The Bachman Books – Four Early Novels, by Stephen King

The Bachman Books – Four Early Novels, by Stephen King. 1985 BCE hardcover. 692 pages, good condition. Dust Jacket has major wear and binding has internal break at page 20/21 (Otherwise solid binding and clean pages).

The Bachman Books is a collection of short novels by Stephen King published under the pseudonym Richard Bachman between 1977 and 1982. The book collects the following novels: Rage (1977), The Long Walk (1979), Roadwork (1981), and The Running Man (1982). The US editions of this collection and the novel Rage were allowed to go out of print by the author and publisher because of the 1997 Heath High School shooting. The perpetrator of that crime, Michael Carneal, had in his locker at the time a copy of Stephen King's novel Rage. After this shooting, King requested his publisher to allow it to go out of print, fearing that it might inspire similar tragedies. Rage for a time continued to be available in the United Kingdom in The Bachman Books collection, although the collection now no longer contains Rage. The remaining three novels are still in print and are published as separate books. In a footnote to the preface of the more recent Bachman novel Blaze (dated 30 January 2007), King wrote of Rage: "Now out of print, and a good thing." A nice, rare book of great writing by King. The binding break at the end of Rage seems somewhat common in well-read hardcover copies.