Writer
Stephen King makes much of the importance of the Ideal Reader (in his case,
wife Tabitha King) in his memoir On
Writing, but he doesn’t talk much about his reliance on his good right
hand.
King’s
hand is Russ Dorr, a mild-mannered physician’s assistant who has been at Sir
Stephen’s side since just after Carrie
came out in 1974. I ran into Mr. Dorr last month as part of the New Hampshire Writers Project’s annual “Writer’s
Day.” Dorr and King hooked up when the author fell ill and came in for a doctor’s
appointment. They hit it off, and King asked Dorr for some advice about a book
he was writing (a super flu kills 98 percent of the population and spawns
dueling religious cults). More consultations followed.
“He’d
write a book -- it would be his first draft – and he’d ask me to take a look at
it,” Dorr said. “We started with the manuscript typed. He’d give it to me, and
I’d read it. And I’d make corrections or suggestions. Then he’d do a second draft,
and the book would be published.”
