Author Stephen King has been terrifying audiences for five decades, finding inspiration from many locations and real-life stories, such as the Maine town that inspired the setting of Derry, Maine in his novel, IT. Placing his audience in his literary world, King mixes the macabre with the mundane, creating a surreal sort of terror that questions the safety felt in small towns.
Stephen King is extremely adept when it comes to creating fictional worlds, many of which feel all too real, and his literary universe is both complex and continuously expanding. King, who was born in Portland, Maine, moved around a great deal with his family until the age of eleven, when they returned to their home state and settled in the town of Durham. The author has often used the state of Maine as a source of inspiration when it comes to his stories’ settings, laying the scene for horror at the hands of both people and paranormal forces alike. Though Maine has served as the setting for a handful of King’s work, his novel IT pays special tribute to his birthplace and current residence—he and his wife Tabitha now own a notable victorian home in Bangor, Maine, the very town on which Derry is based.
The town at the center of King’s IT feels like more than just a setting in that its rich history of horror stems from it being the primary hunting ground for the titular malevolent entity. Pennywise stalks his child victims through the small town streets of the fictional Derry, Maine, dousing their carefree, suburban summer in terror and torment. Manifesting in specific spots around town, notably the Barrens and the sprawling sewer system where It brings his claimed kids, King creates a winding world beneath the street’s surface, a frightening concept that roots itself in the fear of the unknown. By centering his story around kids, King explores the ways in which children conquer pain and tragedy, placing them in the path of both human and supernatural threats. As many of King’s stories also involve coming-of-age stories and explore childhood fears, his choice to base Derry around a real place not only through physical attributes the two towns share, but for significant events that occurred there is another reason why his stories are so terrifying. As they have roots in real life and history, they’re immediately more relatable to his readers.
How The Town of Bangor, Maine Inspired Derry
King, who spent most of his life in Maine, has often referred to the town of Derry as being near Bangor, however, the setting is fully derived from the town where King and his wife Tabitha later purchased a home. While the town was mentioned in a selection of King’s short stories previous to his 1986 novel, IT solidified the setting, putting Maine in the center of King’s literary map. King has spoken about being inspired by the sewers of Bangor, which were allegedly poorly built and extremely difficult to map. This detail is something King incorporated into his novel—it’s a minor touch, but an effective one. Using the sewer system as IT’s home base also brings the Barrens—a wild, woodsy area where the large entrance drain pipe can be found—into play. Surrounded by green grasses and rushing rivers, the Barrens is a beautiful setting for a not so pretty tale. Both Derry and Bangor reside in a river valley along the Penobscot where a drain pipe can actually be spotted from certain overlooks.
King was also drawn to Bangor due to the stories of violence in the town, including the 1984 murder of Charlie Howard, which he used as the basis for the death of Adrian Mellon in IT. Howard, a twenty-three year old gay man, was assaulted by three Bangor teens, then thrown into a canal where he drowned. The brutal hate crime was widely known in the Bangor community, spurring them into shock. This led to a commemorative monument built near the location of his death and the creation of the Charlie Howard Memorial Library in Portland, Maine. In King’s novel, Adrian is attacked by a group of homophobic teens and left for dead in the canal where, instead of drowning, he encounters Pennywise. This event prompts the now-grown Losers Club to battle the entity once again and return to their hometown to honor the pact they all made as children.
Derry’s Appearances In Stephen King Stories Before IT
Although he has often alluded to Derry being an homage to specific Maine towns, King stated in a 2002 interview with historian and author Tony Magistrale that “Derry is Bangor“; the fictional town serves as his literary parallel to a very real place, to which King holds a deep connection. After graduating from the University of Maine, King remained in the state to teach at Hampden Academy, going on to publish his first novel, Carrie, in 1973. Though most known as the infamous setting of It, King mentioned Derry, Maine in several works prior to the notable novel. The town of Derry first appeared in King’s 1981 short story, “The Bird and the Album”, and has remained a steady place of interest in his works throughout the past few decades.
References to Derry can be found in several of King’s early works, including his 1982 novel, The Running Man, and The Body, a novella which served as the basis for Rob Reiner’s 1986 movie, Stand By Me. Before becoming widely known through IT, Derry was also mentioned in Pet Sematary (1983) during a description of the Penobscot river valley where, “loggers had once floated their timber from the northeast down to Bangor and Derry.“ The town of Derry also appeared in “Uncle Otto’s Truck” and “Mrs. Todd’s Shortcut”, two short stories from King’s 1985 collection, Skeleton Crew. Often including Easter eggs that weave his different works together, Stephen King spatters talk of Derry throughout the pages of his stories, reminding his readers that there is a continuity to his world—one that very closely and purposefully resembles ours.
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