The Stephen King books people will still be reading in 100 years, according to Stephen King: “It’s a crapshoot”
Only the most ambitious or egotistical of authors would get into the writing game with designs on being as popular among readers a century in the future as they are in the present day. Stephen King has no such airs and graces of standing the test of time, even if he’s already halfway there.
April 2024 marks the 50th anniversary of King’s debut novel Carrie being published, and it would be an understatement to say he’s one of the literary world’s biggest names. In fact, he’s one of the biggest names in film and television, too, with the latest live-action adaptation of his back catalogue perpetually lurking around the corner.
Since his first work hit the shelves, King has penned over 60 novels and novellas and hundreds of short stories, selling over 400million copies in the process. Dozens of them have been brought to screens big and small, several of them have already been remade at least once, and the page-to-screen pipeline shows no signs of slowing down five decades after Brian De Palma’s Carrie got the ball rolling.
He’s responsible for creating countless memorable characters, creating the source material that inspired multiple classic movies and knows how to craft literary chills better than almost anyone. On the other hand, King has spent his entire career being sneered at by scholars and studious types who view him as a popcorn author and little else, but all he has to do is point to his bank balance to tell them where to shove their criticisms.
The problem with popcorn is that it doesn’t have a very long shelf life, but can the same be said of King’s books? After all, he’s half a century deep, and his popularity shows no signs of waning. The greatest and most famous novels are the ones that never go out of fashion, begging the question as to whether or not King thinks anything in his bibliography is destined to follow suit.
“It’s a crapshoot,” he told The Paris Review when posed that very question. “You never know what’s going to be popular in 50 years. Who is going to be in, in a literary sense, and who’s not? If I had to pick which of my books people will pick up 100 years from now, if they pick up any, I’d begin with The Stand and The Shining.”
The 1978 post-apocalyptic epic has always been regarded as one of King’s best, and its complicated association with Stanley Kubrick’s masterpiece will keep The Shining in the spotlight for a while to come. However, there’s a third addition to the self-curated list, and it makes sense, considering how the subject never goes out of fashion.
“And Salem’s Lot, because people like vampire stories, and its premise is the classic vampire story,” he explained. “It doesn’t have any particular bells or whistles. It’s not fancy; it’s just scary. So, I think people will pick that up for a while.”
