The Great American Read, a limited eight-part series about 100 of the country’s best-loved novels, will premiere Tuesday night on PBS with a two-hour-long launch episode. The premiere, set for 8 pm, will feature a Bangor locale Stephen King fans and downtown denizens alike will definitely recognize.
One of the books on the list is Stephen King’s The Stand, and when that book is shown on the premiere, Bangor’s own Gerald Winters & Son, a King-themed bookstore, will be featured.
Producers for the show contacted Winters last fall, after they discovered that not only did Winters have a King-themed store, but that The Stand was the book that kickstarted his King fandom.
“The Stand is what got me started in the first place and is still my favorite King book, so that made them want to come up here,” said Winters. “They spent the whole afternoon back in October shooting at the shop.”
The Stand is the only one of King’s books to be featured on the show, as one of the rules for being included on the list is there’s only one book or series allowed per author. The list features a diverse array of titles, from other horror novels like Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein to fantasy classics like George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series, to literary titles like The Handmaid’s Tale, To Kill a Mockingbird, Pride and Prejudice and Moby-Dick, and popular favorites like the Twilight series and The Notebook.
Episode one of The Great American Read airs locally on Maine Public Television at 8:00 pm Tuesday, May 22. Voting for the overall reader favorite opens after the first episode airs, online at pbs.org.
This story appears through a partnership with the Bangor Daily News.