Castle Rock (Stephen King)

Castle Rock is part of Stephen King's fictional Maine topography and provides the setting for a number of his novels, novellas, and
short stories. Castle Rock first appeared in King's 1979 novel The Dead Zone, and has reappeared as late as his 2013 novel Doctor
Sleep and 2014 novel Revival (see list below). The name is taken from the fictional mountain fort of the same name in William
Golding's 1954 novel Lord of the Flies.[1]

King, a native of Durham, Maine, created a trinity of fictional Maine towns – Castle Rock, Derry and Jerusalem's Lot as central
settings in more than one work.

Contents
Geographical location
Works set in Castle Rock
Works referring to Castle Rock
Use by third parties
Other Maine creations in King's work
TV series
References
External links

Geographical location
Population of Castle Rock was 1,280 by 1959 and around 1,500 as of its final chronological appearance Needful
in Things. In Needful
Things, Castle Rock is placed eighteen miles southwest of South Paris. In Creepshow (1982), there is a sign at the end of "The
Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill" that puts Portland at 37 miles, and Boston at 188 miles. "Weeds," the short story on which "The
Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill" was based, was actually set in New Hampshire.

Geographically, this puts Castle Rock in the northern semicircle, of radius 37-miles, centered on Portland, Maine. This could include
places such as Durham, Lisbon, Danville, Auburn, Lewiston, Bridgton, and maybe even Sabattus. A map on King's official website
places Castle Rock inOxford County, in the vicinity of Woodstock. Yet the works in which Castle Rock appears place the town in the
fictional "Castle County," which also includes such towns as Castle Lake and Castle View. The location of Castle Rock may also be
related to Marblehead where there is a park by the same name.

Works set in Castle Rock

The Dead Zone
Cujo
"The Body" (novella from Different Seasons)
"Uncle Otto's Truck" (short story which appears inSkeleton Crew)
"Mrs. Todd's Shortcut" (short story which appears inSkeleton Crew)
The Dark Half
"The Sun Dog" (novella from Four past Midnight)
Needful Things
"It Grows on You" (short story which appears inNightmares & Dreamscapes)
 "Premium Harmony" (short story which appears inThe Bazaar of Bad Dreams)
Gwendy's Button Box (novella written with Richard Chizmar)
Elevation (novella)

Works referring to Castle Rock

"Graveyard Shift" (short story which appears inNight Shift)
Creepshow
"Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption" (the narrator was a resident before his incarceration at Shawshank)
Pet Sematary (refers to the events ofCujo which take place in Castle Rock)
"Gramma" (short story appearing inSkeleton Crew)
"Nona" (short story appearing inSkeleton Crew)
It
Gerald's Game
Sleepwalkers (Sheriff calls for backup from Castle Rock)
The Stand
Bag of Bones (significant portions of this story are set in Castle Rock, along withDerry, Maine and on TR90 at Dark
Score Lake, Maine)
The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon
Riding the Bullet
Dreamcatcher (refers to the Castle Rock radio station)
"The Man in the Black Suit" (short story which appears inEverything's Eventual)
Kingdom Hospital (Television series)
Lisey's Story
"N." (short story appearing inJust After Sunset)
Under the Dome (Chester's Mill is mentioned as being close to Castle Rock and the road leading to it is shown on
the town map in the book's preface)
"Premium Harmony" (short story published in the November 2009 issue ofThe New Yorker)
11/22/63
A Good Marriage (novella published in the 2010 collectionFull Dark, No Stars)
Doctor Sleep
Revival

Use by third parties

Stand by Me (1986), the film adaptation of King's novella The Body (1982), makes reference to a town of Castle Rock in Oregon.
Rob Reiner, the film's director, later named his production company Castle Rock Entertainment, which subsequently produced
several adaptations of King's works.

Castle Rock is mentioned in One on One (1993), a novel by King's wife, Tabitha King. In an afterword, she thanks "another novelist
who was kind enough to allow me" to borrow the name.

In the 2007 film adaptation of King's novella The Mist (1980), David Drayton reads a newspaper calledThe Castle Rock Times.

Other Maine creations in King's work

Besides the oft-used Derry, Castle Rock, and Jerusalem's Lot, King has created other fictional Maine towns, including Chamberlain
in Carrie, Chester's Mill in Under the Dome, Haven in The Tommyknockers, Little Tall Island in Dolores Claiborne and Storm of the
Century, and Ludlow in Pet Sematary and The Dark Half (unrelated to the real Maine town ofLudlow).

TV series
On February 17, 2017,Hulu announced they were once again partnering with J.J. Abrams and Stephen King to create another limited
series based on King's works. The series entitled Castle Rock named after the fictional town in King's native Maine which has served
as the setting for a number of his novels, novellas and short stories.[2] A teaser of the series was released some time after the
announcement by Abrams' production company, Bad Robot. The series is set to explore the themes and worlds uniting King's entire
canon, while brushing up against some of his most iconic and beloved stories. On February 21, 2017, Hulu issued a 10-episode order
for the series, with production set to begin at a later date.[3]Filming is expected to begin in August 2017.[4] Filming will be done in
the small New England Western Massachusetts town of Orange.[5] Melanie Lynskey, André Holland, Sissy Spacek, Jane Levy and
Bill Skarsgård are set to star.

References
1. Beahm, George (1992).The Stephen King story(Revised ed.). Kansas City: Andrews and McMeel. p. 120.
ISBN 0836280040. "Castle Rock, which King in turn had got from Golding's Lord of the Flies.
"
2. Andreeva, Nellie (February 17, 2017)."J.J. Abrams & Stephen King Team For 'Castle Rock' Horror Series On Hulu"
(http://deadline.com/2017/02/castle-rock-jj-abrams-stephen-king-hulu-series-1201915527/)
. Deadline. Retrieved
February 22, 2017.
3. Andreeva, Nellie (February 21, 2017)."J.J. Abrams & Stephen King's 'Castle Rock' Gets 10-Episode Series Order
From Hulu" (http://deadline.com/2017/02/j-j-abrams-stephen-kings-castle-rock-gets-10-episode-series-order-from-hul
u-1201925231/). Deadline. Retrieved February 22, 2017.
4. Guglielmi, Luca (2017-02-23)."Castle Rock Shoot Date Revealed"(https://allthestuffyoucareabout.com/2017/02/23/c
astle-rock-shoot-date-revealed/). All The Stuff You Care About. Retrieved 2017-02-23.
5. "Orange Locals excited to become extras in Castle Rock"(http://www.recorder.com/Castle-Rock-location-managers-
meet-public-11004614).

External links
Map of Maine from Stephen King's official website

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Castle_Rock_(Stephen_King)&oldid=839402037

"

This page was last edited on 3 May 2018, at 05:30.

Text is available under theCreative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License ; additional terms may apply. By using this
site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of theWikimedia
Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.