Talking 50 Years of Stephen King

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This month marks the 50th anniversary of the publication of Stephen King’s first novel, “Carrie.” In our original review of the book, the crime columnist Newgate Callendar (actually the music critic Harold Schonberg writing under a pseudonym) wrote, “That this is a first novel is amazing. King writes with the kind of surety normally associated only with veteran writers.”

Half a century later, the novelist Margaret Atwood writes, “But underneath the ‘horror,’ in King, is always the real horror: the all-too-actual poverty and neglect and hunger and abuse that exists in America today.”

In the decades since the publication of “Carrie,” King has experimented with length, genre and style, but always maintained his position as one of America’s most famous writers.

On this week’s episode of the Book Review podcast, the host Gilbert Cruz (who has written a starter guide to King’s work) talks to the novelist Grady Hendrix, who read and re-read many of King’s books, writing an essay on each (you can find them all here) as well as the King superfan Damon Lindelof, the TV showrunner behind “Lost” and “The Leftovers.”

We would love to hear your thoughts about this episode, and about the Book Review’s podcast in general. You can send them to [email protected].