[at-l] The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon

[kborski@yahoo.com (Karen Borski)]

I've been wanting so badly to bring this topic up on
this list -- or with any AT forum.  Since I missed the
Gathering, then I must resort to a written discussion.

Light topic people and book people, read on.  Others
may want to skip this, but it is AT related.

Two years ago I read the Stephen King novel, "The Girl
Who Loved Tom Gordon."  I'm not a big fan of his, but
the back cover enticed me.  The story is about a young
girl (8 - 12 yrs old) who gets lost in the White
Mountain Ntl Forest while day hiking on the AT with
her family.  She has a day pack with some food and
water, but it is her Walkman that ends up being her
most prized possession, keeping her in touch with the
outside world, namely the baseball games where she can
keep up with her favorite player, pitcher Tom Gordon.

She ends up being lost for 8 days, battling
psychological demons and some "thing" that follows her
through the woods.  Some dark, dark thing.  Of course,
this is where the King factor comes in and takes over.
 Never mind that it wouldn't really be possible for
the girl to be lost in New Hampshire for 8 days while
walking 8-10 miles per day.  Never mind that it
probably wouldn't be possible for a little girl to
hike 8-10 miles a day in that backcountry.  Aside from
those overlooked items, the story is pretty good,
believable from a mental standpoint, has a decent
ending and lots of "bump in the night" scares that
ring true with anyone that has ever slept outdoors
alone.

Now, I ran into the out-of-print book that documents a
true story of a little boy that got lost in Baxter
State Park while on top of Katahdin while day hiking
with his family.  This took place in the '30s, '40s or
'50s (can't remember exact dates, book title or author
names, sorry -- I read it at a friend's house in NH
while visiting).  Anyone who has hiked in Baxter knows
that it is very possible for anyone to get lost on the
table land in fog and wander for a week or more north
of the mountain before finding a road or camp,
especially back half a decade ago.

While reading this very good story, the true account,
I was completely, utterly shocked to discover the
similarity in style, words and EVENTS in these two
books about children lost in the woods near the AT. 
Funny, but I could swear that Mr. King took direct
ideas and events from the out-of-print true story and
turned them into his novel.  Seems kind of low for a
writer of his public "stature" to have done that
without even a note that his story was taken from a
true story.  And I cannot see how he could have
coincidentally made up so many similar events.  In
particular, for those that have read both books (and I
so hope someone has!), the scene with the strange
hooded/cloaked "ghost" figures that both the Girl and
the real boy hallucinated while lost.  The boy's
account was nearly word-for-word in the King book.  

If you have read both of these books and can discuss
this topic, I would love to hear whether anyone else
has noticed the similarities.  Could it really be that
Stephen King read a copy of this old out-of-print book
and used the ideas to make his own scary story,
assuming no one would catch the similarities?  He does
live in Maine and could easily have found a copy
somewhere.

Nocona
GA-ME98


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