Taking for his title Samuel Johnson's observation that "no man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money," King describes his experiences as a freelance writer. He recounts the pleasures and perils of freelance journalism, from the euphoria of his first book contract to the misery of actually having to finish the book; and from his glorious days at Harper's to the desperation of pay-the-rent labor. In the section called "Random Jottings From a Writer's Notebook," he offers reflections on the private and public torments of a writer's life. He includes anecdotal meditations on plagiarism, writers' inhumanity to other writers, and the glimpsing of one's own doom in the fates of older literary heroes. ISBN 0-670-80928-4 : $17.95.