num_pages: 400
description: In the fall of 1978, Stephen King taught at the University of Maine on "Themes in Supernatural Literature." As he writes in the foreword, he was nervous at the prospect of "spending a lot of time in front of a lot of people talking about a subject in which I had previously only felt my way instinctively, like a blind man." The course went well. As with most teaching experiences, it was as instructive to the teacher &amp; the students. Thanks to a suggestion from his former editor at Doubleday, he wrote Danse Macabre as a personal record of the thoughts about horror he refined as a result of the course. The outcome is a book that reads as if he were sitting right there with you, shooting the breeze. He starts on 10/4/1957, when he was 10, watching a Saturday matinee of Earth v. the Flying Saucers. Just as the saucers were mounting their attack on the Capital, the movie was turned off. The theater manager walked out onto the stage &amp; announced, "The Russians have put a space satellite into orbit around the earth. They call it Spootnik." That's how the whole book goes: one simple, yet surprisingly pertinent, anecdote or observation after another. King covers the gamut of horror as he'd experienced it at that point in 1978: folk tales, literature, radio, good movies, junk movies &amp; the "glass teat". It's colorful, funny &amp; nostalgic--also strikingly intelligent.--Fiona Webster (edited)
language: English
title: Danse macabre
titlecomplete: Danse macabre
genres: Biography, Writing, Literary Criticism, Books About Books, History, Film, Reference, Nonfiction, Essays, Horror
ratings_count: 28297
awards: awardedAt: 378720000000
name: Hugo Award
category: Best Non-Fiction Book, awardedAt: 378720000000
name: Locus Award
category: Best Related Non-fiction
publisher: Berkley Trade