Under what pseudonym did Stephen King publish five novels between 1977 and 1984?

The story behind the answer

Stephen King published five novels as Richard Bachman between 1977 and 1984—Rage, The Long Walk, Roadwork, The Running Man, and Thinner—to sidestep publishers’ “one book a year” rule and to test whether his success was due to name or skill. A bookstore clerk spotted stylistic similarities and traced the pseudonym to King; after the reveal, Thinner’s sales skyrocketed, and King joked that Bachman had died of “cancer of the pseudonym.”

Memory tip: the other options are also pseudonyms, but for different authors—J. D. Robb is Nora Roberts, Mark Twain is Samuel Clemens, and Lewis Carroll is Charles Dodgson. Richard Bachman is the only one linked to King and his grittier, leaner early works, including stories later adapted into films like The Running Man.