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Stephen King crumpled the opening pages of 'Carrie' into the bin. His wife Tabitha fished them out, read them, and told him to keep going. The hardback earned a $2,500 advance, then the paperback rights sold for $400,000.

Stephen King

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The story behind the card

As King tells it in his memoir 'On Writing' (2000), he was then teaching English at a high school in Maine and living with Tabitha and their children in a trailer, and he doubted he could write convincingly about a teenage girl. Tabitha's verdict, that he had something there, kept the book alive. Doubleday bought the hardback, and the news of the paperback sale reached King by phone on Mother's Day 1973. The money let him give up teaching and write full time. 'Carrie' came out in 1974, dedicated to Tabitha, and became his first published novel.

Türkçe oku
Stephen King, Carrie romanının ilk sayfalarını buruşturup çöpe attı. Eşi Tabitha sayfaları çöpten çıkarıp okudu ve ona devam etmesini söyledi. Kitap ciltli baskısı için 2.500 dolar avans getirdi; ardından cep kitabı hakları 400.000 dolara satıldı.

King'in Yazma Sanatı (On Writing, 2000) kitabında anlattığına göre, o sıralar Maine'de bir lisede İngilizce öğretmeniydi; Tabitha ve çocuklarıyla bir karavanda yaşıyordu ve genç bir kızın dünyasını inandırıcı biçimde yazabileceğinden emin değildi. Tabitha'nın bu metinde bir şey olduğunu söylemesi kitabı kurtardı. Ciltli baskıyı Doubleday satın aldı; cep kitabı haklarının satıldığı haberi King'e 1973 Anneler Günü'nde telefonla ulaştı. Bu para sayesinde öğretmenliği bırakıp yalnızca yazmaya başladı. Tabitha'ya ithaf edilen Carrie 1974'te çıktı ve King'in yayımlanan ilk romanı oldu.

Sources and further reading

Background reading: Carrie (novel)
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