Stephen King: The King of Horror

I once read that Stephen King wrote his incredible novels in a small room, with a table and chair in the center. On the table sat a typewriter and a pile of papers for him to type his engaging words to scare the person who ends up reading his stories. I suspect that was probably true when he first started out writing and his tiny room is now a plush office with the typewriter being replaced by a computer. Stephen Edwin King is known as an author of contemporary horror, fantasy and science fiction and has sold over 350 million copies of his books. He is best known for his work in horror with many of his novels being adapted for movies, television and comic books. One of his most famous novels, “The Shining”, can usually be found on many people’s ‘top ten scariest movies of all time’ list. He has even written several books using the pen name, “Richard Bachman”.

Stephen King was born in Portland, Maine, and when he was just two years old, his father left using the, ‘I’m going out to buy a pack of cigarettes” line. His mother, Ruth, was left to raise King and his adopted older brother by herself, leaving them falling on hard times. Until he was eleven, the family moved many times ending up back at Durham, Maine, where they took up permanent residence. When he was young, King witnessed a friend of his being struck and killed by a train. When he returned home after playing with the boy, he appeared in shock and speechless. This confused his family until they found out about the boy’s death. King said that he had no memory of the incident but some believe that witnessing his friend’s death may have mentally inspired King’s dark side, but he doesn’t believe it. That may be true, but this event may have spawned the idea for his novel, “The Body”, which was about four young friends who take a journey to find the body of a kid, that was hit by a train, and was their age. Along the way they deal with each of their inter demons and form a strong bond. This novel was later adapted for the movie, “Stand by Me”, which is a favorite of mine. King’s non-fiction novel, “Danse Macabe”, details where King’s inspiration for horror came from. His Grandfather and a collection of short stories by H. P. Lovecraft which was his father’s, were part of what encouraged the dark, disturbing creations in King’s imagination.

King attended the University of Maine and graduated in 1970 with a Bachelor of Science in English. He wrote a column for the student newspaper called, “Steve King’s Garbage Truck”, and in 1967 sold his first short story, “The Glass Floor”. After leaving college, King got a teaching certificate but had trouble find work. He sold short stories to supplement his income while teaching. In 1971, King married a fellow student, Tabitha and got a teaching job at Hampden Academy. While working on novel ideas he continued to write short stories for several magazines and developed a drinking problem which has stayed with him for more than a decade.

In 1973, King’s idea for a girl with psychic abilities was disheartening to turn into a novel, so he threw his early draft in the trash. His wife retrieved the copies and ask him to finish it. In 1974, his novel, “Carrie” was released the same year his mother died. King’s drinking problem was becoming more serious causing him to slur his speech at his mother’s funeral. After he finished “Carrie”, while his Mother was in ill health, he moved his family to southern Maine and wrote a couple more novels, “Second Coming” and “Salem’s Lot”. After her death, King moved his family to Boulder, Colorado. While on a drive with his wife in Estes Park, they caught the glimpse of a magnificent hotel, The Stanley Hotel, which inspired the novel, “The Shining”. In 1975, King and his family moved to western Maine where he finished his fourth novel, “The Stand”, which was turned into a mini series for television. He taught a creative writing class at the University of Maine and has made Maine his permanent home. Even though King was enjoying success as a writer and teacher, his addictions were becoming a huge problem. Right after the release of his novel, “The Tommyknockers”, in 1987, King’s family and friends planned an intervention by displaying the evidence of his addiction. They took from his trash beer cans, cigarette butts, grams of cocaine, Xanax, Valium, NyQuil, dextromethorphan (cough medicine) and marijuana, giving King a reality check on how bad his addition was. On the encouragement of his loved ones, King sought help and has been clean and sober ever since.

On June 19, 1999, around 4:30 am, King was walking on the shoulder of Route 5 in Center Lovell, Maine, when he was struck by a minivan throwing him about 14 feet from the pavement, where he landed on the ground. The driver said that he was distracted by his dog moving in the back of the minivan and didn’t see King. Even though witnesses said that the driver, Bryan Smith, didn’t appear to be speeding or reckless, the Sheriff said that King was hit from behind. King disputes this and put on his website that he was walking while facing traffic. King was elusive enough to give the deputy his family’s phone numbers but appeared to be in excruciating pain. He suffered from a collapsed right lung, multiple fractures of his right leg, scalp laceration and a broken hip and was kept at the hospital for almost three weeks. After five operations in ten days, with physical therapy, a shattered hip causing him to only be able to sit for forty minutes at a time, King continued writing his novels. He wrote a fictional account of the accident in the last novel of his, “Dark Tower” series, along with an exact description of all his injuries. A couple of years later because of the punctured lung, King was stricken with pneumonia. In 2002, because of having problems sitting comfortably making him tired from the injuries of the accident, King declared that he would stop writing. He stated that he was writing much slower and his creative thoughts were not processing but would be willing to publish his writings if he came up with something really, really interesting. Lucky for us, King continued to write his extremely imaginative horror, suspenseful novels.

King’s keen eye for detail, fictional locations like the town of Castle Rock, and the use of secondary characters makes his novels extremely unique. The settings for his novels are mostly in Maine including, Dolores Claiborne, Hearts in Atlantis, The Shawshank Redemption, The Body, The Mist, and The Green Mile. He likes to reference American history and American culture in his novels as well. He will also use authors as a character in his novels like Paul Sheldon in “Misery" and Jack Torrance in “The Shining”.

In 2003, Steven King received The National Book Foundation’s Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. When King was asked why he loved to write, he responded by saying, “The answer to that is fairly simple, there was nothing else I was made to do. I was made to write stories and I love to write stories. That’s why I do it. I really can’t imagine doing anything else and I can’t imagine not doing what I do.”

I for one am very happy that Stephen King has followed the path of being a writer. Although I haven’t read his novels, I have enjoyed many of the movies that were adapted from his novels. Some of my all time favorite movies were written by Stephen King.

--Julie--