The selection of Stephen King for an honorary National Book Award has been greeted by some with dismay. “Told of Mr. King’s selection, some in the literary world responded with laughter and dismay. ‘He is a man who writes what used to be called penny dreadfuls. That they could believe that there is any literary value there or any aesthetic accomplishment or signs of an inventive human intelligence is simply a testimony to their own idiocy’.”