James Arthur Anderson is a professor emeritus at Johnson & Wales University, where he taught writing and literature for more than 35 years. He has published book-length critical studies on H.P. Lovecraft and Ray Bradbury, and received The Rocky Wood Memorial Scholarship for Nonfiction from the Horror Writers Association in 2016. He lives in Garfield, Georgia and is a part-time instructor at East Georgia State College.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction: Why Is Stephen King So Good and So Popular?

1.¿Carrie: Prom Night

2.¿'Salem's Lot: New World Vampires

3.¿Rage: Getting It on in the Schools

4.¿The Shining: Iconic Horror

5.¿The Stand: The Modern Plague

6.¿The Long Walk: Dystopian Nightmare

7.¿The Dead Zone: Everyman Is a Hero

8.¿Firestarter: Don't Play with Fire

9.¿Roadwork: Mental Meltdown

10.¿Cujo: He Tried to Be a Good Dog

11.¿The Running Man: Reality TV on Steroids

12.¿Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption: Hope Springs Eternal

13.¿The Body: The Birth of a Writer

14.¿Christine: America Loves Its Wheels

15.¿Pet Sematary: Sometimes Dead Is Better

16.¿Eyes of the Dragon: ­­Genre-Bending Fantasy

17.¿Thinner: The Book That Outed Bachman

18.¿It: We All Float Down Here

19.¿Misery: The Price of Fame

20.¿The Tommyknockers: Mechanized Aliens

21.¿The Dark Half: Attack of the Pseudonym

22.¿Needful Things: The Downside of a Consumer Society

23.¿Gerald's Game: Escape Room

24.¿Dolores Claiborne: Justice Served

25.¿Rose Madder: The Fury of a Woman Scorned

26.¿Insomnia: Miles to Go Before I Sleep

27.¿The Green Mile: Rebirth of the Serial Novel

28.¿Desperation: Even God Has a Price

29.¿The Regulators: Horror in the Burbs

30.¿Bag of Bones: Digging Up the Past

31.¿The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon: Gretel Goes It Alone

32.¿Dreamcatcher: A Winter's Tale

33.¿From a Buick 8: The ­­One-Way Portal

34.¿The Colorado Kid: The Unsolved Mystery

35.¿Cell: The ­­Techno-Zombie Attack

36.¿Lisey's Story: The Literary Best Seller

37.¿Blaze: Bachman Returns

38.¿Duma Key: Art Therapy

39.¿Under the Dome: Ants Under a Magnifying Glass

40.¿11/22/63: Changing the Past

41.¿Joyland: Carny from Carny

42.¿Doctor Sleep: Danny Torrance Grows Up

43.¿Mr. Mercedes: Enter, Holly Gibney

44.¿Revival: Reanimation and Revelation

45.¿Finders Keepers: The Problem with Buried Treasure

46.¿End of Watch: To Be or Not to Be

47.¿The Outsider: The Doppelgänger Effect

48.¿Elevation: King's ­­Feel-Good Book

49.¿The Institute: Suffer the Children

50.¿Later: I See Dead People

51.¿Billy Summers.¿The Moral Assassin

52.¿Fairy Tale: Once Upon a Time

53.¿Holly: A Journal of the ­­Covid-19 Years

Conclusion: The English Professor and Constant Reader

Appendix 1: Theoretical Works Consulted

Appendix 2: Bibliography of Works about Stephen King

Appendix 3: A Chronology of Stephen King's Books

Index