The Dark Half

The Dark Half is a horror novel by American writer Stephen King, published in 1989. Publishers Weekly listed it as the second best-selling book of 1989, behind Tom Clancy's Clear and Present Danger, and it was adapted into a feature film of the same name in 1993.

The novel grew out of King's own experience of writing under the pen name Richard Bachman during the 1970s and 1980s. Most of the Bachman novels were darker and more cynical than the psychological and gothic work he was known for, and when he was identified as Bachman he wrote this book, which is about a writer, in response to being unmasked. At one point it may have been intended for publication as a joint work by King and Bachman.

Thad Beaumont lives in Ludlow, Maine and is in recovery from alcoholism. His literary novels do not sell, and his crime novels, written as George Stark, do; the plot begins when the authorship becomes public knowledge and Thad and his wife Elizabeth organise a mock burial for the alter ego. Stark emerges from that grave as a physical presence carrying the traits Thad exhibited while writing as him. The antagonist's name was chosen in honour of Richard Stark, the pen name of Donald E. Westlake, and King telephoned Westlake to ask permission.