First published 2026
Caroline Bicks became the inaugural Stephen E. King Chair in Literature at the University of Maine and received something no scholar had before: extended access to Stephen King's private archives. She spent a year studying unpublished manuscripts, early drafts, and handwritten revisions that document how King created his most terrifying stories. Bicks examined five iconic early works: The Shining, Carrie, Pet Sematary, Salem's Lot, and Night Shift. She tracked his margin notes and editorial changes, uncovering scenes and alternative endings that never reached print but that King now allows her to publish. Through interviews with King, she explored his writing process and personal history. This investigation becomes both a literary study and a personal journey as Bicks, an English professor, confronts her own childhood fears while getting to know the man whose monsters first unleashed them.
Genres: biography, literary-fiction, horror, academic
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: personal-journey, unreliable-narrator
Setting: University of Maine
304 pages · Paperback · Hodder & Stoughton