Stephen Edwin King (born September 21, 1947) is an American author of contemporary horror, suspense, science fiction, and fantasy. His books have sold more than 350 million copies,and many of them have been adapted into feature films, television movies and comic books.
King has published fifty-five novels, including seven under the pen name Richard Bachman, and six non-fiction books. He has written nearly two hundred short stories, most of which have been collected in book collections. Many of his stories are set in his home state of Maine.
Stephen King was born on September 21, 1947, in Portland, Maine. He graduated from the University of Maine and worked odd jobs while establishing himself as a writer. His first horror novel Carrie, was a huge success. He published his earlier work under the pseudonym Richard Bachman. Over the years, King became known for his frightening and critically-acclaimed titles. His books have sold more than 350 million copies worldwide and have been adapted into numerous successful films.
King stayed close to home for college, attending the University of Maine at Orono. There he wrote for the schools newspaper and served in its student government.
King published his first short story while in college, which appeared in Startling Mystery Stories. After graduating with a degree in English in 1970, he tried to find a position as a teacher, but he had no luck at first. King took a job in a laundry and continued to write stories in his spare time until late 1971, when he began working as an English teacher at Hampden Academy.
Stephen Kings Shawshanks Redemption Movie Adaptation
He was interested in horror books and stories and used to read EC’s horror comics.
King made his first actual published appearance in 1965 in the magazine Comics Review with his story "I Was a Teenage Grave Robber." The story ran about 6,000 words in length. In 1966 he graduated from high school and took a scholarship to attend the University of Maine.
Looking back on his high school days, King recalled that "my high school career was totally undistinguished. I was not at the top of my class, nor at the bottom." Later that summer King began working on a novel called "Getting It On", about some kids who take over a classroom and try unsuccessfully to ward off the National Guard. During his first year at college, King completed his first full-length novel, "The Long Walk." He submitted the novel to Bennett Cerf/Random House only to have it rejected. King took the rejection badly and filed the book away.
Stephen Kings The Dead Zone Movie Adaptation
In 1974 his novel called ‘Carrie’ and in 1975 ‘Salem’s Lot’ was published.
Writing on weekends and evenings whilst teaching in Maine, he was largely unsuccessful, until Carrie was published in 1973. His wife had fished it out of the garbage, where King had depressedly thrown it away. With the success of the novel, King became a full-time writer.
Kings mother died in 1974 after which King moved to Boulder, Colorado. This was where King wrote his novel ‘The Shining’. His fourth novel was ‘The Stand’ published in 1978.
Salemss Lot, and his masterpiece The Shining, followed, as did the mammoth apocalyptic work
In June 1999 King was severely injured in an accident, he was walking alongside a highway and was hit by a car, that left him in critical condition with injuries to his lung, broken ribs, a broken leg and a severely fractured hip. After three weeks of operations, he was released from the Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston.
The Mist by Stephen King
In the late 1970s, early 1980s, King published a handful of short novels—Rage (1977), The Long Walk (1979), Roadwork (1981), The Running Man (1982) and Thinner (1984)—under the pseudonym Richard Bachman. The idea behind this was to test whether he could replicate his success again and to allay his fears that his popularity was an accident. An alternate explanation was that publishing standards at the time allowed only a single book a year.He picked up the name from the hard rock band Bachman-Turner Overdrive, of which he is a fan.
A biography video on Stephen King
Several of Kings’s works have been made into successful films such as Carrie, Stand by Me, The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile, Misery, and, most famous of all, The Shining.
King now ranks as one of the most successful authors in the world. However, in his autobiography-come-manual on Writing in 2000, King admitted to severe alcoholism during the seventies, and a drug problem during the 1980s.
Writing Tips from Stephen king
Kings formula for learning to write well is: "Read and write four to six hours a day. If you cannot find the time for that, you cant expect to become a good writer." He sets out each day with a quota of 2000 words and will not stop writing until it is met. He also has a simple definition for talent in writing: "If you wrote something for which someone sent you a check, if you cashed the check and it didnt bounce, and if you then paid the light bill with the money, I consider you talented."
Shortly after his accident, King wrote the first draft of the book Dreamcatcher with a notebook and a Waterman fountain pen, which he called "the worlds finest word processor."
When asked why he writes, King responds: "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. Thats why I do it. I really cant imagine doing anything else and I cant imagine not doing what I do." He is also often asked why he writes such terrifying stories and he answers with another question: "Why do you assume I have a choice?" According to Jenna Blum, King usually begins the story creation process by imagining a "what if" scenario, such as what would happen if a writer is kidnapped by a sadistic nurse in Colorado.
King often uses authors as characters, or includes mention of fictional books in his stories, novellas and novels, such as Paul Sheldon who is the main character in Misery and Jack Torrance in The Shining.
Some of Stephen King Movies
A Good Marriage
Apt Pupil
Carrie
Cats Eye
Cell
Children of the Corn
Christine
Creepshow
Creepshow 2
Cujo
Dark Half,
The Dead Zone,
Graveyard Shift
Green Mile,
The Dolores Claiborne
Dreamcatcher
Firestarter
The Hearts in Atlantis
Mangler,
The Maximum Overdrive
Mercy
Misery
Mist,
The Shining,
The Silver Bullet
Sleepwalkers
Stand By Me
The Needful Things
Night Flier,
The Pet Sematary
Riding the Bullet
Running Man,
The Secret Window
Shawshank Redemption,
Tales from the Darkside: The Movie
Thinner
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