This review was originally published by Green Man Review

Rocky Wood and Justin Brooks, Stephen King: The Non-Fiction (Cemetery Dance Publications, 2007)

If you think that Stephen King's non-fiction oeuvre begins and ends with Dance Macabre and On Writing then this hefty book is here to open your eyes.
At a sizable 606 pages -- once you toss in extensive Footnotes, Bibliography and Index, and a very brief section for Acknowledgements and About the Authors -- Stephen King: The Non-Fiction claims to report on every bit of King's non-fiction writing, from high school to the present day. And quite likely delivers on that promise, even when the authors couldn't get their hands directly on the writing (in their opening, they stress that they did their utmost to get their hands on the original sources).

Wood and Brooks have broken King's writings into 14 categories, although there is some overlap, and an Addendum, into which they placed writings that were uncovered between completion of the initial manuscript and October of 2006. Within each section, individual writings are identified with bold headings indicating at a minimum a date and usually a title. For example, in the first section, "Early Columns -- King's Garbage Truck," King's newspaper columns at the University of Maine at Orono are indicated by month, day and year, making it easy to track them. This works decently, except when Wood and Brooks lack a title and refer to an entry as "Untitled." (particularly unhelpful in the "Introducing the Work of Others" section -- couldn't they use the introducee in the header?)

For each entry, Wood and Brooks summarize what King had to say, perhaps provide an excerpt and offer an opinion as to the importance of the work to King's overall oeuvre or his life. They also tell readers how to obtain a copy, whether commercially, at the library, or by visiting the King Collection (hopefully in the finished version they will settle on placing this information at the beginning or end of the pieces).

The aforementioned Dance Macabre and On Writing garner a chapter to themselves, as does King's writing on baseball (which includes his only other full-length non-fiction book, 2005's Faithful: Two Diehard Boston Red Sox Fans Chronicle the 2004 Season, co-written with Stewart O'Nan). Further chapters are devoted to his pop culture reviews (books, TV, movies, radio, music), including one exclusively for his Entertainment Weekly column.
Anyone who's read a lot of King won't be surprised he's had a lot to say on these subjects, given his books are chock full of pop culture references.
There are also sections on King's introductions to other authors' works, letters to the editor and political pieces.

Inarguably, the most interesting chapters in the book are King's own author notes and introductions to his own works, and his thoughts on writing. It's always fascinating to get a glimpse inside a creator's mind, and King is no different. Sure if you've read the books, you've read these before, no doubt, but probably years ago, and probably not all in one place.

To the non-King fan, it probably sounds incredibly boring to sit through 450+ pages of essays and music reviews and ramblings, but King's writing style is very easy-going as he addresses his "Constant Readers," and the pages fly by. Admittedly, not all of it makes for fascinating reading (random e-mails from King, or columns about college doings are occasionally either too obscure or dry to be of interest), but the joy in a book like this is that you can open it to any page and start reading from anywhere. Or, if you're looking for something in particular, you can go directly to that section and read just that.

Wood and Brooks are to be commended for undertaking this research effort on behalf of King aficionados. It will, no doubt, prove an invaluable research tool for some, and a pleasurable read for others.

[April Gutierrez]