Book: Monsters In The Archives
Author: Caroline Bicks
Pages: 304
This is my 125th read for the year
What Amazon Says:
After Caroline Bicks was named the University of Maine's inaugural Stephen E King Chair in Literature, she became the first scholar to be granted extended access by King to his private archives, a treasure trove of manuscripts that document the legendar writer's creative process - most of them never before studied or published. The year she spent exploring Kig's early drafts and hand-written revisions was guided by one question millions of King's entralled and terrified readers (including her) have asked themselves: What makes Stephen King's writing stick in our heads and haunt us long after we've closed the book? Bicks focuses on 5 of his most iconic early works - The Shining, Carrie, Pet Sematary, 'Salem's Lot, and Night Shift - to reveal how he crafted his language, story lines, and characters to cast his enduring literary spells. While tracking King's margin notes and editorial changes, she discovered scenes and alternatve endigns that never made it to print but tha tKing is allowing her to publish now. The book also includes interviews Bicks had with King along the way that reveal new insights into his writing process and personal history. This book chronicles what Bicks found when she set out to unearth how King crafted some of his scariest, most iconic moments. But it's also a story about a grown-up English professor facing her childhood fears and getting to know the man whose monsters helped unleashed them.
This was a pretty good book. It is brand new and I was excited to see what Stephen King shared with the author during the year she spent with him. I didn't know he had basically a locked vault on his property that contains all of his manuscripts, notes, etc. How cool would it be to see that, and then get to talk to him about it? I am a Stephen King superfan - made it my mission to read all of his books - and this would be one of the best things to get to see inside his mind as he fought to a finished product. This book had excerpts of those trials, and also interviews that the author had with Stephen King about his process and why he wrote certain characters the way he did. Good insight. Glad I read this one.
Stars: 4.5
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