Why a Stephen King Novel Was Pulled After a Kentucky Tragedy

It wasn't long after I began reading the works of Stephen King (I was in my early teens) that I discovered he also wrote under the pseudonym Richard Bachman. Since I was a huge fan (still am), I dove into these other works, Thinner and The Running Man. Both were adapted for the big screen, with the latter getting the re-adaptation treatment in 2025. Neither of those novels, however, was the first Richard Bachman publication.

Publication Ceases on First Richard Bachman Novel

The first novel published under the Bachman name was released in 1977. But twenty-one years later, King let the book fall out of publication, never to be printed again. Rage focuses on a high school student named Charlie Decker who shoots a teacher and then holds the classroom hostage.

Why the Richard Bachman Book Was Taken Out of Print

In December of 1997, then-14-year-old Michael Carneal walked into Heath High School in West Paducah, Kentucky, and opened fire on a group of students, killing three and injuring another five. This tragic event would be followed two years later by the Columbine school shooting in Aurora, Colorado, in 1999. Sadly, many more would follow. After a copy of King's Rage was found in Carneal's locker, the iconic author ceased any further printings of the novel. And that wish remains honored to this day. That doesn't mean early copies aren't still available, but they come at a cost. If you do this search, you'll see that even tattered paperback versions will run you more than $4,000. And the value is likely only to increase.