In 1981, long before he began writing the essay On Writing, Stephen King decided to analyze the concept of horror. The Dance of Death is nothing more than an anatomy of horror, structured in ten chapters with a hefty dose of humor and examples drawn from literature and cinema; from "Frankenstein" and "Dracula" to "The Exorcist," "The Twilight Zone," and "Rosemary's Baby." According to King, novels, movies, radio shows – even comics – that focus on horror always operate on two levels. At the top is the level of terror, which can be achieved with more or less artistic skill. However, on another, deeper level, the horror work is actually a dance – a rhythmic quest. The horror work is not concerned with the civilized "furnishing" of our lives. Such a work dances through the rooms we have furnished one by one, with each expressing – we hope! – our socially acceptable and pleasantly open-minded character. Stephen King is one of the most important writers of our time. He has written over 50 novels, 200 short stories and essays, with sales exceeding 350,000,000 copies. Among his works, many of which have been adapted into films or series, are Salem's Lot, It, The Dark Half, the saga of The Dark Tower, The Shining, The Green Mile, Misery, Hearts in Atlantis, The Institute, Outsider, Elevation, and Sleeping Beauties (which he co-wrote with his son, Owen King). He has been honored with the Bram Stoker and Locus awards, by the British, American, and International Horror Writers Associations, with the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters and the National Medal of Arts in the USA, while in 2016 he was honored by the Library of Congress for his body of work and in 2018 he was awarded the prestigious PEN literary prize.