of King's novella Dolan's Cadillac (an unpublished story at the time).
The fanzine also published several interviews, with King, of course (#11 and #12), but also with Tabitha King (#34), Clive Barker (#35), Robert McCammon (#41) and Peter Straub (#7).
Articles by Stephen King were also featured: on Halloween (#10), horror in school teaching (!) (#14), his novels It [A117] (#19) and The Eyes of the Dragon [A100] (#25), as well as an article on the Boston Red Sox (#29) [reissued in a book about the baseball club]. You can also find an article on AM radio and rock (#32) [based on King's own radio station, WZON], an article on triskaidekaphobia [fear of the number 13, especially in years including three Friday 13's] (#33). And a whole series of personal lists: the 10 best movies (#8), the 10 worst movies (#9) [on this list, King includes Children of the Corn [B1f] as the worst movie of all time], and the best things in life, for each age category (#13) - among others.
All CR issues were full of information on then current projects; there is also a continually updated bibliography by Stephanie Leonard. In its pages, you learn, among other things, (#6) that the Stephen King who wrote the poetry book Another Quarter Mile, is not THE Stephen King. And that, contrary to the rumour then circulating (#10), King's house is not haunted (!). CR was also used to refute false information (#6) such as the story published in Fantasy Review that claimed that the pornographic novel Love Lessons, by John Wilson, had been written by Stephen King!
A complete collection of this fanzine is very rare. A bookseller specializing in King's work was recently selling one for US$250.
For many years, at the same time as Castle Rock, another fanzine was being published: Castle Schlock - The Stephen King Parody Newsletter [D5b], a parody of Castle Rock edited by Ray Rexter. You won't find information about King or his works there, but phoney articles and all kinds of gags. For instance, the description of a baseball match between the "heroes" and "villains" of King's stories (#3), an ad for King's next book of recipes, Food Processor of the Gods (a play on the short story Word Processor of the Gods [A90]), or one for Stephen King cereals (#2): The Scary-os: The breakfast cereal for people who are not afraid to eat right. Castle Schlock issues have also become almost impossible to find.
A French fan club was formed in 1987, founded by Jacqueline Caron after a visit to Bangor (where she got to meet Stephen King). The club published a fanzine, Les Amis de Stephen King [Friends of Stephen King], D5c], essentially made up of a few items of information, letters from members and various articles. The most important publication of the fanzine was an interview with Stephen King, in several instalments, by Martin Coenen, the French rights of which had been bought by the fan club.) The club, with about seventy members, had difficulty contacting King's office or other sources of information about the author. It slowly ran out of steam. The last issues include material that was not concerned with King's work, such as an interview with the French writer Claude Ecken.
After Castle Rock was shut down, in 1989, the American community turned to publishing books about King. Several studies from that period are still considered among the best of their kind. Meanwhile, in Germany, a new association was born: KRAG, The King Readers Association Germany. Founded by Peter Schmitz in 1990, its goal was to permit fans to share their interest in King and his works. As the membership grew, it was soon thought necessary to publish a magazine. That's how Horror News [D5e] was born in 1991. Published irregularly, the magazine is dedicated to information and articles. The most recent issue was #11, in 1997.
In the U.S., it took until 1994 for another publication dedicated to King to be created; that year, Lori Zuccaro launched SKIN, The Stephen King Information Network [D5e], a monthly newsletter published in Texas, in a way an attempt to replace Castle Rock. At first published electronically on America Online, SKIN also became available in hard copy. Focusing on current information and articles, SKIN was published for two years before it also went under.
During the same period as this renaissance of American King-dom, a group of French academics who were studying King's uvre launched their own publication in Lille: the Steve's Rag fanzine (The Stephen King Magazine) [D5f]. Despite its English title and subtitle, this zine is published in French. "Steve's Rag" is a reference to Dave's Rag [D1b], the zine published by Stephen and David King in their youth. It is only distributed to members of the club or to other editors of publications about King, so you cannot subscribe, but you can obtain it in exchange for a contribution. In one issue, the fanzine had a contribution from Tyson Blue, author of the oldest column on King in the world, Needful Kings. Blue, author of about a hundred articles about King, was one of Castle Rock's contributors.
Also in France, a flash fanzine was started by a small press in 1995. Dans l'ombre de Stephen King (In the Shadow of Stephen King) [D5g], however, published only one issue. Announced as a bimonthly, the magazine was abandoned for more professional projects, such as booklets of essays about King. It included a news column and a few articles, as well as three short stories. The look and editing were impeccable. On the cover of that single attempt is a picture of Stephen King.
At the same time as Dans l'ombre de Stephen King appeared, and disappeared, in France, an amateur magazine was created in Quebec. The first issue of Fenêtre secrète sur Stephen King (A secret window on Stephen King) [D5h] was published in January 1995. A quarterly founded by Hugues Morin, it has several sections, including the French version of Needful Kings, by Tyson Blue, one of Castle Rock's collaborators. Fenêtre secrète was born out of the Quebec community of science fiction and fantasy publications. Since it is also intended to be a window on that community, the magazine regularly includes news and short articles about Quebec authors and publications.
George Beahm, author of The Stephen King Companion [Da5], picked up the slack when SKIN stopped being published in the States. When he was updating his book, Beahm decided he would no longer include bibliographical documents, but instead publish a magazine on King, in order to keep the fans constantly informed. That is how Phantasmagoria [D5i] was born, in mid-1995. This magazine is published three times a year and gives the most recent news on King's works (focusing on collectors' editions) as well as articles. It looks very clean and professional, and defines itself as a publication intended for readers who are more than interested in King's fiction, but who want to obtain very rare collectors' items. It alerts its subscribers when a publisher announces a limited or signed edition. In addition to Beahm, Phantasmagoria has contributions from experts on King such as Dr. Michael R. Collings, and Stephen J. Spignesi. It also sells a selection of items.
The phenomenon of specialized publications shows how popular the author is in many countries. Like the United Sates, Germany, France and Canada, Italy also has its magazine dedicated to King. Cleaver [D5k], created in 1995 by Dario Coccia and Adriano Milesi, is published in Italian. It is especially interested in how the King phenomenon is perceived around the world. The fanzine also offers news columns and articles. It is associated with another Italian publication dedicated to King, Il Giornale di Stephen King [D5k], published by Sperling & Kupfer, King's main publisher in Italy. Il Giornale prints a few articles and recent news about the author and upcoming (or just published) books.
In 1996, The Betts Bookstore Newsletter [D5l] was launched by a specialized bookseller, Stuart Tinker, in Bangor. It is intended for King fans who want to acquire collector's items or rarer editions of his works. Each issue contains recent news, but it is essentially a catalogue of items available from Betts.
In the spring of 1997, Dick Rensmann and Nicole Fischer, editors of the German fanzine Horror News, announced they would no longer be involved with the publication. At this time, it is not known if another member of KRAG will carry on.
There are no doubt other specialized publications around the world, mostly amateur publications, sometimes run by small groups of fans. The difficulty, in general, is to find them in order to make contact with them. However, since SKIN was started, as well as the other publications that came after it in the U.S. and Europe, a core has come into being, a kind of community of fans that continues to grow. All these publications more or less work together instead of competing. The community of fans they reach is growing all the more rapidly because of the links existing between the specialized publications. New contacts are regularly added, for example in Russia, recently, with a group of Internet users, the Skeemers.
This international community is now big enough to survive and keep active even when one of their publications disappears.
© 1997 Éditions Alire & Hugues Morin
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