Stephen King Biography

December 31, 2010 | Posted by admin

Stephen King
Portland, Maine, United States
Occupation: Novelist, screenwriter, columnist, producer, director
Period 1974 – present
Gender Horror novel, fantastic literature, science fiction
Influenced byDeploy
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StephenKing.com official web site
Stephen Edwin King (Portland, Maine, 21 September 1947) is a writer American known for his novels of terror. King’s books have been very often on the bestseller lists. In 2003 he received the National Book Award for lifetime achievement and contribution to American letters, which was issued by the National Book Foundation.
King, has also written works that do not correspond to horror, including Different Seasons, the corridor of death, the eyes of the Dragon, hearts in Atlantis novels and self-proclaimed “magnum opus”, The Dark Tower. During a period used pseudonyms Richard Bachman and John Swithen.
Biography
Early years
Stephen King was born in Portland, Maine), the second son of Donald King and Nellie Ruth Pillsbury. When King was two years old, his father left the family. His mother raised him along with his older brother David on his own, sometimes under major financial problems. After living in Fort Wayne (Indiana) and Stratford, Connecticut), the family moved to Durham, hometown of Ruth King attended Durham Elementary School and then at Lisbon Falls High School
As a child, King witnessed a terrible accident – one of his friends became trapped in a few Rails and was hit by a train. Although this fact may have inspired the dark creations of King, the same writer discarded the idea.
King began to write from an early age, on the basis of recently viewed movies and cartoons. While in school, he started selling stories to his companions, which were copied with the same machine that his brother used to publish the newspaper called Dave’s Rag. However, the activity was not well viewed by his teachers, who forced him to return the money earned. At the age of thirteen, he discovered in his aunt’s House an old box with his father, the majority of horror and science fiction books. Since they began to submit jobs to various journals, without receiving a positive response. His first published story was included in the magazine Comics Review of Mike Garrett in 1965. The original title was I Was a Teenage Grave Robber, but was changed by the Publisher In a Half-World of terror.
Between 1966 and 1971, King studied English at the University of Maine at Orono and wrote a column titled “King’s Garbage Truck” in the magazine. King met Tabitha Spruce in the University library and married in 1971. The writer took part-time jobs to pay her studies, even in a laundry. He used to write the stories The Mangler experience and damn road.
After finishing his university studies with a degree in art in English and get a certificate to teach in high school, King taught English at Hampden Academy (Hampden). During this period, he and his family lived in a trailer. Wrote short stories (mostly published in magazines for men) in order to meet the needs of your family. During this period King began having problems of alcoholism, he held a decade.
Career as a writer
During this period, he began writing a large number of novels. One of his early ideas was that of a young woman with psychic powers. However, felt discouraged, and threw it in the trash. Tabitha rescued work and encouraged him to finish it. After King finished the novel, titled it Carrie and ordered the Doubleday publishing company, passing the time forgot it. Later, he received an offer to purchase for $2,500 of advancement (not a great advancement for a novel, even at that time). Shortly thereafter, Carrie value with the rights of the manuscript sold for $400,000 (200,000 of whom received the editor). After the launch, his mother died of uterine cancer, but was able to read the novel before you die.
After the publication of The Tommyknockers, family and friends of King decided to assist with their vices, showed him his own garbage to give account of addiction had reached level: cans of beer, cigarettes, cocaine, xanax, valium, nyquil, were some of the things that had. Sought help and abandoned all forms of alcohol and drugs in the late 1980s.
The characters in the books of King have evolved over the years:
His early work (Carrie, the shining, dance of death), showed the working-class families who must fight against financial problems.
At the end of the 1980s, his works presented as teachers or authors middle class people.
At the end of the 1990s, the characters were pilots of aircraft, writers or any other similar work.
Automobile accident
In the summer of 1999, King was working in the essay entitled On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft (” as I write”). In that period had ended the memories section and had abandoned the book for eighteen months, due to the uncertainty on how to proceed or if you would bother to third parties. King tells that it was the first book that he had to leave since he wrote The Stand decades ago. Having taken the decision to continue with the book, 17 June, wrote a list of questions that he frequently had been on her way of writing, while others who would have liked that he had made; on June 18, wrote four pages in the aforementioned section.
On June 19, at 4: 30 pm approximately, King walked by the right shoulder of route 5 North Novell. Driver’s Bryan Smith, distracted by an uncontrolled rottweiler who moved in the rear of your car brand 1985 Dodge Caravan, struck King, who landed in a ditch of about 4 meters depth from the pavement road of route 5.
The Assistant Sheriff of the County of Oxford, Matt Baker, recorded the witnesses said driver was not driving with overspeed or recklessness. Baker also reported that King was hit from behind. The official website of Stephen King mentions that this is not correct that King was walking towards traffic.
King was aware enough to give her family phone numbers Assistant Commissioner to be able to contact them, although it was suffering considerable pain. Writer was taken first to the Northern Cumberland Hospital, to be then transferred from there by helicopter to the Central Hospital of Maine. His wounds – the right lung collapsed, multiple fractures in the right leg, laceration of the scalp and fractured hip – kept him at the Medical Center until July 9, nearly three weeks interned.
That same year King ended most Buick 8: A perverse car (in English From a Buick 8), novel in which one of the protagonists dies in a car accident. The shocking similarities with their own accident, King says that attempted to “give too much importance to the event”. Misery, novel in 1987, is also about a writer that is experiencing very seriously injured in a car accident, but the novel focuses on the mental illness of a devout follower that attends to the writer. Also in the series for TV Kingdom Hospital, a painter suffers exactly equal to the actual accident.
After five operations in 10 days and physical therapy, King in July resumed work where had left it On Writing, novel although resented yet of his hip and only could sit about forty minutes before pain became intolerable. Your physical condition has improved since then.
King’s counsel, and two others bought the van Smith for $ 1,500 to prevent that it was auctioned on eBay Internet. King uses the story of the accident within the seventh installment of The Dark Tower (The Dark Tower).
Recent years
In 1996, King won the o. Henry Award for his story “The Man in the Black Suit”. In 2003, King was honored with the prize for the National Book Awards, trajectory which caused an uproar among the literary community at the election of the writer, especially on the part of the literary critic Harold Bloom.
Stephen King wrote six books under the pen name Richard Bachman. King made a fake funeral for Bachman once the secret was made public, which inspired the book The Dark Half. King wrote a short story under the name John Swithen, The Fifth Quarter, which was re-publicada in 1993 under the name of Stephen King.
In 2002, King announced that it would write, motivated apparently by the frustration of his injuries, which incomodaban it and reduced its energy. Since then he has written some books, but at a rate less than before.
Since 2003, King gave his view on popular culture in a column of the back page of the magazine Entertainment Weekly, usually every three weeks. The column is titled “The Pop Of King”, a reference to “The King of pop” (“the King of pop” in English), Michael Jackson.
In October 2005, King signed a contract with Marvel Comics; It would be his first official draft in this world, since it participated in a comic book to benefit for the famine in Africa in the 1980s. The idea would be to expand The Dark Tower series. The series will be illustrated by Jae Lee, the Eisner Award-winning artist. Marvel announced the project will be delayed until 2007 that King would have the time and dedication.
In January 2006, King appeared in the first installment of Amazon Fishbowl, presented by Bill Maher.
Personal life
House of Stephen King in Bangor.
Stephen King lives in Bangor (Maine) with his wife Tabitha King, who is also a novelist. They have another house in Western Maine Lakes District. King passes winter mansion overlooking the sea in Sarasota (Florida). Recently built another house in Connecticut. His three sons Naomi Rachel, Joe Hill and Owen Phillip, reached the age of majority and live on their own. Owen in 2005 published his first collection of stories titled We’re All in This Together: A Novella and Stories, and Joe Hill is author of 20th Century Ghosts, a series of Tales (very winning) and a novel called the costume of the dead (which have been sold to Warner Bros. movie rights).
Style
In the book, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft, King describes his style of writing great length and depth. Believes that it is better to create a small “seed” and let the story grows and unfold from there for good stories. Generally begins their stories without knowing as they will end.
He is known for its quality of details, continuity, and internal; references many of his stories are linked by secondary characters, fictitious people or events of past books.
His books contain references to the history and culture of the United States, particularly in the dark and terrifying part of this. References are embodied in stories of the characters, which explains their fears. Some references include crime, wars (especially Viet Nam war), and racism.
King uses a fairly informal narrative style referring to his fans as “constant readers” or “friends and neighbors”. This style contrasts with the dark themes of his stories.
Stephen King has a simple formula in order to write well: “Lee four hours a day and write four hours a day.” “If you can’t find the time to do not you become a good writer.”
Vision of the world

King horror novels are constructed on the basis of a consistent vision of the world, described more clearly in Insomnia and the Dark Tower. This overview describes the existence metaphorically as a Dark Tower, located in a landscape of red flowers. In this tower, there are several levels, with entities in each. Some are hostile, other benevolent. Many of his novels take place in this universe, and some characters relate to other stories facts.
This concept is based on the thought of H. p. Lovecraft and its myths.
Other writers

King is a great admirer of the writer H. p. Lovecraft and has incorporated several of his techniques (such as the connection between stories of his books, the use of newspaper clippings, trial transcripts, other materials, documentation, and the use of fictitious “Castle Rock” and “Derry” peoples) in his novels but differs from it by its extensive characterization, effective dialogue, and stories with positive end, all of these non-existent in Lovecraft’s stories.
Also declared an admirer of the series of books Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling, who, as mentioned on several occasions, considered being a great writer.
Edgar Allan Poe, one of the fathers of contemporary horror has had a great influence on the stories of King. A good example is the shining. Extracted thereof, text “And Red death dominated over all the others,” (in English “And the red death held sway over all,”) resembles the original, “and the darkness and the decline and Red death kept an unlimited domain on the other” (English “And Darkness and Decay and the Red Death held dominion over all, illimitable”) content in the work of Poe’s the Masque of the Red death. King’s novel is analogous to the small story by Poe quite accurately. Two writers share the use of the Doppelgänger, although the subject is present in the most works of terror and cannot be specified for a single author. Moreover, the argument of the short story entitled “Dolan cadillac” (in English Dolan’s Cadillac) is almost identical to Poe’s novel called “The cask of Amontillado” (in English The Cask of Amontillado) compared, even the famous Fortunato, plea “for the love of God, Montresor!” to paraphrase (English “for the love of God, Montresor!”).
King stated his admiration for other less prolific author: Shirley Jackson. Salem’s lot novel begins with a quote from the book The Haunting of Hill House Jackson. Tony, an imaginary friend of the shining has some relationship with another imaginary friend, also called Tony Jackson Hangsaman book. There are some other similarities between the characters Carrie Carrie and The Haunting of Hill House Eleanor. King stated that Carrie is based on two victims of abuse in the school met. A crucial scene of Storm of the Century is based on the book by Jackson entitled The Lottery.
And finally, another of his influences was John D. MacDonald. King has been a big fan of MacDonald in his life, and the debt owed to the old writer seems clear. In the same way that King is a master of the horror genre, MacDonald is quite popular in the genus Petrocelli. King learned much from the art of penetrating into the mind of the characters used by MacDonald. The way that both writers describes characters, although in different style, are quite similar. King and MacDonald demonstrate dedication in her work, practicing several hours daily. King dedicated the novel Sun Dog Macdonald, saying “You strange old friend.”

Due to its great popularity, King is often compared to Dean Koontz, and some fans want to read a book written between the two. Both writers declared impossible project, the main reason is the King having characters with a miserable life habit, and Koontz has the story end happy for most of his books. King has written two novels collaborating with Peter Straub, The Talisman and Black House. King commented that they had plans to write the third and final installment, but has not proposed any date.
King wrote also the non-fictional novel Faithful with Stewart O’Nan novelist.
Curiosities
Stephen King played guitar in the band Rock Bottom Remainders but hasn’t played for years. Members include: Dave Barry, Ridley Pearson, Scott Turow, Amy Tan, James McBride, Mitch Albom, Roy Blount Jr., Matt Groening, Kathi Kamen Goldmark and Greg Iles. None of them says have musical talent. Eric Alterman recounts an informal meeting of the band with Bruce Springsteen book Bruce Springsteen, born to rock (2004).
King is a fan of AC/DC rock band. He even made the soundtrack for his film Maximum Overdrive.
King is also a fan of punk rock band The Ramones, which was soundtrack movie Pet Sematary and was eventually to the group that composed a song for the film, this is Pet Sematary.
King is also a fan of the television series Lost.
In many of the films based on works you can see not accredited secondary roles (cameos).
In 1997 Mick Garris directed a new version of the shining for television (later released on DVD). King was not happy with the first adaptation of his novel, directed by Stanley Kubrick, starring Jack Nicholson in

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