JS: First of all, I can’t tell you what an honor it is to be speaking with you today. It is my honor and pleasure to present to you Part 1 of this exclusive interview. In July 2018, I tracked down Bill Thompson to ask him about his history with Stephen King, and his life in publishing. He is nothing short of a legend in the world of publishing, and the choices he made during his career changed the course of not only literary history but American culture as we know it.
John Grisham too for that matter, and a good handful of other authors. In short, Bill Thompson is the man who discovered Stephen King. He not only championed for the novel to be published by Doubleday, he fought for it as though it were his own. Eventually, Thompson would receive Carrie and instantly recognized it as the book that would be King’s big break. When the first manuscript King submitted was not right for Doubleday, Thompson rejected it softly and with words of encouragement, asking King to send him whatever he was working on next. But the role Thompson would play in Stephen King’s life was much more important than that of an editor. While working for Doubleday, Thompson was responsible for editing nearly all of King’s earliest books including Carrie, ‘Salem’s Lot, The Shining, Night Shift, and The Stand. In the early 1970s, long before the days when Stephen King would have millions of Constant Readers, a man named Bill Thompson was King’s #1 fan.
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