Author
Richard Bachman
Associated Country
United States
Real Name
Richard Bachman was the pseudonym used by Stephen King beginning in the late 1970s. King initially adopted the name in part to publish more books than the market was believed to support under a single author’s name, and also to test whether his success came from talent or recognition alone. The experiment lasted until readers and booksellers eventually connected Bachman to King in 1985.
Under the Bachman name, King published darker, leaner, and often more pessimistic works including Rage, The Long Walk, Roadwork, The Running Man, and Thinner. While sharing many of King’s recurring themes such as social pressure, violence, isolation, and psychological strain, the Bachman novels are generally harsher in tone and more grounded in bleak realism. After the pseudonym became public knowledge, King continued to occasionally use the Bachman byline for later releases such as The Regulators and Blaze, the latter being an early unpublished novel revised and released in 2007.
King famously announced that “Richard Bachman” had died of “cancer of the pseudonym,” turning the revelation into part of the mythology surrounding the name. Over time, Bachman became more than a simple alias, evolving into a distinct literary identity associated with some of King’s most uncompromising and experimental fiction.
Under the Bachman name, King published darker, leaner, and often more pessimistic works including Rage, The Long Walk, Roadwork, The Running Man, and Thinner. While sharing many of King’s recurring themes such as social pressure, violence, isolation, and psychological strain, the Bachman novels are generally harsher in tone and more grounded in bleak realism. After the pseudonym became public knowledge, King continued to occasionally use the Bachman byline for later releases such as The Regulators and Blaze, the latter being an early unpublished novel revised and released in 2007.
King famously announced that “Richard Bachman” had died of “cancer of the pseudonym,” turning the revelation into part of the mythology surrounding the name. Over time, Bachman became more than a simple alias, evolving into a distinct literary identity associated with some of King’s most uncompromising and experimental fiction.
Books
Blaze 2007
The last of the Richard Bachman novels, recently recovered and published for the first time. Stephen King's "dark half" may have saved the best for last.
A fellow named Richard Bachman wrote Blaze in...
The Regulators 1996
It’s a gorgeous midsummer afternoon along Poplar Street in the peaceful suburbia of Wentwort, Ohio, where life is as pleasant as you ever dreamed it could be. But that’s all about to end in blaze of...
Thinner 1984
Billy Halleck, good husband, loving father, is both beneficiary and victim of the American Good Life: he has an expensive home, a nice family, and a rewarding career as a lawyer. But he is also fifty...
The Running Man 1982
It is 2025 and reality TV has progressed to the point where people are willing to wager their lives in exchange for a chance at enormous wealth.
Ben Richards is desperate - he needs money to treat...
Roadwork 1981
Barton George Dawes is an ordinary man living a quiet life in a Midwestern city, working a steady job and holding onto the remnants of a past that has already begun to slip away. When the state...
The Long Walk 1979
In a dystopian near-future, America has fallen on hard times. Sixteen-year-old Ray Garraty is about to compete in the annual grueling match of stamina and wits known as the Long Walk. One hundred boys...
Rage 1977
A disturbed high-school student with authority problems kills one of his teachers and takes the rest of his class hostage. Over the course of one long, tense and unbearable hot afternoon, Charlie...