was never so grateful to be writing as during my time of work (November 16, 1999 - May 29, 2000) on Dreamcatcher. I was in a lot of physical discomfort during those six and a half months, and the book took me away. The reader will see that pieces of that physical discomfort followed me into the story, but what I remember most is the sublime release we find in vivid dreams.

A good many people helped me. One was my wife, Tabitha, who simply refused to call this novel by its original title, which was Cancer. She considered it both ugly and an invitation to bad luck and trouble. Eventually I came around to her way of thinking, and she no longer refers to it as 'that book' or 'the one about the shit-weasels'.

I'm also indebted to Bill Pula, who took me four-wheeling at the Quabbin Reservoir, and to his cohorts, Peter Baldracci, Terry Campbell, and Joe McGinn: Another group of people, who would perhaps prefer not to be named, took me out behind the Air National Guard base in a Humvee, and foolishly let me drive, assuring me I couldn't get the beast stuck. I didn't, but it was close. I came back mud-splattered and happy. They would also want me to tell you that Hummers are better in mud than in snow; I have fictionalized their capabilities in that regard to suit the course of my fiction.

Thanks are also in order to Susan Moldow and Nan Graham at Scribner's, to Chuck Vem who edited the book, and to Arthur Greene, who agented it. And I mustn't forget Ralph Vicinanza, my foreign rights agent who found at least six ways to say 'There is no infection here' in French.

One final note. This book was written with the world's finest word processor, a Waterman cartridge fountain pen. To write the first draft of such a long book by hand put me in touch with the language as I haven't been for years. I even wrote one night (during a power outage) by candlelight. One rarely finds such opportunities in the twenty-first century, and they are to be savored.

And to those of you who have come so far, thank you for reading my story.

Stephen King

Grateful acknowledgement is made for permission to reprint excerpts from the following

copyrighted material:

"Dying Man" ? 1956 bv Atlantic Monthly Co. The Waking ? 1953 by Theodore Roethke from Collected Poems of Theodore Roethke bv Theodore Roethke, used by permission of Doubleday, a division of Random House, Inc.

"Scooby Doo Where Are You" by David Mook and Ben Raleigh ? 1969 (renewed) Monk Bros. West & Ben Raleigh Music Co. All rights reserved o/b/o Mook Bros. West in the United States, administered by Warner-Tamerlane Publishing Corp. All rights o/b/o Ben Raleigh Music Co. in the United States administered bv Wise Brothers Music LLC. All rights for the world excluding the United States controlled bv Unichappell Music, Inc. All rights reserved. Used by permission. Warner Brothers Publications U.S. Inc., Miami. FL 33014

"Sympathy For The Devil" words and music by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, ? 1968, renewed 1996. ABKCO Music Inc.

McElligots Pool by Dr. SEUSS?. Copyright by Dr. Seuss Enterprises L.P. 1947, renewed 1975, reprinted by permission of Random House, Inc.

"I Am The Walrus" by John Lennon and Paul McCartney 1967 Sony/ATV Times, LLC. All rights administered by Sony/ATV Music Publishing, 8 Music Square West, Nashville,

TN 37203.

"Yes We Can" words and music bv Alan Toussant ? 1970 Marsant Music, Inc.

The Man Who Wasn't There by Hughes Mearns ? 1925, Doubleday & Co., used by permission of

Petra Cabot.

Copyright ? 2001 by Stephen King

First published in Great Britain in 2001 by Hodder and Stoughton

A division of Hodder Headline

The right of Stephen King to be identified as the Author

of the Work has been asserted by him in accordance with the

Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

10 9 8 7 6 54 3 2

All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced,

stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form

or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher,

nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than

that in which it is published and without a similar condition being

imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

All characters in this publication are fictitious and any resemblance

to real persons, living or dead is purely coincidental.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

King, Stephen, 1947-

Dreamcatcher

1. Horror tales

I. Title

813.5'4 [F]

Hardcover edition ISBN 0 340 77071 6

Trade paperback edition ISBN 0 340 79235 3

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Polmont, Stirlngshire

Printed and bound in Great Britain by

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