Q 01/05

The famous opening sentence of Stephen King's The Gunslinger sets its chase across what landscape?

A) A salt marsh

B) A desert

C) A frozen tundra

D) A mountain pass

Answer · why

B) A desert

A desert is where the pursuit begins, in a story first printed in a magazine in October 1978. King later joined it with four more stories to make the ...

Q 02/05

Stephen King modeled Roland of The Gunslinger on a nameless Western drifter played by which actor?

A) Clint Eastwood

B) John Wayne

C) Charles Bronson

D) Lee Van Cleef

Answer · why

A) Clint Eastwood

Clint Eastwood's Man with No Name inspired Roland. King says so in his introduction to the 2003 edition, and in a later book the author tells Roland t...

Q 03/05

Which Victorian poet wrote 'Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came', the poem behind The Gunslinger?

A) Alfred Tennyson

B) Thomas Hardy

C) Robert Browning

D) Christina Rossetti

Answer · why

C) Robert Browning

Robert Browning published the poem in 1855, and King read it as a sophomore at university. He set out to write a long romantic novel with the feel of ...

Q 04/05

Stephen King began The Gunslinger on a ream of paper, found at a library, in which unusual color?

A) Pink

B) Yellow

C) Blue

D) Green

Answer · why

D) Green

Green was the color of the ream King found at the library in 1970. The book then took him twelve and a half years to finish.

Q 05/05

In The Gunslinger, young Roland wins his guns by beating his teacher with what unusual weapon?

A) A whip

B) A staff

C) A hawk

D) A hound

Answer · why

C) A hawk

A hawk named David was Roland's choice, and he sacrificed the bird to distract his teacher. At 14 he passed the trial earlier than any apprentice befo...