One of Stephen King's books will never be printed again and has been pulled from shelves

One of Stephen King's books is no longer available and will never be sold again after he asked for it to be taken out of print.

Over a long and storied career, King has racked up a total of 65 books written since the release of his first novel Carrie in 1974.

There's a reason King is known as one of the most prolific authors ever to put ink to page, and his ability to put out high-quality work at such a fast pace is frankly amazing.

However, there's one book among the 65 that you won't find on the shelves and it's something from pretty early on in King's career.

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In 1977 King released The Shining, while in the same year an author called Richard Bachman had his novel Rage published.

However, it turned out that King and Bachman were one - the same as the name of Rage's author was simply just a pseudonym.

If you go looking for Rage though, you won't find a newly printed copy as the only ones left in circulation are those printed before the author decided he didn't want it being released any more.

For a short while it was still being published in The Bachman Books collection, but now versions of those also come without the novel.

You can buy old copies that appear for auction online but there's not going to be new stock coming onto the bookshop shelves.

"Now out of print, and a good thing," King wrote of Rage at the beginning of his novel Blaze, while during a speech in 1999 he explained why a 1997 school shooting from a 14-year-old named Michael Carneal where three were killed and five injured convinced him it was time to pull the book from print.

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He said: "The Carneal incident was enough for me. I asked my publisher to take the damned thing out of print. They concurred."

At the time of the shooting the 14-year-old had a copy of Rage in his locker.

Rage follows a high school student who carries out a school shooting after being expelled, killing two of his teachers and threatening to kill students unless his demands are met.

By the end of the book the school shooter is shot, arrested, found not-guilty by reason of insanity and committed to a psychiatric hospital.

The book was linked to a number of school shootings.

Following the Sandy Hook school shooting in 2012, King wrote the essay Guns where he further explained why he didn't want Rage in print any more.

Topics: Books, Stephen King, US News

Joe Harker

Joe graduated from the University of Salford with a degree in Journalism and worked for Reach before joining the LADbible Group. When not writing he enjoys the nerdier things in life like painting wargaming miniatures and chatting with other nerds on the internet. He's also spent a few years coaching fencing. Contact him via [email protected]

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