WRITERS ROCK Student Pick

Stephen King

In 1927, a little-known writer of horror stories named H.P. Lovecraft tried to put into words the secret of his diabolical craft. "The one test of the really weird is simply this," Lovecraft wrote in the introduction to "Supernatural Horror in Literature," "whether or not there be excited in the reader a profound sense of dread and of contact with unknown spheres and powers; a subtle attitude of awed listening, as if for the beating of black wings or the scratching of outside shapes or entities on the known universe's utmost rim."

This year, the novel "The Stand" turns 30, and far from fading into the dustbin of bygone bestsellers, King's great tale of plague seems more prescient than ever.

King has described his 1978 novel as an American version of "Lord of the Rings," and part of the originality of the work lies in its splicing of that narrative steeped in Northern European myths and sagas into a radically different setting: the state highways and national interstates of the United States.

King has seen more than 50 novels, short story collections, and novellas into print, one bestseller after another. A master of the storytelling craft, he gets his ghastly fingernails right beneath the skin.

Source: http://www.salon.com/books/int/2008/10/23/stephen_king/

CHECK OUT OUR "Horror Fiction" DISPLAY CASE for the month of OCTOBER.
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