One of Stephen King’s books will never be printed again after being pulled from shelves

Stephen King asked for the book to go out of publication himself

One of the most successful authors of all time, Stephen King has earned the title of the King of Horror thanks to novels such as It, Pet Sematary, Carrie and The Shining.

As a writer who explores plenty of disturbing horror themes, King's work has attracted controversy on a number of occasions.

The most widely-known of these is an infamous scene towards the end of It, which was deemed too controversial to be included in the 2017 film.

But one of King's books was so controversial that it was pulled from publication, never to be printed again.

Rage was published by King under the pseudonym of Richard Bachman. Originally titled Getting It On, the psychological thriller was published in 1977.

The story follows high school student Charlie Decker, who after an incident that sent his chemistry teacher to the hospital and insulting the principal led to his expulsion, took a pistol from his locker and shot his algebra teacher while holding his classmates hostage.

Over the following two decades though, a number of shooting incidents took place at high schools across the US.

On several of these occasions, the shooters said they had read Rage, with one even writing an essay on it.

It was the Heath High School shooting of 1997 that led to Rage being taken out of publication though.

On December 1, 14-year-old Michael Carneal killed three students and injured five when he brought a shotgun and rifle into school.

It was later discovered that he had a copy of Rage in his locker. This led to King asking that the book go out of print in the US, due to concerns he had that the book was inspiring similar tragedies.

The book is now highly sought-after by collectors, and editions of the novel can sell for significant amounts.

Discussing his inspiration for Rage, King has previously said that he drew upon his own frustrations and pains as a high school student.