One of Stephen King's early novels, Rage, has been permanently pulled from publication and will never be printed again, following a series of disturbing real-world connections that led King himself to silence it.
What the book was about
Originally published in 1977 under King's pseudonym Richard Bachman, and initially titled Getting It On, Rage follows Charlie Decker, a high school student who, after a violent confrontation with a teacher and principal, retrieves a gun from his locker, shoots his algebra teacher, and holds his classmates hostage.
The reason it was pulled
Over the years, the novel became linked to a number of real school shooting incidents in the US, with several perpetrators found to have read the book, including one who had written an essay on it. The turning point came on 1 December 1997, when 14-year-old Michael Carneal opened fire at Heath High School in West Paducah, Kentucky, killing three students and injuring five others. When authorities searched his belongings, they found a copy of Rage in his locker. Deeply disturbed by the discovery, King made the decision to pull the book from circulation in the US, requesting it never be reprinted due to growing concern that it could be influencing violent behaviour.
Its legacy today
Rage has remained out of print ever since, making existing copies highly sought after among collectors, with some editions fetching significant prices on the secondary market. King has previously said he drew on his own frustrations from high school while writing the novel, and it remains one of the clearest examples of an author choosing to withdraw their own work out of conscience following its real-world impact.
