Decades ago, Stephen King published several books under the pen name Richard Bachman, and here's the full list of work credited to the pseudonym. King created the Bachman identity for two reasons, the first being that early in his career, it was seen as bad form to release more than one book a year, due to possible oversaturation of the audience. The second was King's curiosity over whether he'd become popular due to luck or talent, as he wondered whether his new books would sell without his established name attached.
Sadly, he never really got to answer that second question to his liking, as it was eventually discovered Bachman was really King, despite King's best efforts of deception. King had even created a fake author bio for Bachman, and had a fake author photo taken to try and throw people off the scent. Nevertheless, King's writing style proved recognizable enough to blow his cover only a few years into Bachman's run.
Amusingly, King didn't entirely retire Bachman after he had been found out, going on to publish two further books under the name, even writing a foreword as himself for one. Until if and when King resurrects Bachman again, here are all the Richard Bachman books so far.
Rage (1977)
Rage is easily King's most controversial book, making it a bit funny that he published it under the Richard Bachman name. The story focuses on a high school senior who's prone to violent outbursts named Charlie Decker. After one such instance leads to his expulsion, Charlie gets a gun and takes one of his classes hostage, shooting teachers along the way. In the years since its publication, multiple actual school shooters appeared to be inspired by Rage, leading King himself to request the book be taken out of print, where it's remained since the late-1990s.
The Long Walk (1979)
The Long Walk was actually the first novel King ever wrote, although obviously not the first published, and is set in a future dystopia where one hundred teenage boys compete in a walking contest. The winner gets anything they desire, but the losers end up receiving a much worse fate. Any competitor who drops below a speed of four miles an hour gets a warning, and after three warnings, they get shot. Trying to leave the walk also earns death. Basically, this reality competition is a more literal game of Survivor. Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark's Andre Ovredal is set to direct an upcoming film adaptation.
Roadwork (1981)
Roadwork centers on a man named Barton George Dawes, and takes place in the early-1970s. Barton is a man on the edge after the death of his young son due to cancer, and is pushed over it by a highway construction project that will soon lead to the destruction of both his workplace and the neighborhood he lives in. While Barton is offered money to leave and the possibility of retaining his job at a new facility, he instead decides to take up arms and defend his property by any means necessary. IT director Andy Muschietti is set to produce - alongside his sister Barbara - a Roadwork movie, with Argentine filmmaker Pablo Trapero set to direct.
The Running Man (1982)
In concept, The Running Man is almost an extension of The Long Walk. Like the 1987 Arnold Schwarzenegger movie it spawned, the story focuses on Ben Richards, a contestant on a dystopian game show of the same name in which players are chased by "Hunters" and killed if caught. Most of the details beyond that are different in the book though, as this Ben is simply unable to find work and desperate for money to support his family, not a framed criminal like Arnold. The Network is still evil though, and Ben still ends up trying to bring them down.
Thinner (1984)
Thinner was the last Richard Bachman book published before King was outed as the man behind the pseudonym. Amusingly, sales skyrocketed once the secret was revealed, which probably annoyed King. The story focuses on Billy Halleck, a lawyer who accidentally hits and kills a gypsy woman with his car, then uses his connections to escape the deserved consequences. The woman's father places a curse on Billy in retaliation, causing him to lose weight at an uncontrollably dangerous rate. Billy starts off overweight, so isn't mad at first, but before long, he's worried he's going to keep losing weight until he dies. A film adaptation of Thinner was released in 1996, starring Robert John Burke and Joe Mantegna. King actually came up with the idea for the book after his doctor told him he needed to drop weight.
The Regulators (1996)
King had "killed off" Bachman after the secret behind his identity came to light, but in 1996, King released a "posthumous" Bachman book called The Regulators. The book is set in a parallel universe to the King novel Desperation, published the same year, and concerning mostly the same characters. However, the two stories place these characters in different situations. Desperation became a TV movie in 2006, starring Ron Perlman and directed by frequent King collaborator Mick Garris. To date, The Regulators has not been adapted, although there were murmurings concerning a possible TV series back in 2014. There's been no follow-up news, however.
Blaze (2007)
Stephen King's second posthumous Bachman book, Blaze's original manuscript was written way back in the early days of King's career, before Carrie had even been published. Before releasing it in 2007, King rewrote and edited the book, partially to update the time period to the present. The story concerns a small-time crook named Clayton Blaisdell, Blaze for short, who kidnaps the baby son of a millionaire. Blaze has some mental issues, but also one of a weirder variety, in that he can still hear his partner in crime George Rackley telling him the instructions for one last job involving the baby, despite Rackley having died months before. Cheekily, King claimed that he had found this latest Bachman book in an attic, and thought that it deserved to be finished and published.