King also owned a dysfunctional Ford Pinto at the time, which is the same car model the novel's protagonist, Donna Trenton, drives to the auto garage where she encounters the rabid Cujo. This incident, as well as a story published in a Portland, Maine, newspaper about a young child who was killed by a Saint Bernard, provided inspiration for the novel. Although the mechanic stopped the dog from harming King by hitting the dog's hindquarters with a wrench, King was still startled by the encounter. He claims his motorcycle died when he arrived at the shop, and moments after, a Saint Bernard emerged from the garage, growling at him and eventually lunging for his hand. In a 2006 interview with The Paris Review, King describes how issues with his motorcycle led him to visit an auto shop on the northern outskirts of Bridgton, Maine. Īccording to King, the novel was partly inspired by his trip to a mechanic during the spring of 1977. King goes on to say he likes the book and wishes he could remember enjoying the good parts as he put them on the page.

Stephen King discusses Cujo in On Writing, referring to it as a novel he 'barely remembers writing at all.' King wrote the book during the height of his struggle with alcohol addiction.

The novel won the British Fantasy Award in 1982 and was made into a film in 1983.Ĭujo's name was based on the alias of Willie Wolfe, one of the men responsible for orchestrating Patty Hearst's kidnapping and indoctrination into the Symbionese Liberation Army. Cujo ( / ˈ k uː dʒ oʊ/) is a 1981 horror novel by American writer Stephen King about a rabid Saint Bernard.

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