Why this chilling Stephen King book was pulled from shelves and never printed again

Stephen King is one of the most popular and influential authors in modern entertainment, but he was relieved when one of his earlier novels was pulled from shelves.

If you have watched TV or a film in the last 20 years, chances are you have consumed a piece of entertainment either adapted or influenced by Stephen King and this is for good reason.

The 78-year-old King has built his career on more than sixty novels, hundreds of short stories and multiple successful Hollywood adaptations of his work.

But King wanted one of his early works pulled from shelves even though it was particularly successful.

Back in 1977, publishing under pseudonym Richard Bachman, King released book Rage which follows a teenager who comes to school and shoots one of his teachers and takes fellow students as hostages.

Stephen King had to reflect on how influential his book may have been (Jim Spellman/WireImage)

However, in the 80s and 90s people became fearful that the book was becoming influential as individuals who went on to commit school shootings may have read or had the book in their possession.

Following a 1997 shooting in Kentucky involving a student named Michael Carneal, it was revealed that he had a copy of the book in his locker.

In a 1999 library conference in Vermont, King spoke out about this incident and said: “I can’t say for sure that Michael Carneal had read my novel Rage, but news stories following the incident reported that a copy of it had been found in his locker. It seems likely to me that he did.

“Rage had been mentioned in at least one other school shooting… The Carneal incident was enough for me. I asked my publisher to take the damned thing out of print. They concurred.”

It is suspected that the novel’s main character, who goes on to commit the shootings, may have resonated with some of the perpetrators.

King has even gone to reflect on whether his novel had influenced individuals who go on to do terrible things.

Stephen King at a book signing in 1976 (Buddy Mays/Corbis via Getty Images)

He even made a comparison by how serial killer Ted Bundy fueled his violent fantasies by consuming very graphic material.

The author said: “Do I think that Rage may have provoked Carneal, or any other badly adjusted young person, to resort to the gun? It’s an important question… The answer is troubling, but it needs to be faced: in some cases, yes. Probably it does.

“One cannot divorce the presence of my book in that kid’s locker from what he did.

“That such stories will exist no matter what - that they will be obtainable under the counter if not over it - begs the question. The point is that I don’t want to be part of it.

“Once I knew what had happened. I pulled the ejection-seat lever on that particular piece of work. I withdrew Rage, and I did it with relief rather than regret.”

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