'The Long Walk' book wasn't originally by Stephen King

(NEXSTAR) -- "The Long Walk," a dystopian thriller adaptation based on the novel of the same name by Stephen King, is out in theaters this weekend after a decades-long journey to getting made.

But did you know the original book wasn't by Stephen King?

You see, if you were to go back to the book's publishing in 1979, you wouldn't find "The Long Walk" under the King section, alongside his horror classics like "Carrie" and "The Shining." Instead, you'd need to double back to the Bs and find a lesser-known author by the name of Richard Bachman.

Who is also Stephen King. But this isn't some split-personality twist from one of the author's own books. Here's what happened.

By the end of the 1970s, King was already a literary and pop culture phenomenon. Even more impressive, he writes a lot. As King tells it, at the time, his publishers believed that releasing too many books would over-saturate the market and that readers would get tired of him.

King chose the name Richard Bachman in a time crunch and pulled the first and last name from things he saw in the room.

"... They needed it right away and there was a novel by Richard Stark on my desk, so I used the name 'Richard,'" King explains on his website. "... And what was playing on the record player was 'You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet' by Bachman Turner Overdrive, so I put the two of them together."

King began publishing under the Bachman name starting in 1977, with the still-controversial "Rage," a psychological thriller about a high school shooter. Since its publication, "Rage" has been associated with several real-life school incidents and King decided to let it go out of print. The novel can now only be accessed through copies of the 1985 compilation, "The Bachman Books."

"The Bachman Books" was published after King had already written six books under the Bachman name but by early 1985 his cover was blown. The well-documented discovery went like this: Steve Brown, a clerk (and fan of King's) at the Olsson's Bookstore in Washington, D.C., noticed similarities in Bachman's writing with King's writing. After doing some research, he discovered that the novels were registered to King's agent in the Library of Congress database, though "Rage" was registered to King himself, Mental Floss reports.

So Brown contacted King's agent to ask about all of this. While he didn't plan to expose King, he wanted to know what to do with the information, since there were already rumors circulating about the King-Bachman connection.

Two weeks later, he received a call at work and heard the voice of King on the other end.

"Steve Brown? This is Steve King," Brown recalled King saying. "Okay, you know I'm Bachman. I know I'm Bachman. What are we going to do about it? Let's talk."

King suggested Brown write an article and interview him for it. And thus came the end of the Bachman Era. Sort of.

Since 1985, King has published two more books under the pseudonym, 1996's "The Regulators" and 2007's "Blaze." King and his publishers billed these books as novels that Bachman's widow "found" and decided to publish.

King has routinely referenced or joked about Bachman in his books and interviews. In fact, King dedicated his 1989 book "The Dark Half" — which deals with a writer and his pseudonym — to "the late Richard Bachman."