Below from April 27th Wall Street Journal. Available May 20th. The book will likely draw from the author's postings at https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories...31e42c3c75f64b.
The Haunts That Inspired Stephen King
STEPHEN KING IS Maine’s most celebrated living writer. Not only was he born in Portland, but many of his bestselling horror novels are set in towns like Bridgton, where an evil murk lays siege to a supermarket in “The Mist,” and Bangor, which King renamed Derry in several books. In “It,” a murderous clown emerges from a Derry sewer grate.
The new book “ Stephen King’s Maine: A History and Guide,” forthcoming next month from History Press, features photographs of these and other locations important to King’s life and work. Author Sharon Kitchens, a fellow Mainer, takes the reader on a tour of Lewiston’s bygone Ritz movie theater, where King grew up feasting on horror and monster films in the 1950s and ’ 60s, and the annual Fryeburg Fair, which features in “ The Tommy-knockers” and “ Bag of Bones.” At the real- life fair, King is photographed buying a sandwich. His mansion in Bangor, now home to his charitable foundation, has a wrought- iron fence featuring spider webs, a dragon and bats.
So is there any way to frighten Stephen King? Doug Hall, a childhood friend quoted in the book, recalls that one night King set out for home after an evening of watching horror movies. Hall’s brother ran ahead, hid in an old church and came out screaming; King was “terrified.” The church is still there.
