Biography of the King of Horror: Stephen King

Abstract

Stephen King, also known as “The King of Horror”, is a famous American author that impacts the world today. His books that have been changed into movies and his books themselves are entertaining to a large portion of the American population. He was born September 21, 1947 in Portland, Maine. He struggled as a young child and went through some difficult times, but that only seemed to inspire him to write more. When he was little he read horror novels and went into high school with a drive for writing. He was an English major in college and he wrote in all of his free time.

The novel ‘Carrie’ was finally published in 1974. It told the story of a teenage girl who uses her powers to take revenge on the people who had humiliated her. The novel was a hit, and basically was the main push behind his career to get everything started. He continued to write and develop and impress his different audiences. He is now recognized as one of the greatest writers in the world, and has received many achievements in his career. King lives in Maine and continues to write and entertain today.

Biography of Stephen King

In 1973, King sold his first novel, Carrie, the tale of a Carrie White, teenager that gets revenge on her peers after she faces struggled between her taunting classmates and her religious mother. The book became very popular after being published the following year. The popularity of this book is what was the main push that made King able to write full time. Carrie became a movie, which basically just made his name even more popular.
More famous novels came shortly after, including Salem's Lot (1975), The Shining (1977), Firestarter (1980), Cujo (1981) and IT (1986). Although everybody knows him as Stephen King, he has used an alias before. He thought that people wouldn’t accept him writing multiple books within a year. Four early novels were all written by Richard Bachman, Rage (1977), The Long Walk (1979), Roadwork (1981) and The Running Man (1982). A large number of King’s novels were turned into movies. There were movies like Firestarter and Cujo that were both sent to theaters in 1983-84. A popular movie was The Shining, it is a major horror thriller that a lot of people still enjoy watching today. To start from the beginning, Stephen King was born on September 21, 1947, in Portland, Maine. It is obvious that King is commonly recognized for writing books in the horror genre.

This may have been his genre of choice because he had a very difficult childhood and early life. His parents divorced while King was very young. With that said, he wasn’t completely alone. He still had his brother David, together they struggled as they had to travel back and forth a lot. King graduated from Lisbon Falls High School in 1966 after he moved to Maine to live with his mother. When he decided to go to college, he didn’t choose to travel far away. He stayed in Orono and went to the University of Maine. King started becoming more and more interested in writing. While at Maine, King wrote for the newspaper, and shortly after, his own story was published.

After graduation, King struggled to find a job. He was trying for some sort of a teaching job, considering his degree was in English. When there was not anything available, he chose to work at a laundry and wrote from time to time. He worked as an English teacher at Hampden Academy. For a large part of his writing career, King wrote novels and stories at a fast pace, publishing several books per year. His powerful and intense stories are still being turned into movies or used as ideas for new films today. Actress Kathy Bates won an Oscar for her performance as the psychotic Annie Wilkes in the 1990 movie Misery. A couple years later, The Shawshank Redemption, became another movie that earned many Oscar nominations. King's 1978 novel The Stand became a 1994 miniseries with Molly Ringwald and Gary Sinise in the lead, while the mid-'90s serialized outing The Green Mile was turned into a 1999 prison-based film starring Tom Hanks and Michael Clarke Duncan. King continues to create and be involved in provocative projects. He has worked directly in television, writing for series like Kingdom Hospital and Under the Dome.

Today, King is viewed as one of the greatest authors in the world. He has received a large number of awards. Bram Stoker Awards, World Fantasy Awards, British Fantasy Society Awards, National Medal of Arts, Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters and the O. Henry Award. In addition to these, he received awards for his overall contribution to literature. King received the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement, the Canadian Booksellers Association Lifetime Achievement Award, and the Grand Master Award from the Mystery Writers of America. King sometimes works directly with television and movies now. King has found ways to contribute to entertaining audiences outside of the world of books.

Besides writing, King has a family to be concerned about. He has three kids and a wife that support him daily. Also, King is a music fan. He even sometimes plays guitar and sings in a band called Rock Bottom Remainders with other authors like Dave Barry, Barbara Kingsolver and Amy Tan. The group has performed a number of times over the years to raise money for charity. He struggles with depression, but it only seems to be a source for his writing. King’s struggles and feelings inspired him to become an outstanding American author that people appreciate daily.