Lilja's Library (12 page)

Stephen Spignesi:
I reread a great many King works while researching this book, but not his entire body of writing. Since I am really familiar with his work, I did a lot of browsing through novels and short stories to refresh my memory of each piece and see if my recollection of the work agreed with what I thought of it now. I rediscovered some wonderful pieces and was consistently impressed with how some of King’s older works, such as
The Dead Zone
and
’Salem’s Lot
and
The Shining
and others, stood up over the years. In fact, four of my picks for King’s top-ten works were published in the 1970s. 

It was also very interesting to me to find that the top one hundred took shape in a very structured way. I ended up ranking his novels highest on the list, followed by novellas, then short stories, then nonfiction essays and articles, and I think that reflects King’s strengths in a very revealing way. He is at his best with the novel form, followed by the novellas, then short stories, etc. I did not deliberately place works in these specific areas; the list just took shape that way. 

It was difficult to leave things off the list, but I was limited to one hundred slots, and thus had to be ruthless. “Home Delivery” comes to mind. I love the story, but would have had to eliminate something that I thought was better in order to include it. 

But this is all so subjective and I would never be so arrogant as to state that this is intended to be the carved-in-stone ranking of King’s one hundred greatest works. This is my opinion, and my sincerest hope is that it will start a dialogue among fans and also spur some heavy rereading.  

Lilja:
It’s a rather bold book to write. I guess that almost every King fan will disagree with you on some of the entries, right? Have you gotten any mail about it, and if so, what was the tone of those letters?  

Stephen Spignesi:
You’re right. No one whom I have heard from agrees completely with my ranking. I have heard from many fans and it’s been fascinating to hear all the differing opinions. 

One fan was livid that I ranked “My Pretty Pony” as high as I did; another could not believe I even included “The Ten O’Clock People” on the list. That said, though, I think that most fans will agree that the list in its entirety is a pretty good snapshot of the Best of King. 

I think that if you set out to read everything on my list, you would, indeed, experience the “essential” Stephen King. And that was my intention from the start.  

Lilja:
Did you, when you wrote
The Complete Stephen King Encyclopedia
, know that you would do a trilogy about King? Was that the plan all along or was it something that you realized as time went by?  

Stephen Spignesi:
Back in the mid-1980s, when I started doing the research to write
The Complete Stephen King Encyclopedia
, it occurred to me that I would like to do three major books about King. (My two Stephen King Quiz Books were spin-offs of the Encyclopedia and I did not include them in the total.) But conceiving that idea was the extent of my commitment to a trilogy. I wasn’t sure if I could do three books about King that would meet the criteria that I had set for myself, which consisted of the following: the books had to make a contribution to the body of scholarship about King’s writing; they had to be personally interesting to me to research and write; and, finally, they had to be something fans would want to read. 

I did not publish another book about King until 1998, when I did
The Lost Work of Stephen King
, because I felt that this was a truly unique idea and an interesting way of looking at King’s work that had not been done before. 

Around that time the idea for
The Essential Stephen King
also came to me, and I was fortunate enough to be working with a publisher who thought it was a good idea, and thus before I knew it, the three books of my Stephen King Trilogy were a reality. I feel that
The Essential Stephen King
is the perfect conclusion to what I want to say about King’s work.  

Lilja:
In the book you mention that this is your last King book. Is that really the case? If so, why? Do you feel that all that needs to be said about King and his work has been said? Have you gotten tired of writing about King?  

Stephen Spignesi:
I haven’t gotten tired of writing about King, but there are so many other subjects that interest me, I felt the time was right to move on. 

I have ideas for a major book about the American presidency, as well as a book about the Catholic Church and its role in the Inquisition. Plus, I am writing a nonfiction memoir about my father called
Time Comes in Colors
, which is requiring quite a bit of early twentieth century research. 

With all these interests, I decided I have said pretty much everything I wanted to say about King’s work, and will now focus on other books and original screenplays.  

Lilja:
You have written a lot of nonfiction books. Have you ever thought about writing a fiction book? And if you ever did, what type of book would it be? Horror?  

Stephen Spignesi:
I have a novel in the works called
Shelter Street
, which might be described as a contemporary drama with elements of fantasy, plus a couple of original scripts that I have been working on. But, for now, nonfiction pays the bills.  

Lilja:
I read in the book that you have your own publishing company, The Stephen John Press. Tell me a bit about it. What have you published? Personally, this was the first time I’d ever heard about it.  

Stephen Spignesi:
The Stephen John Press is about five or six years old and is an imprint I started to first, do short print runs of other writers’ books, and second, allow me to self-publish limited editions of my own works more suited for small distribution than trade release. 

The first book the SJP published was a feminist autobiography called
Open Windows
, which did very well. 

The next confirmed book on the schedule is my own book,
The Overnight Hours: Poetry & Prose
, which is a collection of my poetry and a couple of short stories and novellas. 

I am also in talks with a couple of other writers about doing their novels, and am also considering putting together a themed anthology with contributions from several writers. 

But The Stephen John Press is something I can only work on in my very limited spare time, and thus there are great periods of time between publications. I enjoy it, though, and do hope to expand its catalog over the next several years.  

Lilja:
Since you have now ranked all the stuff King has written, could you rank your five favorite King adaptations for me?  

Stephen Spignesi:
Five is too limiting, but I will give you my top ten (in no particular order):
The Shawshank Redemption
,
Misery
,
Stand By Me
,
The Dead Zone
,
The Green Mile
,
Paranoid
,
The Shining
(Kubrick’s),
The Woman in the Room
,
Dolores Claiborne
, oh, and
Maximum Overdrive
(could not leave that last one out, right?).  

Lilja:
Is there anything by King that hasn’t been adapted that you feel really deserves adapting?  

Stephen Spignesi:
Absolutely. I would love to see the following works adapted cinematically (again, in no particular order):
Rose Madder
,
Gerald’s Game
, “The Wedding Gig,”
Rage
, “Survivor Type,” “Strawberry Spring,” “Nona,” “Autopsy Room Four,” “The Library Policeman,” “In the Deathroom,” “The End of the Whole Mess,” “The Man Who Loved Flowers,” “The Sun Dog,”
Roadwork
,
Bag of Bones
,
Insomnia
,
The Long Walk
, “The Road Virus Heads North,” “Umney’s Last Case,” “The Doctor’s Case,” “Uncle Otto’s Truck,” “Squad D,” “The Ten O’Clock People,” “I Know What You Need,” and “Sneakers.”  

Lilja:
What is next for you now? I understand there will be a book about cats, right?  

Stephen Spignesi:
This Fall (2001) is
The Hollywood Book of Lists
and
The Cat Book of Lists
, as well as the “complete & uncut” limited edition of
The Essential Stephen King
(from George Beahm’s GB Books imprint). 

Next Fall (2002) is
The Disaster 100
. 

I am also planning on finishing and publishing my aforementioned book of poetry and prose,
The Overnight Hours
, within the next year. 

In the talking stages with two different publishers are books about George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. 

Also making the rounds is a script (best described as a “pop-culture fantasy”) that I co-wrote with my friend and editor Mike Lewis called
Pilgrim’s Landing
, and Mike and I are currently writing our second screenplay, called
The Doctor
. 

I have a stalled novel,
Shelter Street
, that I would like to get back to one of these years, too.  

Lilja:
Thanks so much for letting me do this interview. Is there anything you would like to add that you think my readers would be interested in?  

Stephen Spignesi:
Only that I think that you, Hans-Åke Lilja, do a terrific job in keeping King fans around the world up-to-the-minute informed, and that your site, Lilja’s Library, is a goldmine of information for all of us fellow King lovers. It is so obvious that your interest in King and your excellent work on your site are a labor of love, and I want you to know that we all appreciate your efforts. 

**** 

Peter Straub 

Posted: July 23, 2001  

Lilja:
Can you tell us a bit about
Black House
? Word is that it’s a darker book than
The Talisman
. Maybe it’s a stupid question, but did it feel like a natural thing to let Jack Sawyer age with the story? I mean—he was twelve in 1984, and now he’s thirty-one.  

Peter Straub:
By now, most people who care about it know the basic premise of
Black House
: that Jack is a retired detective who is drawn into involvement with a series of child murders. This case connects to the Territories, about which he now has amnesia. 

It felt completely natural to catch up with Jack at the age of thirty-one. In fact, I think it was easier for us than it was for him.  

Lilja:
According to King’s official website there will be a lot of connections to
The Dark Tower
series in
Black House
. This has been discussed quite a bit on the Internet. Some fans feel that you have sold out and that
Black House
is more like a Stephen King book than a King/Straub collaboration. How do you feel about this? Have you added any connections to your own stories to balance this connection to King’s Dark Tower?  

Peter Straub:
Sold out? Christ, how stupid. Incorporating bits of the Tower mythology was my idea, and Steve, of course, agreed instantly. Partly, I wanted to find out more about that world, and I also knew that almost everything King writes these days is connected to the Tower universe. It’s just a small element in
Black House
.  

Lilja:
In the interview you did for Ténèbres’ Stephen King Issue last year, you said that
Black House
started with King remembering an idea you had mentioned during the writing of the first book. What was the idea?  

Peter Straub:
The idea was a reflection about just how bad a house could be, exactly.  

Lilja:
How did you (technically) write
Black House
? Was it different from the way you wrote
The Talisman
? We’ve heard about the forty-page “bible,” which sort of included the outline to the story. When did you write this “bible”? Was it only written by King?