The Stand was also a product of current events. Stewart’s novel Earth Abides-about one of humanity’s last survivors after a devastating pandemic destroys most of mankind-as a pivotal inspiration for The Stand. In his nonfiction book Danse Macabre, King also cites author George R.

Stephen King took cues from an earlier pandemic novel. The military initially denied any connection, but a later report revealed that the sheep were the victim of a nerve gas test that blew away from the base. King found inspiration in the Dugway sheep incident of March 1968, an episode in which some 6000 sheep dropped dead on ranches near the army’s Dugway Proving Grounds in Utah. Chemical weapons tests helped spark Stephen King’s thinking. The land of Mordor ('where the shadows lie, according to Tolkien) was played by Las Vegas.” 3. “Only instead of a hobbit, my hero was a Texan named Stu Redman, and instead of a Dark Lord, my villain was a ruthless drifter and supernatural madman named Randall Flagg.

King set out to pen The Stand to scratch a 10-year itch to “write a fantasy epic like The Lord of the Rings, only with an American setting.” Wrote King: Stephen King wanted to pay tribute to a fantasy master. In this early iteration, the virus apparently originates in Southeast Asia. Stephen King first dreamed up the superflu known as “Captain Trips” in the 1969 science fiction short story “Night Surf,” which was published in the University of Maine’s Ubris literary journal. Even if you’ve read every word of Stephen King’s post-apocalyptic classic, you may still be able to learn something about one of the horror master’s most popular works.

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