Stephen King

Stephen King is a renowned American novelist, columnist, actor, TV producer, musician, and writer of modern horror, suspense, sci-fi, fantasy, and supernatural fiction. Many of his books were sold and adapted into feature films, TV shows, miniseries, and comic books. He was born as Stephen Edwin King on September 21, 1947, in Portland, Maine in the United States. At the age of 2, his father left them and so he was raised by his mother together with his adopted brother, David.

They moved to the different city in the United States and returned to Maine when he was 11, where her mother works as a caregiver for the mentally challenged person. During his childhood, he witnessed an accident where his friend got killed by a train. He went in shock, and this made the commentators think that the event may have inspired his darker works. However, Stephen did not mention this on his memoir entitled On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft. He stated that his main inspiration in writing horror fiction is his 1981 non-fiction book, Danse Macabre.

Stephen studied at Durham Elementary School and completed his studies at Lisbon Falls High School in Maine. In an early age, he showed interest in horror and was an avid reader of Entertaining Comics’ Tales from the Crypt. He started writing while he was still studying and has contributed articles to Dave’s Rag. Later on, he started selling stories to his friends, which are based on the films he had seen.

The story, I Was a Teenage Grave Robber, was the first story that was published independently. He took Bachelor of Arts in English at the University of Maine and graduated in 1970. His first daughter Naomi Rachel was born in the same year. Stephen has written Steve King’s Garbage Truck for The Maine Campus’ newspaper, which took part in Burton Hatlen’s workshop. This helped him in getting odd jobs that will pay for his studies. The Startling Mystery Stories bought his very first professional story entitled The Glass Floor in the year 1967. When he left his university, he got a certificate to teach high school; however, he failed to find teaching jobs immediately so instead, he sold short stories to Cavalier magazine, etc.

These stories were republished in his first collection, Night Shift, in 1978. He got married to his co-student, Tabitha Spruce, in 1971. That same time, he started teaching at the Hampden Academy, Maine. He sustained writing short stories and novels, and it was also that time when he started having a drinking problem, which affects his health for more than ten years. His first novel, Carrie, is about a girl with psychic power, which was accepted by Doubleday in 1973. Initially, he got discouraged when writing Carrie, but his wife encouraged him to continue writing the story. He got an advance of $2500 and earned more than ten times for its paperback rights. He and his family then transferred to Southern Maine due to his ailing mother. During this time, he penned the book, Second Coming, which was later entitled as Salem’s Lot (1975). After the release of Carrie in 1974, his mother died due to uterine cancer. Post the death of his mother, he and his family moved to Colorado, where he wrote The Shining (1977). They came back to Western Maine in the year 1975, where he finished his 4th novel, The Stand (1978). Stephen shifted to writing a comic book, and his first work was in 1985 after he wrote few pages of Heroes fro Hope: Starring the X-Men.

The profits from the book went to the famine relief in Africa. Subsequently, he wrote Batman No. 400. Other works of Stephen King are The Dark Tower Click to look into! >> Read More... : The Gunslinger, The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three, and The Little Sisters of Eluria. In 2005, he signed for Marvel Comics for the spin-off of The Gunslinger Born, which became very successful and led to two miniseries including the adaptation of his post-apocalyptic horror novel, The Stand. His book, The Dark Half, was dedicated to pseudonym, Richard Bachman, and in the year 1996, when his novel Desperation was released, his novel, The Regulators, carried the latter’s byline. Another Bachman novel entitled Blaze was discovered and published in 2007. Aside from Bachman, he also used John Swithen’s pseudonyms including The Fifth Quarter. Stephen had a car accident on June 19, 1999, and had multiple fractures in his right leg, collapsed a lung, and a broken hip. In the year 2000, he published a horror novel entitled The Plant.

He also wrote the Riding the Bullet in the same year. Stephen wrote for the Entertainment Weekly, and the column was called The Pop of King. In 2006, the apocalyptic novel titled Cell was also published. He published the novel Duma Key and Just After Sunset collection in 2008. In 2010, he published the original novella, Blockade Billy. His novel, 11/22/63 received a nomination for Best Novel at the World Fantasy Award in 2012. Aside from these, he also released Mr. Mercedes, Finders Keepers Click to look into! >> Read More... , End of Watch, and the critically and commercially successful collection, The Bazaar of Bad Dreams. He and his wife own the Zone Radio Corp. His first film appearance was from the 1981 American drama film, Knightriders. In 1982, he played as Jordy Verrill in another George Romero’s film, Creepshow, which he also writes.

He also produced and acted in few TV series such as Kingdom Hospital. Stephen also joined the American quiz show, Celebrity Jeopardy and chose the Bangor Public Library as his beneficiary. He voiced Abraham Lincoln in Sarah Vowell’s Assassination Vacation. Through all years, Stephen continued to be an outstanding artist and has contributed much to the entertainment industry.