Nearly Forty Years Later, Stephen King’s ‘Carrie’ Continues to Terrify

Stephen King’s first published novel, Carrie, almost never made it to print.

King and his wife Tabitha were living in a trailer in tiny Hermon, Maine, a rural town that even today scarcely numbers more than 5,000 souls. The young writer was eking out a living as a teacher by day and a struggling novelist by night, pecking away at his wife’s typewriter.

At the time, his career didn’t look especially promising: he had written three prior novels, all of them rejected in turn. He had conceived of Carrie as a possible short story, but after writing three pages he threw them in his wastebasket. Things weren’t looking good – at least to Stephen King. His wife saw something different.

Tabitha fished those pages out of the garbage and encouraged her husband to expand his short piece into a novel. Luckily for Stephen, and perhaps for all of us, he listened. Carrie sold to Doubleday books, and King received a $2,500 advance, followed by a pay-out of $200,000 upon the sale of the paperback rights to New American Library. King quit his day job.

King’s story of a troubled adolescent whose latent telekinetic powers manifest in a storm of fury after her schoolmates make her the subject of a cruel prank continues to entertain to this day. Most people who have never read the book are at least familiar with Brian de Palma’s hugely successful 1976 film starring Sissy Spacek as the eponymous Carrie White. The book continues to sell today, and there are insistent rumblings out of Hollywood that another movie adaptation may be just beyond the horizon.

What is it about Carrie that continues to resonate with readers today?

Bev Vincent, author of The Stephen King Illustrated Companion, The Illustrated Stephen King Trivia Book and The Road to the Dark Tower: Exploring Stephen King’s Magnum Opus, said that readers of all ages empathize with Carrie’s ostracism.

“Stephen King once said that he hated high school and thinks there’s something wrong with anyone who liked being a teenager. Carrie resonates with readers all these years later because high school is one of our most fundamental shared experiences and, for many, it wasn’t pleasant,” said Vincent. “Though the issues and challenges teenagers face have changed, awkwardness, insecurity and the struggle for identity persist. Carrie White is the archetypal outcast, but each of us probably believes we were misfits or losers as teenagers, so we identify with her plight. Our parents embarrassed us with their quirks and many of us probably had someone who made our high school years a living hell. Carrie overcame her humiliation and paid her tormentors back. For a short while, she had the upper hand. It’s the ultimate wish fulfillment fantasy.”

Thirty-seven years later, we’re still horrified by, and perhaps secretly rooting for, that odd, quiet girl with the terrifying powers. An adolescent wish fulfillment and cautionary tale of the power of feminine sexuality, Carrie continues to clutch at us, an insistent tug from beyond the grave. Will you relent?

A new paperback printing of Carrie was released this week. Look for it at your favorite book retailer.