He penned: “I suppose if it had been written today, and some high school English teacher had seen it, he would have rushed the manuscript to the guidance counselor and I would have found myself in therapy posthaste.
“But 1965 was a different world, one where you didn’t have to take off your shoes before boarding a plane and there were no metal detectors at the entrances to high schools.”
King’s book has been inextricably tied to several disturbing events, despite being written long before any tragedies unfolded.
In 1988, a student held his high school humanities class hostage before backing out. According to the Los Angeles Times, the boy cited the novel.