King, Stephen Easter Egg - City Names

Stephen King (spelled correctly, by the way) makes mention of at least one Maine city in almost all of his books, if not all (I haven't read all of them, so I can't say 100%). He lives in Maine.

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Contributed By: Stepmommy on 01-24-2000
Reviewed By: Webmaster
Special Requirements: Just read his books
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Comments

LU6.2 writes:
Not EVERY King novel takes place in Maine. For example, The Shining is set in Colorado. Most of them do, however.
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Trp writes:
The Book MISERY takes place in Sidewinder, COLORADO.
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Gaunt writes:
Well.. The Shining and Misery takes place only 3 miles (approx.) from eachother.. in the Shining, Jack drove through the city Sidewinder, Colorado, and Misery takes place near by Sidewinder, Annie several times, drive in to Sidewinder. Stephen lives in Bangor, Maine and nearly all his books mentions Maine.. I.e. The Stand.. a young couple came from Ogunquit, Maine.. and It happens in Derry, Maine.. other books, like Cujo, Needful things and so on, takes place in Castle Rock County, By the way, a movie company once took the name, because they made a Stephen king movie.. The Castle Rock Entertainment.. Well.. sorry 'bout my bad english.. I am danish.. / Gaunt
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Wasn't there a point in The Shining with Jack driving and he almost hit someone? Do you think he hit the author character (Paul something..I never got to finish reading it) and kept going and then Anne found him...or did she hit him? Once again..I forget..
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Trp writes:
It would be imposible to know if that was what was supposed to happen, but that would be cool if there was a connection. His name was Paul Sheldon.
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Goddess writes:
Most of his books do take place in Maine, and some in the city of Castle Rock, but that is not a real city.
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Dogstar writes:
Don't forget Derry, Maine...
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Roland writes:
In insomnia, clotho or the other nice doctor (whatever his name was) said that some of the lines of the beam or energy crosses over Derry. So this may be why all these strange happenings take place in Derry or nearby cities. Sure all these are just my opinions (as a good reader :))
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Tracey writes:
The reason why several of his books were set in Colorado is because he lived there briefly.
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Andy writes:
A fair few of King's works take place in an imaginary part of Maine - a sort of strange, alternate Maine where nothing is quite right, and terrible things lurk under the surface of reality. Reusing locations and creating a common thread between stories was also a favourite device of other horror writers, notably HP Lovecraft, and Ramsay Campbell. A few other connections between Stephen King stories include: Mike Hanlon, Derry's Librarian in Insomnia, is one of the members of "The Loser's Club in IT. Juniper Hill Asylum is referred to in Insomnia, Henry Bowers (A Villain in IT) was committed there. References to the murder of Adrian Mellon appear in Insomnia - the full story of this man's death appears in IT. In The Tommyknockers, the town of Haven provides the setting, but the nearest town is... Derry (surprise). There is also a brief reference to Pennywise the Clown (On of the forms that IT takes)in The Tommyknockers.
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Hey if you have read CHRISTINE. It takes place in the suburbs of Pittsburgh. as far as i know this is the only time King wrote a book based in Pennsylvania.
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LU6.2 writes:
About Paul Sheldon's accident in Misery: he ran off the road in a snowstorm, while drunk on champagne from celebrating finishing his latest book. No connection to the accident in The Shining. There, Jack was riding with a friend and they were both drunk. They hit something, and when they went to investigate they found a kid's bike or tricycle, but no kid. This event caused Jack to quit drinking.
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kallisto writes:
The reason WHY Misery and The Shining where written based in Colorado is because that was where Stephen was LIVING when the novels were at least started.Just as most all of his books are in Maine because that is where he lives now and was born and raised...Come on PEOPLE!!!!
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Jade writes:
Stephen King was NOT born in Castle Rock. He was born at General Hospital in Portland, Maine, on September 21, 1947. Castle Rock is NOT a real town. King borrowed the name from William Golding's Lord of the Flies.
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Warpcore writes:
What about The Dark tower books? Those don't even TOUCH maine. the closest they go is New York, and that's a different state
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spider-1 writes:
With the exception of the Dark Towers and several others, every single King book takes place in the area that he was at the time. And also they are all in some sort of alternate world where evil is king (no pun intended).
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Melissa writes:
I live in Maine, there is NO Castle Rock. SK was born in Bangor.
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Jade writes:
Juniper Hill is also mentioned in Gerald's Game. The "bad guy" was once committed there and released.
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deanna writes:
The Dark Tower and Castle Rock ~Have~ crossed. Remember Father Calahan from Salem's Lot? And how he was run out of town by Barlow, when he lost his faith? In the last book of the DT series, Father Callahn turns up at the end of the first chapter. Check out www.stephenking.com to read it.
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Mike Donner writes:
I'm not a big Stephen King fan, so I don't have all the answers, but the references to Maine aren't always cities. For example, the novella "Apt Pupil," the summer component of the Different Seasons collection, takes place in southern California- for some reason, people tend to associate summer with California a little more than Maine. While the story does reference Andy Dufresne from The Shawshank Redemption, there is one more Maine reference. The main character's last name is Bowden (boh-dun), a homophone with Bowdoin, the small liberal arts college in Brunswick, ME. I'm sure there are many more subtle references like this.
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katieg writes:
Stephen King took many names from Colorado towns and planted them in his books. Castle Rock is a town south of Denver and gets its name from rock formations that look like castle turrets. He also uses, I believe in Firestarter, a place called Longmont (some kind of facility?) which is a town north of Denver. The Stand takes place mainly in Boulder and he uses actual city streets and building names. The Shining was based on the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park in the mountains. I grew up in Boulder from the age of six, and have read almost all his books and loved the references.
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cool dude writes:
King was getting sick of writing stories that all occurred in his home state of Maine. He wrote needful things as an end to his castle rock stories. The book itself was a fairly comprehensive end to the habit of writing stories in Castle Rock, as the town pretty much gets blown off the map. Good work steve! All of his stories since then have taken place in other towns, although if my memory serves me correctly there have still been some fleeting connections to the area.
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Janie Jones writes:
In 'The Langoliers'(in Four Past Midnight) the characters have to land their plane to refuel. They choose the airport at Bangor, Maine .... The first time I read this I remember thinking 'No! That's the last place you want to go!'
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Tammy writes:
Derry is not a real town in Maine (most of Mr. King's feature towns are fictional) but, in the book IT, Mr. King states that Derry is about 40 miles away from Bangor. Throughout the story, however, his description of Derry is actually a description of Bangor, where Mr. King lived for years. For example, the Jade of the Orient (where the friends meet as adults) is based on Bangor's most popular Chinese restaurant, the Oriental Jade. The killing of the Brady Gang did happen in downtown Bangor, a young homosexual man really was thrown off a downtown bridge by a group of teenagers and died in the water, and there truly is a huge statue of Paul Bunyan by the auditorium near downtown. There are countless other examples in the book but now I'm just rambling . . .
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Lisa Fulgham writes:
Stephen King mentions the Tracker Brothers shop in both IT and Dreamcatcher.
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Lisa Fulgham writes:
Could it be that Stephen King's story of Bill Denbrough's experiences as a aspiring writer going through college are something like his own?
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Sarge writes:
Sorry Melissa. I live in Maine too, and although you were right about there not really being a Castle Rock in Maine, you were wrong about SK's birthplace. He was actually born in Portland, and grew up in Durham, Maine. Durham is a very small town in the Lewiston/Auburn area. He DOES live and Bangor, and has for many years now.
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Tinkerbell20 writes:
I seem to remeember-though not read it for ages-that in Insomnia Ralph (is that the main guy?) recalls a 'little kid being killed by a truck a few years back, not far from him' and something about the kids sneaker being torn off...Gage Creed from Pet Semetary, I presume? My housemates and would reckon these characters would just move away from Maine if theres all this crazy stuff going on, wouldnt you?!?!?!?!
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Rharren writes:
Just to add something, Black House is set in a town nearly identical to a town called La Crosse, Wisconsin, except for street names, building names etc...
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aly_b87 writes:
Stephen King lives in Maine. Earlier this year I stood right behind him in line at Borders, and he had, like, 10 cds.
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susan kegley writes:
I hear about all the refernces to Derry Maine, but no one mentions the fact that Duddits and the rest of the guys are from Derry in "Dreamcatcher"
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Mr.mat writes:
I just finished reading his newest book "Cell" (By the way it is a pretty good book a cross between The Stand and 28 days later.) and everyone crazy or sane alike are lead to a town in Maine called KASHWAK let me know if this place rings a bell with anyone.
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Smokin' Lamb writes:
Did I just read a note by "Warp-core" Saying that none of the Dark Tower books take place in Maine?? Maybe He/she should read them all and comment again. Read first, comment later.
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