Stephen King – More than Just Horror

Stephen King is regarded as a master of horror. Among his most famous works are classics turned into film such as Carrie (FIC Kin, DVD FIC Car), The Shining (FIC Kin, DVD FIC Shi), and It (FIC Kin, DVD FIC It). This is all well and good, but I personally don’t have the stomach for horror, and I know I’m not alone in my squeamishness. Luckily, Stephen King has written prolifically over his fifty-year career and has dipped his toes in all sorts of genres.

Several famous movies have been made from King’s work. The titles listed above are obviously King’s, but you may be surprised to find The Shawshank Redemption (DVD FIC Sha) falls into the same group. This 1994 prison drama starring Morgan Freeman and Tim Robbins was based on the novella, “Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption”, published by King twelve years earlier. Another novella, “The Body”, borrowed the title of a Ben E. King song and became Stand By Me (DVD FIC Sta), a classic coming-of-age story with no ghosts other than memories. Both stories are available to read in the collection Different Seasons (FIC Kin).

In 1996, King took inspiration from the likes of Charles Dickens and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and published The Green Mile (FIC Kin) in six short installments. Told from the perspective of a prison guard, this story follows a gentle death row inmate with the power to heal. It was adapted into a movie in 1999 starring Tom Hanks and Michael Clarke Duncan (DVD FIC Gre).

The Dark Tower series is an eight-part epic, following the adventures of the Gunslinger, a knight of the Old West, as he travels through his unraveling world in search of the center of the universe – the Dark Tower. This genre-defying mashup combines elements from many of King’s other works, unifying and deepening the stories through their new connections. The first novel, The Gunslinger (FIC Kin) has also been adapted into a series of graphic novels (GN FIC Kin).

Talisman (FIC Kin v. 1) and its sequel, Black House (FIC Kin v. 2), are among the stories tied into the Dark Tower series. Written in collaboration with Peter Straub, The Talisman series follows Jack Sawyer, first as a child searching a parallel world for a cure for his dying mother, and later as a retired detective hunting down a serial killer. Fans of detective novels should also try King’s Bill Hodges trilogy (FIC Kin), also available in large print and as a 2018 TV show (DVD FIC Mr).

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-Susanna Howard is a Library Assistant in the Reference and Local History department at CDPL.