Stephen King Illustrated Companion

by Bev Vincent

From the Publisher: This book takes a critical look at Stephen King's most iconic works and reads between the lines to uncover the personal influences and demons as reflected in each monster, epidemic, and depraved character. Unseen family photographs and 16 pieces of previously unpublished ephemera - such as handwritten manuscript notes, typed early drafts, lengthy journal entries, and doodles for King's college newspaper - complete this tangible tour. Packed with fascinating biographical details, literary interpretations, and personal memorabilia, The Stephen King Illustrated Companion is a must-have addition to any true fan's library.

About the author: Bev Vincent is the Bram Stoker Award-nominated author of The Road to the Dark Tower, an authorized companion to King's Dark Tower series. Vincent has published more than fifty of his own short stories. He lives in Texas.

Genres: Nonfiction, Horror, Biography, Reference, Coffee Table Books, Autobiography, Writing

176 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

Bev Vincent is the author of The Dark Tower Companion, The Road to the Dark Tower, the Bram Stoker Award nominated companion to Stephen King’s Dark Tower series, and The Stephen King Illustrated Companion, which was nominated for a 2010 Edgar® Award and a 2009 Bram Stoker Award. In 2018, he co-edited the anthology Flight or Fright with Stephen King.

His short fiction has appeared in places like Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, Borderlands 5, Ice Cold, and The Blue Religion. Four stories were collected in When the Night Comes Down and another four in a CD Select eBook. His story “The Bank Job” won the Al Blanchard Award. “The Honey Trap” from Ice Cold was nominated for an ITW Thriller Award in 2015 and “Zombies On A Plane” was nominated for an Ignotus Award in 2020.

His work has been translated into: Arabic, Bulgarian, Chinese, Czech, Dutch, French, German, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Swedish, Serbian, Spanish and Ukrainian.

He has been a contributing editor with Cemetery Dance magazine since 2001 and writes book reviews for Onyx Reviews. He has served as a judge for the Al Blanchard, Shirley Jackson and Edgar Awards.

Reviews

[Shelby *trains flying monkeys* · Rating 5 out of 5]

HOLY CRAP THIS BOOK IS BEAUTIFUL!

I put this book on my paperbackswap.com wish list years ago. It was pretty pricey at the time and it's been sitting there. Until a couple of weeks ago and my number was up. I have been itching to get this book in my greedy little hands.

It was worth the wait.

It's full of tidbits from King. From ideas of where his stories originated. (The house that was in his mind with Salem's lot)

(I took this pic with my phone so excuse if it's crappy)

Then it has these little envelopes scattered throughout it that contain goodies.




Then there is of course, photos of King.




Check out Becky's review while I go and drool over this sucker.

[Johann (jobis89) · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars. Wouldn’t say I learned anything new from this book but it is beautiful and a fun read!

[Becky · Rating 5 out of 5]

Knowing my love for King, you might be surprised to learn that I just found out about the existence of this book today. Despite the fact that I am a devoted King fan, and a member of the Stephen King Fan group here on GR, in which there was a thread about this book open since last October, I somehow managed to miss it.

But that was kind of fortuitous, as events worked out in such a way as for me to get this book 1/2 price. But even if I hadn't, it would still have been worth every penny.

This is an absolute MUST-HAVE for every King lover. Inside is a plethora of tidbits and relics of King's life and career. Everything from reproductions of sections of the newspaper he and his brother put out as kids, to reproductions of rough drafts of work, sketches, etc.

Bev Vincent provides not only a readable and interesting narrative, but also contributes a lot of insight into King's work that I'd never thought of before. It makes me want to go back and read these books with a new eye. (So I think I will! :D)

A lot of the information in this book regarding King's life is general knowledge or pulled from the pages of Danse Macabre (which I haven't read yet, but will squeeze in as soon as it lands on my doorstep), On Writing, which I've just read, and quotes from interviews and the like. Most of the major facets of King's life are touched on. His childhood, his early writing career, his inspiration and ideas, The Rock Bottom Remainders, his radio station, his accident (with some touches on "old" King vs "post-accident" King), his relationship with his wife, his philanthropy, his innovation in publishing, and the possibilities the future may hold. Just about everything but the kitchen sink. But I'd have read about that too if they put it in. :)

Contained within these pages is a quote which I think sums up most of what I love about King:

"...King says, 'I believe these {horror} stories exist because we sometimes need to create unreal monsters and bogies to stand in for all the things we fear in our real lives.'
His hope, though, is that 'you don't get scared of monsters-- you get scared for people.' This succinctly describes one of the secrets of King's success-- his books are fundamentally about how people react to stressful circumstances. He makes readers care for his characters, and then throws something catastrophic at them."

This quote is in the section dedicated to The Shining, but it's true of all of his work, in my opinion. I love the way that King brings his characters to life. They are more than just words on a page, they could be real people, some that I would love to know, others that I'd avoid like the plague, but real nonetheless.

I'm proud to call Stephen King my favorite author. He deserves it. Not only is he able to write characters that make me physically miss them after a while, but he is accessible, and real and good-hearted himself. And yet, literary snobs like Harold Bloom seem to think that he is the "death of the Literary Reader". Pfft. This is twice that old Harold has offended me (three times if you count that he cannot even spell "Tolkien", yet claims to be a fan...). Somebody needs to slap old Harold. He's an idiot. King's response is to say

"Harold Bloom has never been very interested in popular culture, and he has no real grasp of popular culture, popular writing, or the places where what we call pop culture crosses what you would call higher culture... What I would really like to do is see Harold Bloom given an injection of sodium pentothol so that he had to tell the truth and say 'Now, Harold, how much Stephen King have you actually read?' And I think the answer would be probably less than one whole book. My guess is he's dipped a few times, and you come to the table with certain prejudices, and naturally you're going to see those prejudices fulfilled."

Bravo. How true. Prejudiced is the perfect word to describe Harold Bloom in my opinion.

Anyway, enough ranting about Harold. (Although I now wonder if overweight, pimply and pompous poet-wannabe Harold Lauder was modeled after old Harold Bloom? Hmm. The answer does not lie within this book, but if I ever meet King, I'll be sure to ask.) Really, now, enough of the snobs.

As I mentioned before, this is a must have for any King fan. Surely the Harold quote is enough to justify the purchase, but really, these 176 pages are jam-packed with memorabilia that shows us (if we didn't know already) that King is a person, and a GOOD one, not just a FAMOUS or a RICH person.

He's active in his community, has several charities, and gives back whenever he can, most recently by purchasing bus tickets so that a good-sized chunk of soldiers home from Afghanistan (I think- may have to check which war they were home from) could visit their families for the holidays.

So, yes, he deserves to be my favorite author, and he's got a spot on my 'favorite person' list too. :)

[Christina · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's like stuff you could collect out of Stephen King's garbage and recycling if the restraining order didn't keep you at least 300 yards away!

:)

It's a cliche, sure, but if you're a dorky stalker-fan such as myself (I mean, I've actually hung out in front of his Bangor home hoping for a glimpse of even a shadow on the curtain), you shouldn't be without this fascinating peek into sections of his life you've probably never seen.

Fun, fun, fun -- the paper artist in me just ate up the envelopes full of reproductions of things like his first comic book, a story in his high school newspaper and so on, manuscript portions with a copy editor's suggested corrections -- all great stuff. (My only complaint here is why did they HAVE to print "REPRODUCTION" on everything? I suppose it has to do with legal stuff. Oh well.)

And one other thing -- I would like to thank the person responsible for the design of the envelopes that hold the reproduction ephemera. Instead of seals that have to be broken, making you wince as you wonder if you're destroying some masterwork, there's an easily moved piece of folded-over cardstock holding the envelope flap together.

I want more, please! SK has published -- what are we up to? 60? 70? -- works, and this only covers a fraction of them.

I would like to thank GroupOn, whose $20 worth of Barnes & Noble for $10 offer (which I bought BEFORE the Super Bowl ad), led me to this marvelous piece!!

[Stephen · Rating 3 out of 5]

thanks to the publishers and netgalley for a free copy in return for open and honest review

interesting and detailed look at Stephen king's Career up to date and its more a handbook for dedicated fans , can see this book being a stocking filler

[Kandice · Rating 5 out of 5]

The text in this book didn't hold a lot of surprises, especially if you're a stalker fan like me, but the pictures alone are worth the price of the book. Throw in the eight glassine envelopes that hold copies of manuscripts, sketches, letters, news articles and pages in King's handwriting and you have a virtual gold mine of memorabilia.

I have three other books "about" King, Feast of Fear: Conversations With Stephen King, The Complete Stephen King Encyclopedia: The Definitive Guide to the Works of America's Master Of.... and The Stephen King Companion, not to mention Danse Macabre and On Writing which are non-fiction and written by King himself and give you plenty of personal insight. It's safe to say I know a lot about the guy. All the little "extras" I could remove, touch and feel were what made me love this book more than the others.

This is a "must have" for any true King stalker fan.

[Tanya · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book has been on my shelf since its release in 2009, which is arguably when my Stephen King fandom was approaching its apex—I asked a friend who vacationed in the States, bless her, to bring me back this massive brick of a book, because it was a limited B&N exclusive that I did not want to miss out on, and the shipping rates were extortionate, owing to the fact that it's a massive brick of a book.

On the shelf it stayed, treasured but unread, for some thirteen years—because I realized that the later chapters covered novels I hadn't yet read, and I didn't want to have them spoiled. Fast forward to 2022, I've long since caught up with all the novels mentioned, and an updated edition is set for release later this year, to coincide with King's 75th birthday. I was fortunate enough to be granted an ARC of the upcoming new edition, and I figured that the time had finally come to take this off the shelf and read the two simultaneously, which would also allow me to give an informed review of the new edition by directly comparing it to the original.

Bev Vincent is also the author of the authorized Dark Tower Companion and has collaborated with King on other projects, so I consider him the leading expert on all things King. This Illustrated Companion takes a look at King's biography through the lens of some of his most important/iconic/popular works, beginning with Carrie and ending with the, at the time, most recent Lisey's Story (although 2008's Duma Key is briefly mentioned, as was the yet unreleased Under the Dome), uncovering how each villain or monster reflects something in King's personal life.

The chapters themselves provide interesting insights into King's personal life without sugar-coating his struggles with addiction through the years, and Vincent pulls from sources such as King's non-fiction works Danse Macabre and On Writing, as well as interviews. There won't be much that's truly new information to a well-versed fan, but it's still nice to have such a thorough exploration of everything that's influenced his work collected in a pretty book. The chapters may focus on major works (while most other, lesser ones are only mentioned in passing or not at all), but there are several separate sections within each covering sometimes completely unrelated topics such as The Rock Bottom Remainders, King's radio stations, his philantropy, the rise and fall of Richard Bachman, etc., which more often than not interrupted the reading flow (as some full-sized pictures also tended to do... overall, the layout could be improved), and forced me to flip back after finishing the chapter paragraph on the following page if I didn’t want to stop mid-sentence.

The book is filled with personal photographs, hence the "illustrated", and each chapter contains vellum sleeves holding reproductions of unpublished memorabilia from each era—including but not limited to early drafts (typed or in longhand), correspondence, manuscript pages with handwritten notes by either King himself, an editor, or copywriters, drawings, and copies from King's college newspaper. It's basically halfway to being a scrapbook, and this original limited B&N edition is the only one to have the removable ephemera included—it was apparently so expensive to produce that the publishers did away with it for the second edition a few years later. As far as I'm concerned, the tangible memorabilia is what makes this book something to be treasured, and the reading experience uniquely interactive. Four stars for the memorabilia, three for the content, two for the layout—so let’s average it out.

[Eilidhs World · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love Stephen King and this book is a must read for all Stephen King fans!

I loved the pictures and how the book was laid out, this novel was packed with interesting facts that I did not know! It keeps the reader gripped to the book without dragging the information out which I find with some Non Fiction books they tend to get a bit boring, however, this book is definitely far from boring, it’s an eye opener and it’s extremely inspirational

5 stars
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

[Jack · Rating 5 out of 5]

For Stephen King fans and non-fans alike, a deeper look into the author and his life.

With a couple of exceptions, each chapter focuses on one of King's bestselling novels:
~The Shining
~The Stand
~The Dead Zone
~Pet Sematary
~It
~Misery
~The Green Mile
~Bag of Bones
~The Dark Tower series
~Lisey's Story

Also included are stories about other events that were going on at the times when these books were written and released. Insights are revealed concerning inspirations for the stories.

Several chapters include copies of memorabilia such as manuscripts excerpts, correspondences, illustrations, and articles by and/or concerning King and others around him.

Packed with color photographs and intriguing sidebars, this biographical work is sure to keep your interest , or spark what was not there before.

It certainly sparked my curiosity into several littler-known books, novellas, and short stories that I had never heard of before.

This is one of the rare books associated with Stephen King that you actually can read in the dark with a flashlight if you are so inclined!

[Tom Garback · Rating 4 out of 5]

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Critical Score: B+
Personal Score: A-

King nerds like me should eat this thing UP. I was fascinated by every page. It’s written in no particularly impressive way—it just gets the job done, and I’m happy with that. I’m sure most of this trivia is available widely, as well, maybe, as much of the correspondence, memorabilia, and other documents…but I don’t care. Having all this info in one visually appealing book has delighted me. I love reading about King’s work, and I love reading about his life.

It seems like the other King overview by Bev Vincent (from 2022) is just a mildly revised and expanded version of this book, so I’m going to wait a little until I read that. It feels sort of shady that the 2022 book has SO much of the same material from this companion without any warning on the cover…kind of a scam. But I’ll still read it, lol.

Note: I had to skip over the few pages that discussed the plots of Lisey’s Story and 11/22/63, as I’ve not yet read those books. I’ll come back to those portions of this book once I have read them.

[Jennifer Daniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful! Tons of photos of the master of horror & every few pages a bonus surprise, like a facsimle of his highschool newspaper that he wrote for. I discovered many new bits of trivia and the story behind the story on many of his most known works. SK always has been and always be my favorite!

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

My son gave me this for Christmas ... it is awesome !

[Laszlo Molnar · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's not bad. It just doesn't add much (except from some pictures) to what we already know.
Going through the bibliography, telling stories about this and that, writing quite a few pages about the first few novels... and then something happens, maybe Bev Vincent just loses the interest, or there is a deadline, or a contract that defines the exact number of pages the book should be, but the last 16 books are done with in 9 pages, these are more like just blurbs of the books. Why?
Also I don't get some of the editing decisions. Telling the story in chronological order, it is just strange to get the whole Dark Tower segment in one while it spans about three periods of King's bibliography. Bev Vincent has worked with King on editing a book, I'm just surprised he didn't make an interview with him to get some stuff right. I would have wanted to read about the periodical structure of King's biography (a short story collection every ~7 years, also a kind of '4 short novellas' collection every 8-10 years). I would have wanted to get additional information about the books, not just what King wrote in forewords or afterwords or what he already wrote in his own books (On Writing or Danse Macabre); other times it's just the stories of the books without any analytic approach. What was the critical and readers' reaction and why, and what does King think about it? Why is he so secretive about his childhood (reading his books, so many questions arise about his father disappearing, also why he thinks being an eyewitness of a fatal accident of his friend as a kid did not have any effect on his later work while all his books have a car accident at least mentioned)? What is the reason behind some returning monograms for returning character types (B.H. or S.D.-Sandra Dee?)? What allegory was in his head when he wrote that specific book? What do others (family, publishers) think about King? So many interesting questions could be asked but it seems Bev Vincent just did not want to go below the surface - he just made a readable collection of information already available. It's not terrible but does not add anything to King's image.

[Monica Gabellini · Rating 5 out of 5]

Le aspettative erano altissime, avendo sentito tanti pareri, tutti entusiasti, di questo volume. Eppure ne sono rimasta affascinata.
Quando l'ho sfogliato per la prima volta, mi sono ritrovata in mano lettere che sembrano autentiche e mi è letteralmente venuta la pelle d'oca.
Un libro che racconta nei minimi dettagli il passato di King e cosa stava vivendo nel momento in cui ha scritto i suoi romanzi più celebri.
Risponde ai mille dubbi e alle altrettante curiosità che avevo in testa da anni. Come ho potuto farne a meno fino ad ora? Peccato che, essendo di qualche anno fa, manchino i fatti più recenti. Servirebbe un seguito.

[Lew · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm not a super-fan but I have read more books by Stephen King than any other author. I read The Shining back in 1978 and have stayed a avid reader since then. This is a great book covering most of King's more popular books. There is a treasure trove of Stephen King photos for the die-hard/stalker fans (I'm not). I'm not fan such that I followed King's personal life so I found a lot interesting facts about him here. I won't recommended it for casual fans as the author does discuss how some books end. The die-hard fans may find nothing new but should like all the photos of King and other memorabilia related to his books and TV/movie adaptions.

[{erika} · Rating 5 out of 5]

Owned this book for 10 years since my days working at Borders and finally read it cover to cover. I didn't expect the writing and narrative it covers of his life to be so well put together. Brilliant use of quotes, photos, and old copies of odds and ends he wrote or revised. Definitely a few things I didn't know about, and I see that the SK Tour I went to in Maine in 2015 is mentioned which made me extra happy.

[Christine Mathieu · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well, I was hoping this would be a 600+ pages biography on Stephen King's life and work, so I was taken aback a bit when it turned out to be a 240 pages coffee table book (I read the German translation).

It's not bad, just not what I hoped it would be.
Nothing new about Stephen King that I didn't already know.
The filmography and bibliography are helpful.

3 stars (and I'm still hoping that one day there will be a 600+ pages biography on the master of horror!).

[Roberto Lagos Figueroa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excelente libro profusamente ilustrado con fotografías interesantes de fuentes originales y que no he visto en otros lados. El texto es conciso y preciso en la información que brinda, privilegiando la imagen sobre la palabra. Quizás como biografía quede corta, pero gana muchísimo como archivo visual. Muy recomendable, aunque se agradecería una actualización.

[Sharon · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is AWESOME! It gives some details about his life, but it really gives in-depth detail about different books and how he came up with the ideas for them. There are pictures of letters and manuscripts, funky book covers, and different anecdotes about his books. What a great read.

[Megan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I cannot believe that I found this book in mint condition for 20$ at a half price book store! This book is a great addition to any collector of SK. I learned so much about his life and inspirations from reading it.

[Gracie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Super interesting.

[Brian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very cool! Packed with details about the author and his prolific career...should be part of any fan's collection!

[wendy · Rating 5 out of 5]

nothing groundbreaking but great photos & enclosures.

[Jeanette · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really interesting and lots of cool ephemera. I got the book for only $7.50 so well worth the price. I enjoyed the plethora of photos that I've never seen before.

[Rick · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5/5

[ཟླ་བ ཏ་མང · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ups and down in between of horizon. Overall good work.

[Andy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an amazing compendium of materials, and it's a wonderfully designed/built book.
Bev Vincent rocks it!

[Annie Oortman · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must-have for any die-hard King fan. Melding extraordinary photos with well-written narrative, this book painstakingly paints the compelling chronology of King’s career. A very insightful homage.

[Joann Carol · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great scrapbook ride through King’s writing life. I loved reading about the interconnectedness of his books and characters and his life. I even added a book or two to my reading list.

[Justin Parks · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my most treasured books.