Stephen King's famous novel was almost never published until his wife saved it
Stephen King's wife Tabitha fished the opening pages of Carrie out of the trash, read them and told her husband to keep on writing.
His debut and one of his most iconic novels only exists because she did.
King had thrown the draft away: "I did three single-spaced pages of a first draft, then crumpled them up in disgust and threw them away," he wrote in a Guardian essay back in 2000.
Publishers rejected Carrie 30 times before one decided to take a gamble, but without Tabitha's intervention, one of the most celebrated horror novels in history might never have reached shelves.
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How much money did Stephen King make from Carrie?
At the time, King was working as a schoolteacher, and his family had been living in a trailer.
Doubleday finally published the book on April 5th, 1974, and the reaction was unlike anything the publishing world had seen from a debut novelist.
The paperback rights sold for $400,000, and extraordinary sum back then, and King used half of it to pay off his debts and support his family.
The novel went on to spend months on bestseller lists.
Two years later, director Brian De Palma turned it into a film.
The 1976 adaptation starred Sissy Spacek as Carrie and Piper Laurie as her terrifying mother, and both actresses received Academy Award nominations, a rare achievement for a horror film at the time. Spacek's portrayal of Carrie White is still regarded as one of the most iconic performances in the genre.
Carrie has been adapted several times since, including a 2013 remake starring Chloë Grace Moretz and a 1988 Broadway musical.
The musical was famously short lived but has since built a cult following. For King, it was only the beginning of a career that has produced more than 65 novels and hundreds of short stories.
What is the new Carrie series about?
Director and showrunner Mike Flanagan says the new adaptation aims to 'do Carrie different,' according to Indy100. "Brian De Palma's film is an immortal classic and a near perfect adaptation of King's novel. There was no reason to do that again but I couldn't stop thinking about it," he said.
The eight-episode series follows high schooler Carrie White, played by Summer H. Howell, who has spent most of her life isolated at home under the watch of her ultra-religious mother, Margaret, played by Samantha Sloyan.
After losing her father unexpectedly, Carrie is forced to attend Ewen's public high school, where she becomes the center of a bullying scandal that spreads across social media. Her telekinetic powers are unleashed in the aftermath.
Howell, 22, was chosen from more than 1,400 actresses.
King has also weighed in. "I couldn't stop watching the show. It feels like it gets to the heart of teenage misery (and occasional bright shafts of joy)," he said.
He added that while the book and De Palma's film were about blood and horror, Flanagan's version is about 'the horror of social media.'
Topics: Stephen King, Books, Film and TV
Thomas Bamford