20 Mind-Blowing Facts You Never Knew About Stephen King
4. The Richard Bachman Name Has A Silly Origin
The Richard Bachman name was used for some of Stephen King's best work. The Running Man, which was later adapted into the Arnold Schwarzengger film of the same name and was written in the space of three days, was published under the pseudonym because King was worried people would get sick of seeing his name on the shelves otherwise. After that he used the pen name to explore different genres and types of stories.
Eventually King was outed as Bachman and he didn't find any benefit in using the name any more, killing him off with cancer of the pseudonym, and only returned to the name with 1996's The Regulators (which mirrored King's Desperation, and was said to be a posthumous release found by Bachman's wife).
King explored the idea of a writer dealing with a dead alter-ego in The Dark Half, where a stand-in for the novelist deals with murders committed by his supposed pseudonym who has risen from the grave and made flesh. Bachman is actually far less spooky for example, he got the name because he was listening to Bachman-Turner Overdrive and reading a Richard Stark book.