Richard Bachman

In late 1985, the reading and publishing world was shocked by the news that author Richard Bachman was dead. Preeminent among those mourning him were his widow, Claudia Inez Bachman, and his friend Stephen King.

Bachman’s first novel was Rage, in 1977, and he quickly published a further three: The Long Walk, in 1979, Roadwork, in 1981, and The Running Man, in 1982. All were published by the New American Library imprint Signet, and all were original mass market pocketbooks. But since the sales of Bachman’s novels gradually increased, his publisher decided to move his next book, Thinner, to hardcover format. Due to the different format, Bachman would have to reveal some information about himself for the book jacket, which was also expected to feature a photograph of the author. Bachman, who was a very private person, grudgingly agreed to this.


The photo of Bachman published on the book jacket was taken by his wife Claudia, and a short biography was provided. It told readers that Bachman was born in New York, served for four years in the Coast Guard and after that worked for a further ten years in the merchant marine. After leaving his life at sea he settled in New Hampshire where he owned a medium-sized dairy farm while writing at night, since he suffered from wakefulness. With his wife Claudia Inez, Backman had a single child, a son who tragically died in an accident not wholly dissimilar to something in one of Stephen King’s novels: at the age of six, the boy fell through the rotted cover over a well and drowned.

In 1982, his doctor during a routine examination discovered that Bachman had a brain tumor. It was placed close to the brain stem, but a long and complicated operation managed to remove it. Sadly, however, Bachman soon fell ill again and at the end of 1985 he suddenly died from cancer of the pseudonym, a rare form of schizophrenia.

After Bachman died no further news of him appeared, until his widow nine years later unexpectedly got in touch with his earlier editor, Charles Verrill, to tell him that while emptying her house to move out she had found a carton full of manuscripts in the cellar. Most of them were more or less finished novels, and the one that seemed to be in almost final state was entitled The Regulators. Verrill’s opinion was that the manuscript was very similar to Bachman’s earlier novels, and after only some minor changes, and with the consent of Bachman’s widow (now Claudia Eschelman), Dutton published the novel in September 1996. A month later the film made from Bachman’s fifth novel, Thinner, was released by Paramount. In it, a careful watcher will notice Bachman’s colleague and friend Stephen King playing a small part.


The Regulators was also released in a limited special edition, where each copy contained a check signed by Bachman before his passing. The checks were made out to various individuals, one of them for instance to a certain Jack Sawyer as payment for the idea for a novel, and you can hardly help wondering what Mr. Sawyer thought about never having received his money.

What would become Bachman’s last novel, at least so far, was however not The Regulators, but Blaze. The news that a further virtually finished novel by Bachman existed was disclosed by his old friend Stephen King during a public appearance in London on November 8, 2006, during a tour King made to market his just published novel Lisey’s Story. King said that the manuscript for the new Bachman book was in his possession, but the only thing further he would say about it at the time was that it was a very early novel, written already in 1973. During a press conference the next day, an enthusiastic Swedish reader asked if King might disclose the title of the new Bachman novel, and this was when King confirmed that he was talking about Blaze.

The novel was published in 2007, and apart from a film made from his earlier novel The Running Man (1987), it was the last so far heard from Bachman until 2025 when a remake of The Running Man and an adaptation of The Long Walk will be released possible bringing Bachman back from the grave. And who knows, perhaps, possibly, further manuscripts hidden in some cellar may be discovered and published. Who knows? Given how private a person Richard Bachman was while alive , it is certainly far from impossible that he may have written more that, so far, nobody has seen.

Richard Bachmans books

1977 Rage
1979 The Long Walk
1981 Roadwork
1982 The Running Man
1984 Thinner
1996 The Regulators
2007 Blaze

Movies based on Bachman's books

1987 The Running Man
1996 Thinner
2025 The Running Man
2025 The Long Walk

Richard Bachman links

Bachman - An Explanation
Bachman Exposed by Steve Brown
The Importance of being Bachman by Stephen King