Richard Bachman is a pen name of American horror fiction author Stephen King, adopted in 1977 for the novel Rage. King hid the link between himself and Bachman until 1985. He collected the first four Bachman novels into The Bachman Books. Rage became controversial for its school shooting premise and was allowed to go out of print after the 1997 Heath High School shooting. In total, seven novels have been published under the Bachman name.