It sounds like a plot line that could be part of an actual Stephen King novel. Brown, in true thriller character fashion, decided to investigate and discovered that Stephen King was registered as the copyright owner for Rage with the other Bachman books being registered under the name of King’s agent. Unfortunately for King, he was figured out early on by a bookkeeper, Steve Brown, who noticed the similarities between King and Bachman’s writing styles. King, a prolific writer with a very business-minded approach to the craft, decided he would write under the pseudonym Richard Bachman to get around this restriction and to test whether his success was a fluke or if it was really because of his talents.

Photo from NPR and shot by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, FileĪt the time, publishers wanted to restrict authors to releasing one book per year to prevent market oversaturation. By then, he was already a well-known writer with a large fanbase just itching to get more novel releases. Rage was a psychological thriller written early in King’s career under the pseudonym Richard Bachman. Stephen King’s Rage (1977) isn’t as well-known as novels like IT (1986), The Shining (1977), and Pet Samatary (1983) which is understandable given that King didn’t write it under his own name.

The final straw for King came when a student at Heath High School shot at his classmates all while a copy of Rage sat in his locker.

Several school shooters following the publishing of the book have either quoted it, reenacted it, or have, at least, a copy of it.

Stephen King’s 1977 novel Rage is an out of print book about a teenage school shooter who holds his high school classmates hostage after killing their algebra teacher.

Rage by Richard Bachman