In a rare and sobering act of self-censorship, legendary horror writer Stephen King made the permanent decision to ban one of his own novels from publication. The book in question is not one of his famous mainstream works, but an early psychological thriller that became tragically linked to a series of American school shootings.
The Novel That Crossed a Line
Stephen King first published the novel Rage in 1977 under the pseudonym Richard Bachman. The story centres on a deeply troubled teenager, Charlie Decker, who shoots a teacher and takes his classmates hostage. For over a decade, the book remained a relatively obscure part of King's bibliography, largely overlooked alongside his other experimental early works.
This changed dramatically in the late 1980s and 1990s. A disturbing pattern emerged where several perpetrators of school shootings across the United States were found to be in possession of Rage. Copies were discovered in their bedrooms and school lockers, with some shooters openly citing the novel as an influence on their actions.
A Direct Link to Tragedy
The definitive moment for King came after a tragic shooting in Kentucky in 1997. A student named Michael Carneal killed three of his classmates during a morning prayer group. Subsequent reports revealed that a copy of Rage had been stored in Carneal's locker.
Addressing the incident at a 1999 library conference in Vermont, King stated he found it likely Carneal had read his work. "The Carneal incident was enough for me," King declared. "I asked my publisher to take the damned thing out of print. They concurred."
By that time, the novel had been connected to at least three other hostage situations involving teenagers in California, Kentucky, and South Dakota. Investigators found that many of the young perpetrators had obsessively re-read the story, seeing a dark reflection of themselves in its protagonist.
A Moral Reckoning for an Author
Confronted with this grim reality, King was forced to grapple with a difficult question: had his fiction played a role in these real-world tragedies? He concluded that, in some cases, it had.
"Do I think that Rage may have provoked Carneal, or any other badly adjusted young person, to resort to the gun?" King pondered. "The answer is troubling, but it needs to be faced: in some cases, yes. Probably it does."
He described the painful realisation that a piece of art could act as "an accelerant on a troubled mind," drawing a parallel to how serial killers like Ted Bundy fuelled their violent fantasies. For King, arguing for free speech in the face of such a direct linkage felt "immoral."
His final decision was unequivocal. "Once I knew what had happened," he clarified, "I pulled the ejection-seat lever on that particular piece of work. I withdrew Rage, and I did it with relief rather than regret." The author, renowned for exploring humanity's darkest corners, chose to draw a firm ethical line, ensuring the novel would never return to shelves.
