The co-authors of this book are to be congratulated for their painstaking examination of the huge body of Stephen King's work,ranging from his early contributions to his high-school magazine; as a life-long sports fan, who is more than ready to write with great enthusiasm about of his own team and who is not afraid to show his misery at their lack of performance, but most important of all, King's growth into the highly-acclaimed novelist he is today. If any work is omitted from the text or is not readily available it is mentioned here and the authors give helpful references and hints to where unobtainable material might be found or instigate a search for such.
The writers' method of listing books in mainly chronological order could have become a wearisome catalogue of facts, but they have escaped any such accusation by varying the text with anecdotes and conversations between King, his family and his friends, which give us an insightful access to the author's musings on his own writing, on writing in general and his friendly and scholarly advice to other wannabe writers.
Aficionados of King should be satisfied to be offered such a comprehensive study of King's work and those less familiar with his writings ought to find the text informative and enlightening, giving them the chance to discover and sample any magazine article or book that King has written. Added to this, those who only know of King as a writer of horror will discover that his work encompasses a great deal more and that his scholarship and research is to be highly praised.
