Stephen King reimagines ‘Hansel and Gretel’ with Maurice Sendak’s unpublished drawings

By HILLEL ITALIE Associated Press National Writer NEW YORK AP The novels of Stephen King may not seem designed for bedtime reading at least if you value a good night s sleep but the author has invariably had a fondness for fairy tales Especially when they get a little dark Fairy tales are supposed to be scary he commented during a fresh telephone interview I think because they give children a taste of adult emotions That s the hard part The good part is that you give them a happy ending We all hope things turn out well This cover image disclosed by HarperCollins Publishers shows Hansel and Gretel by Stephen King and Maurice Sendak HarperCollins Publishers via AP The creator of such horror classics as Carrie and The Shining even called one of his books Fairy Tale but he had never published one until he was contacted by the estate of a literary giant with a dark streak of his own Maurice Sendak Representatives for the late author-illustrator of such subversive favorites for young people as Where the Wild Things Are urged King to collaborate on a special project a retelling of Hansel and Gretel combining King s words and unpublished drawings by Sendak that were intended for a s opera production of the Brothers Grimm story Sendak died in The -year-old King says working on Hansel and Gretel which comes out this week was almost literally healing I had just had rather painful hip replacement operation that really didn t go that well because there was a lot of damage from a car accident I had years ago King explained recalling a near-fatal collision from when a minivan hit him while he was walking near his Maine home I was in a lot of pain and discomfort This took me out of it It was something fresh Writing has constantly been my escape hatch in a way Related Articles Kathryn Bigelow unveils nuclear thriller A House of Dynamite at Venice Film Festival Anna Wintour taps Chloe Malle as Vogue successor but she s still in charge Chlo Grace Moretz and Kate Harrison are married Graham Greene a trailblazing Indigenous actor best known for Dances with Wolves dies at The defunded Corporation for General Broadcasting will get one of TV s biggest prizes The Grimms Hansel and Gretel first published in the s is the world famous story of two siblings forced to fend for themselves in the forest Multiple plot points have remained over the past two centuries the father is a kindly but poor woodcutter who struggles to patronage his family the children use breadcrumbs to help trace their path back home and they re held captive by an evil witch who initially pretends to be a kindly old woman In other methods the fairy tale has evolved even in the Grimms lifetime The wicked mother of the first editions becomes a wicked stepmother and the narrative becomes more openly religious invoking God as the children s ultimate protector King s adaptation is largely faithful to the basic story save for adding a dream sequence and removing a plot turn about a duck carrying the siblings across a pond I didn t see the point of that he says The duck just shows up There isn t any foreboding During his interview King also discussed his approach to writing Hansel and Gretel his interpretation of it and how he s open to new challenges Questions and answers have been edited for brevity and clarity AP What were particular of your favorite fairy tales growing up KING I loved Hansel and Gretel I think it s likely my favorite fairy tale And there s a Dr Seuss book called The Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins where the kid kept trying different hats to please the king I liked the way he kept trying to do the right thing He s eventually taken to the guillotine And I remember as a kid how the headsman had a black hood on his head and it was very very scary AP Did you have any particular goals when writing Hansel and Gretel KING I just craved to make the words fit the illustrations The Sendak pictures were for an opera and I don t have any record of what the characters mentioned And I thought this would be a very exciting challenge to find means to make the fairy tales fit the pictures to make it as seamless as feasible AP And that s why you added the dream sequence where Hansel imagines a flying witch KING That was in particular techniques because that s what the pictures called for that sort of interpretation There s a picture of the witch flying across the moon flying across the sky with her broomstick with a bagful of screaming children And I didn t know what to do other than write about a dream Hansel had about a wicked witch AP Several versions of Hansel and Gretel have the mother as the villain others the stepmother Yours has her as the stepmother KING The wicked stepmother is like a trope in fairy tales You don t want to think that two parents would leave their kids out in the woods I made the stepmother a little more wicked than the Grimm brothers did She has food that she squirreled away Even the father has selected problems his being so simple-minded that he would indeed agree with the stepmother s arguments AP There s a reference in the new book to God protecting the children Did you see this as a kind of religious parable KING No I don t really I see it as a development of children who are forced to be very strategic in their thinking and wise beyond their years and brave But they re also masters of their own fates and I like that better AP Could you imagine working on another fairy tale KING I would never say never There are fairy stories like The Steadfast Tin Soldier that move me to this day I would be tempted to do it But I m a little elderly now so to speak although I wouldn t say I m older than dirt And I get the sense in the time I have left that I would like to do as a large number of things as practicable This was an exciting adventure writing this fairy tale I ve been writing about brave and thoughtful children for a long time and this was like going back to the source AP Is it crucial for you now to take chances try new things KING I think there is I don t talk a lot about it but I have chosen things I want to try I did a play with John Mellencamp the musical Ghost Brothers of Darkland County and I worked on a record with Scooter Jennings the album Black Ribbons All those of things it was engaging and fun to take the talent you have in a different direction