Born in New York, Richard Bachman's early years are somewhat of a mystery. As a young man Bachman served a four-year stint in the Coast Guard, which he then followed with ten years in the merchant marines.
Bachman finally settled down in rural New Hampshire, where he ran a medium sized dairy farm. He did his writing at night (he suffered from insomnia).
His wife, Claudia Inez Bachman and himself had one child, a boy, who died in an unfortunate Stephen Kingish type of accident at the age of six. Apparently he fell through a well and drowned.
In 1982, a brain tumor was found near the base of Bachmans brain, a tricky surgery removed it. Bachman later died suddenly in late 1985, of cancer of the pseudonym, a rare form of schizonomia.
Before his death the following books were published, Rage 1977, The Long Walk 1978, Roadwork 1981, The Running Man 1982 and Thinner 1984.
Also at the time of his death, he was toying with the idea for a new novel which would have been titled Misery, had he lived to write it. (note : this title was later plagiarised by a well known horror writer).
Bachman fans received a bit of good news too, in 1994, while preparing to move to a new house, the widow Bachman discovered a cardboard box filled with manuscripts in the cellar. The most finished was a novel called The Regulators.
This was then published in September of 1996. As of this time, no other information has been forthcoming about the possibility of other unpublished works being published.
When compared to Richard Bachman, Stephen King stated...A nasty man...I'm glad he's dead.
Only a handful of people actually knew that Richard Bachman was Stephen King. Only few people at NAL, Bachmans publisher knew, and it was on a strictly need to know basis. Not even the president of the company knew.
A hight school teenager becomes a gang of one in a terrifying display of rebellion.
A chilling look at the ultra conservative America of the future where a gruelling 450 mile marathon is the ultimate sports competition.
An immovable man refuses to surrender to the irresistible force of progress.
They all watched, from the sprawling polluted slums to the security-obsessed enclaves of the rich. They all watched the ultimate live death game as the contestants tried to beat, not the clock, but annihilation at the hands of the hunters. Survive thirty days and win the billion dollar jackpot - that was the promis. But the odds were brutal and the game rigged. Best score so far was eight days. And now there was a new contestant, the latest Running Man, Staking his life while a nation watched.
The old gypsy man barely whispered the word. Billy felt the touch of a withered hand, gentle on his cheek.
Billy Halleck, prosperous if overweight citizen, happily married, shuddered, then turned angrily away. The old woman's death had been none of his fault. The court had cleared him. She'd just stumbled in front of his car. Now he simply wanted to forget the whole messy business.
Later, when the scales told him he was losing weight, it was what the doctor had ordered. His wife was pleased - as he should have been. But THINNER, the word, the old man's curse, had lodged in his mind like a fatening worm, eating away at his flesh, at his reason. And with his despair, came violence.
Wentworth, Ohio: a small friendly town where the Carver children bicker over sweets in the E-Z shop and writer Johnny Marinville is the only resident who minds his own business. And on Poplar Street, apart from the impending storm, it's just a normal summer's day - with frisbees flying, lawns being mown, barbeques prepared and the paperboy making his rounds. Oblivious of the chrome red van idling up the hill that marks the start of the surreal nightmare. Soon the residents will be caught up in a game of wills as the regulators arrive in force to face a child whose powers of expression are just awakening, waiting for them.......
