Stephen King book will never be printed again after it was pulled from all shelves

Stephen King explained why one of his books will never again see the light of day.

The author has built up an impressive canon of more than 60 books, including many which have been adapted into films such as IT and The Shining.

But while King's status as one of the most famous horror authors in the world comes from his dozens of books, there's one of his books that will never be published again.

And this is not despite King's objection to its publication, but because of it.

While it might seem counterintuitive for an author to not want their own book to be published, King has explained that there's actually specific reason for this.

But which book is it that's caused such a stir?

King himself called for the book to no longer be published (Olivia Wong/Getty Images)

This is Rage, a book which was first released more than 50 years ago under the pseudonym Richard Bachman.

If you want a clue as to why King no longer wants it out there, a summary of it on King's website reads: "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 Decker explains what led him to this drastic sequence of events, while at the same time deconstructing the personalities of his classmates, forcing each one to justify his or her existence."

Given that the US has a tragically large number of mass shootings compared to other countries, this is already a hot button issue.

A note on the website adds: "No future printings will be made of this novel at Stephen's request due to the sensitive nature of the content."

King's chilling novel was removed from circulation in 1998 over two decades after it was released (Wikimedia Commons)

But it's not just the subject matter, because in the years after its initial release, a number of school shootings happened, and the book was found to be connected to several of them.

This led King to believe that the book had been a factor in shooters' motivation, in particular with 14-year-old Michael Carneal, who killed three students and injured six at Heath High School shooting in West Paducah, Kentucky, in December 1997.

Reports claim that a copy of Rage was found in the shooter's locker, and King decided to pull the book.

King told a 1999 library conference in Vermont: “I can’t say for sure that Michael Carneal had read my novel Rage, but news stories following the incident reported that a copy of it had been found in his locker. It seems likely to me that he did.

“Rage had been mentioned in at least one other school shooting… The Carneal incident was enough for me. I asked my publisher to take the damned thing out of print. They concurred.”

Rage was still published as part of the The Bachman Books collection, but has now been pulled from print altogether.