The King Is Dead

Contents Cover About the Author Other Titles Title Page Copyright Contents Publisher’s Note The King Is Dead: Introduction The Best in the Country The Man from Chicago The Big Hustle Misleading Lady The Hustler The Stubbornest Man The Ifth of Oofth Operation Gold Brick Sucker’s Game The Big Bounce First Love Far from Home A Short Ride in the Dark The Man from Budapest Gentle Is the Gunman The Machine That Hustled Pool The Other End of the Line The Scholar’s Disciple The King Is Dead Rent Control The Apotheosis of Myra Echo Out of Luck A Visit from Mother Daddy Sitting in Limbo Landmarks Cover Cover Title Page Contents Start Copyright Print Page List i iii v ix x xiii xv xvi xvii xviii xix xx xxi xxii xxiii xxiv xxv xxvi 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 
 
 
 
 
 
 Praise for Walter Tevis
 “Tevis makes you care about his quirky characters….[He] wrote like a dream, and he told some wonderful stories.”
 —Los Angeles Times
 “There is a rocking, hypnotic peacefulness in the way [Tevis] puts words together.”
 —The Daily Beast
 “Tevis has a gift for vivid characterization and propulsive narratives….His style is direct and efficient, never calling attention to itself; yet it grows in power through the course of a novel by its very naturalness.”
 —Tobias Wolff
 “[Tevis’s] work is unique, with that element of infinite rereadability Nabokov held as the hallmark of great literature. Like his characters…Tevis’s work will endure.”
 —Fantasy & Science Fiction
 “With intense grace, Tevis finds the art to describe art.”
 —The Village Voice
 “Tevis’s characters, no matter how fantastic or far-fetched, whether they are gamblers or aliens, always feel true. At times, reality has even bent toward his fictions, rather than the other way around….His fiction feels as true as ever.”
 —The Ringer
 
 
 
 
 Walter Tevis
 THE KING IS DEAD
 Walter Tevis is the author of The Hustler, The Man Who Fell to Earth, Mockingbird, The Steps of the Sun, The Queen’s Gambit, The Color of Money, and the short story collection Far from Home. The Man Who Fell to Earth was the basis for a major motion picture and the inspiration for a streaming series on Showtime. The Hustler and The Color of Money were also adapted for film, and The Queen’s Gambit was the basis for a Netflix series. Tevis died in 1984.
 
 
 
 Also by Walter Tevis
 The Hustler
 The Man Who Fell to Earth
 Mockingbird
 The Steps of the Sun
 The Queen’s Gambit
 The Color of Money
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 A VINTAGE BOOKS ORIGINAL 2023
 Copyright © 2023 by The Tevis Family Trust
 Introduction copyright © 2023 by Kevin Brockmeier
 All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Vintage Books, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York, and distributed in Canada by Penguin Random House Canada Limited, Toronto.
 Vintage and colophon are registered trademarks of Penguin Random House LLC.
 The Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available at the Library of Congress.
 Vintage Books Trade Paperback ISBN 9780593467527
 Ebook ISBN 9780593467534
 Cover design by Evan Gafney
 Cover 
 CONTENTS
 The King Is Dead: Introduction
 The Best in the Country
 The Man from Chicago
 The Big Hustle
 Misleading Lady
 The Hustler
 The Stubbornest Man
 The Ifth of Oofth
 Operation Gold Brick
 Sucker’s Game
 The Big Bounce
 First Love
 Far from Home
 A Short Ride in the Dark
 The Man from Budapest
 Gentle Is the Gunman
 The Machine That Hustled Pool
 The Other End of the Line
 The Scholar’s Disciple
 The King Is Dead
 Rent Control
 The Apotheosis of Myra
 Echo
 Out of Luck
 A Visit from Mother
 Daddy