Stephen King as Richard Bachman

It is not unusual to see more than one title by any given author published in a year. However, the publishing industry once lived by a general rule that no author could be published more than once per year. Some might consider it a dark time for writers, or at the least, an unfair time. However, for the more prolific authors, there were ways around this rule. All an author had to do was either convince his publisher to allow him to use a pseudonym or insist that his contract allow for other publishers to purchase his work written under another name. Other, more sinister authors simply might not have asked at all.

As for Stephen King, he found that he was a very prolific writer. His various magazine contracts and his book publisher, that also published many of his short stories in collected editions, was simply not enough to fulfill his needs. Stephen King implored his publisher to allow him to also write under the name Richard Bachman. Soon, Stephen King was happily seeing twice as many of his books published each year.

Some fans of Stephen King quickly grew fond of Richard Bachman as well. It was not long before similarities between Stephen King and Richard Bachman began to circulate. Fearing he would be undone, Stephen King began to make Richard Bachman more lifelike. The Richard Bachman stories began to make references to Stephen King novels. Then, he took greater steps to put life into Richard Bachman by including an acknowledgement to an imaginary wife. Stephen King also included a picture of Richard Bachman on the dust jacket, and the photo was credited to the imaginary wife.

Eventually a curious fan traced Richard Bachman through the Library of Congress and found one of the novels credited to Stephen King.

Stephen King was not yet done with Richard Bachman. Other books were later published under the pseudonym though little was done to disconnect them from himself. Possibly the most interesting thing to come from the Richard Bachman relationship was the novel, The Dark Half , written after he was revealed, where the lead character is a writer whose pseudonym's personality attempts to take over.

After the 1997 Heath High School shooting, Stephen King decided he would allow the Richard Bachman book, Rage, to go out of print, afraid that it might inspire future school shootings.

Currently, Stephen King has not made public any plans for future Richard Bachman novels, but one never knows what to expect from the master of horror.