Stephen King Country: The Illustrated Guide to the Sites and Sights That Inspired the Modern Master of Horror

by George Beahm

Looks at the world in which author Stephen King lives and the real-life places that inspired the settings for some of his most popular works

Genres: Nonfiction, Biography, Reference, Books About Books, Travel

144 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 1999

About the author

George Beahm writes books about censorship, sports figures, and numerous literary figures, including Patricia Cornwell, J.K. Rowling, Stephenie Meyer, Philip Pullman, and others.

Reviews

[Mike Hildreth · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have the super-rare hard-cover copy in an acrylic bookcase, that is serial numbered "T" (one of only 52 copies worldwide, printed w/SN's A-Z & AA-ZZ). These copies were given to exclusive VIP's in Stephen King's life. THIS author autographed copy, "T" was given to Mr. Tibbetts, who owned & operated Bett's Bookstore in Bangor, Maine, and also contains 4 more loose photographs inside the book.
I was able to purchase this ensemble from Bett's Bookstore in 2004, along with a one-of-a-kind book where the publisher misspelled "STEPHEN" on the spine of the cover as "STEHPEN". Plus a few other extremely rare magazines (2x Playboy, Penthouse & Esquire) that contain S.K. interviews and/or short novels.
Timing is everything in life!
Stephen King is AWESOME!

[LibraryCin · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

This book is part-biography of Stephen King and partly looks at the places where King grew up, lived, spent time... and where he modelled some of the settings for his books. It includes photos of many of the places.

I liked it. It was published in 1999, so there is probably a lot more current stuff that could be added if it was updated. The book also looked at some of the movies that were made from King’s books. I particularly enjoyed the section on “The Shining” (Stephen and Tabitha lived in Colorado for a short time). I also love that they are both so supportive of libraries, to the tune of gifting a couple of local libraries a lot of money to help them out.

[R.J.]

Excellent companion for Constant Readers.

[Sherri Bryant · Rating 4 out of 5]

The ultimate supplement to any King fan's library. This book offers a rare glimpse of the man behind the legend and the reality beneath the fiction.

[Sara · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was such an interesting book about Stephen King and the real life locations of the novels he has written. Highly recommend to any Stephen King fan =)

[Joe Eidson · Rating 2 out of 5]

As a die-hard "Constant Reader" of SK I was intrigued by this book. However, upon finishing I found it to be more than a little disappointing. Published in 1999 just before the explosion of the information age, there really isn't anything that you can't find on the Wikipedia article on King. For someone with no internet access and no prior knowledge of King's life or works, this might be a much more useful book than for those already well-versed in King's output.

[Noah · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun and interesting read for fans of Steven King! Semi-Biographical with maps and pictures, the book truly shines in giving reasons for settings characters and plot in ol Steve's books. Quite a bit I already knew, and an amazing amount I didn't. Even with a cursory read through, This tome smacks of a lot of loving, well put together research. Definitely a great pick for people who wanted to know just a bit more about the circumstances behind King's books.

[Jennifer Daniel · Rating 3 out of 5]

The pictures of the places that sparked the stories of Stephen King were fantastic, but the biographical information was spotty and at times incorrected. Plus the fact that I am stalkerish-ly obsessed with SK there was not one new shred of information I hadn't read somewhere else. I think I may just know it all.

[Kathy Gilliland · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting book for fans of Stephen King.