Hearts In Suspension

This publication marks the 50th anniversary of Stephen King's entrance into the University of Maine at Orono in the fall of 1966. The accelerating war in Vietnam and great social upheaval at home exerted a profound impact on students of the period and deeply influenced King's development as a writer and as a man. King's fictional treatment of this experience in his novella 'Hearts in Atlantis' tracks his youthful avatar, Peter Riley, through the awakenings and heartbreak of his turbulent first year at UMaine. In his accompanying essay, 'Five to One, One in Five', written expressly for this volume, King sheds his fictional persona and takes on the challenge of a nonfiction return to his undergraduate experience. In addition, twelve fellow students and friends from King's college days contribute personal narratives recalling their own experience of those years. This book also includes four installments of King's never-before-reprinted student newspaper column, 'King's Garbage Truck'.