Mass market paperbacksthose small, cheaply made books that are found at drugstores, airports, and newsstandshave officially been discontinued. This news disappointed Professor Carl Sederholm (Horror, Popular Culture, Literature and Film) because these novels played a significant role in his youth and in his professional life, which he noted in his P. A. Christensen Lecture on March 5, 2026. During this lecture, titled Stephen King and the Horror Paperback Boom, Sederholm discussed the way that, over the course of his career, Stephen King breathed new life into this dying form of the novel.

The mass market paperback industry began in the midst of World War II, a time fraught with confusion and chaos. People were looking for inexpensive diversions, and something they could easily ship to troops overseas, Sederholm said. The solution? Small, cheap, paperback books.

These novels didnt retain the same scholarly repute as hardcover books, so they could get away with addressing edgier, transgressive subjects in ways that were not only disreputable or scandalous but also seemed appealing at times to readers, Sederholm said. Because of the books wide audience and availability, they had a democratic quality, which allowed them to focus on broad consumer interests, rather than on class-based notions of taste.

In the late 1960s, the horror genre made its way onto the pages of these books and started the horror paperback boom, as Sederholm called it. Horror paperbacks became so popular that one could hardly avoid them. Readers were drawn to their colorful, shocking cover images and alluring titles. The books opened readers up to multiple questions concerning the bounds of life and death, hope and fear, the monstrous and the human.

Horror paperbacks like

and

were adapted to film during this time. This increased the books popularity and created a market for more sensational horror storiesa market in which Stephen King flourished.

Stephen King, now a household name, published his first novel,

, in 1974, and its success quickly established him in the industry. As he continued to write bestsellers, the books were published as hardcovers with more regularity, reflecting his success and popularity. But he often returned to the world of paperback to mark a new beginning, to experiment with a new concept, or to start a new publishing strategy.

At the height of his career, King occasionally published under a pen name: Richard Bachman, who exclusively wrote paperbacks. He kept the identity secret for a long time; he wanted to see if Bachman could become a paperback star in his own right, without the Stephen King brand to carry him to success. The Bachman books also allowed King to write for writings sake, experiment with the craft he loved, and find the freedom to explore a much darker side of his personality, Sederholm said. These paperbacks granted King the freedom to explore new ideas or approaches, things arguably outside of his well-established brand.

King has continued to experiment throughout his career, particularly with his 1996 novel

that was published serially as six paperback originals. This book gave King an opportunity to transition to a tone that was more hopeful and more humane, bringing the recognition that the king of horror was actually a pretty good storyteller, Sederholm said. While King could have sold millions of hardback editions of

, he wanted to release a series of bestsellers that also reinvigorated the paperback form. The novel didnt bring back the glory days of the mass market paperback, but it reestablished the paperback as a convenient, fun, and portable way of passing time with a memorable story.

Recent King paperbacks are reminiscent of the hardboiled detective genre: One of these novels,

(2005), is unique because its mystery remains unsolved. His goal was for readers to focus on the journey more than the conclusion, Sederholm said. King includes an afterword that argues mystery, not closure, was always his purpose with this novel. King suggests that his readers need to become more comfortable with unanswered questions, considering the frequency with which they encounter them in their everyday lives.

Kings long-standing interest in the paperback form, as Sederholm put it, proved useful to him during his career. King utilized the mass market paperback format time and time again to give his workand the mediumnew life. In doing so, he reminded readers that even familiar formats can be continually reinvented.

hum.byu.edu/p-a-christensen-lectures

BYU students and local community members dont have to trek to traditional movie theaters to watch award-winning filmsthanks to BYUs International Cinema (IC), a theater devoted to showing historical and international films. With the combined efforts of faculty directors and student employees working behind the scenes, it offers its audience a unique opportunity to gain new perspectives and find cultural enrichment in the cinematic community.

The films the IC showcases are handpicked by a board of directors, who meet regularly to discuss movies that might be of interest to the students, taking student recommendations and attending film festivals for inspiration. IC codirector, Carl Sederholm (Horror, Popular Culture, Literature and Film), serves on the board. He says the group tries to find films directed by both men and women, to highlight different voices that are represented in the creative process. They also consider the languages taught in the College of Humanities. Were looking more than anything else at international representationwhats coming out from all the countries of the world that we can possibly cover, says Sederholm.

The selected films fall into a set of themes, like Black History Month, Valentines Day, dance, childhood, 100 years of cinema, sports, and World War II. We look for themes that would be of interest, Sederholm says, adding that they aim to balance the films: some might challenge people in interesting ways. Others are lighter, because sometimes we just need to laugh or dance, says Sederholm.

While the faculty directors play a large role in making decisions for the IC, its student employees like Hannah Guevara (Media Arts 26) who run the show day-to-day. Working from Wednesday to Saturday, students make sure the IC runs smoothly. They play music while guests find their seats, announce each film and its runtime, ensure each film is shown on time, and make pins to hand out to patrons. Guevara enjoys facilitating a theater experience with movies that are handpicked for students to experience the world. The films are fun, theyre exciting, and theyre perspective enhancing, she says.

Working at the IC, Guevara has learned that film has the power to create community. When she looks out into the audience, she sees that films can bring people together. There are friends, or there are couples, or there are even people who come alone, and these people, she says, find a community here.

Sederholm agrees, saying that, to him, the IC is about discovering other people, other cultures, other languages, and other ways of storytelling.

Check out whats playing this week at the International Cinema here.