Dee Dee found one of Stephen King’s replies among her late father’s belongings. She hadn’t known it existed, and she found it when she needed comfort.
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Stephen King personally answered readers in short typed, signed notes and postcards. In a February 23, 1981, reply to Thomas Wolf, he apologized for the delay, saying he’d “been at work on a new novel and [had] to let the correspondence slide,” and mentioned Danse Macabre coming that spring and Cujo that fall.
When Cynthia K. Holmes expressed disappointment with Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining, King explained in an August 5, 1980, reply that an author who sold film rights had to “bite his tongue and hope for the best.”
His December 2, 1981, note to James Roberts said work on Creepshow left little time for anything else; the movie and Different Seasons were expected the following summer.
King’s longtime assistant Marsha DeFilippo later said he had to choose between answering fan mail himself and writing books, and staff took over the correspondence.
Dee Dee’s father, who owned nearly everything King published in hardcover, died October 16; the letter he’d sent King was dated November 3, 1981.
Sharing her discovery this week, Dee Dee signed “Your new, biggest fan” and said she’d found the reply when she needed comfort: “I’m sure he lost his mind when he received it,” she wrote, “and that makes me smile.”
