Stephen Edwin King was born on September 21,1947 and is an American author of horror, supernatural fiction, suspense, crime, science-fiction, and fantasy novels.
100 Facts About Stephen King
2.
Stephen King has published 64 novels, including seven under the pen name Richard Bachman, and five non-fiction books.
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Stephen King has written approximately 200 short stories, most of which have been published in book collections.
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Stephen King has received Bram Stoker Awards, World Fantasy Awards, and British Fantasy Society Awards.
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Stephen King has received awards for his contribution to literature for his entire bibliography, such as the 2004 World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement and the 2007 Grand Master Award from the Mystery Writers of America.
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Stephen King was born in Portland, Maine, on September 21,1947.
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Stephen King's father, Donald Edwin King, a traveling vacuum salesman after returning from World War II, was born in Indiana with the surname Pollock, changing it to King as an adult.
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Stephen King's parents were married in Scarborough, Maine on July 23,1939.
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Stephen King's parents returned to Maine towards the end of World War II, living in a modest house in Scarborough.
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Stephen King's mother raised him and his older brother David by herself, sometimes under great financial strain.
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When Stephen King was 11, his family moved to Durham, Maine, where his mother cared for her parents until their deaths.
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Stephen King then became a caregiver in a local residential facility for the mentally challenged.
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Stephen King was raised Methodist, but lost his belief in organized religion while in high school.
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Stephen King's family told him that after leaving home to play with the boy, King returned speechless and seemingly in shock.
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Stephen King attended Durham Elementary School and graduated from Lisbon High School in Lisbon Falls, Maine, in 1966.
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Stephen King began writing for fun while in school, contributing articles to Dave's Rag, the newspaper his brother published with a mimeograph machine, and later began selling stories to his friends based on movies he had seen.
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In high school, Stephen King worked as a sports reporter for Lisbon's Weekly Enterprise.
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Stephen King held a variety of jobs to pay for his studies, working as a janitor, a gas-station attendant, and an industrial laundry worker.
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Stephen King met Tabitha Spruce at the university's Raymond H Fogler Library after one of Professor Hatlen's workshops.
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Stephen King graduated in 1970 with a Bachelor of Arts in English.
21.
Stephen King sold his first professional short story, "The Glass Floor", to Startling Mystery Stories in 1967.
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However, a check then arrived for "The Raft", and Stephen King cashed it to pay the fine.
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In 1971, Stephen King was hired as a teacher at Hampden Academy in Hampden, Maine.
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Stephen King continued to contribute short stories to magazines and worked on ideas for novels.
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When Carrie was chosen for publication, Stephen King's phone was out of service.
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Stephen King's family returned to Auburn, Maine in 1975, where he completed The Stand, an apocalyptic novel about a pandemic and its aftermath.
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In 1981, Stephen King published Danse Macabre, an overview of the horror genre based on courses he taught at the University of Maine.
28.
Stephen King said, 'I know who you are, you are the horror writer.
29.
Later that year, he published Pet Sematary, a variation on the theme of "The Monkey's Paw" that Stephen King says he initially found too disturbing to publish.
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Stephen King wrote it in 1979, when his family was living near a highway that "used up a lot of animals" as a neighbor put it.
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Stephen King imagined a burial ground beyond it that could bring the dead back to life, albeit imperfectly.
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In 1985, Stephen King published Skeleton Crew, a book of short fiction including the novella The Mist.
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Stephen King wrote it for her, to give her something of his to read.
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In 2006, during a press conference in London, Stephen King declared that he had discovered another Bachman novel, titled Blaze.
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The Gunslinger was continued as an eight-book epic series called The Dark Tower, whose books Stephen King wrote and published infrequently over four decades.
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In 1991, Stephen King published Needful Things, his first book since achieving sobriety, billed as "The Last Castle Rock Story".
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In 1998, Stephen King published of Bag of Bones, his first book with Scribner.
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The present-day Stephen King has far more insight into the human condition than did his younger self, and better yet, all the skills required to share it with us.
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In 1999, Stephen King was hospitalized after being hit by a van.
40.
At first the public assumed that Stephen King had abandoned the project because sales were unsuccessful, but Stephen King later stated that he had simply run out of stories.
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Stephen King wrote the first draft of the 2001 novel Dreamcatcher with a notebook and a Waterman fountain pen, which he called "the world's finest word processor".
42.
Stephen King noted in the book's introduction that he does not use cell phones.
43.
In 2008, Stephen King published Duma Key, which won the Bram Stoker Award.
44.
Stephen King published the collection Just After Sunset, which featured 13 short pieces, including the novella N Starting July 28,2008, N was released as a serialized animated series to lead up to the release of Just After Sunset.
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In 2009, Stephen King published Ur, a novella written exclusively for the launch of the second-generation Amazon Kindle and available only on Amazon.
46.
Stephen King's novel Under the Dome was published on November 10 of that year; it is a reworking of an unfinished novel he tried writing twice in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and at 1,074 pages, it is the largest novel he has written since It.
47.
On February 16,2010, Stephen King announced on his Web site that his next book would be a collection of four previously unpublished novellas called Full Dark, No Stars.
48.
In 2013, Stephen King published Joyland, his second book for the Hard Case Crime imprint.
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Later, on June 20,2013, while doing a video chat with fans as part of promoting the upcoming Under the Dome TV series, Stephen King mentioned he was halfway through writing his next novel, Revival, which was released November 11,2014.
50.
Stephen King announced in June 2014 that Mr Mercedes is part of a trilogy; the second book, Finders Keepers, was released on June 2,2015.
51.
In 2020, Stephen King released If It Bleeds, a collection of four previously unpublished novellas.
52.
Stephen King has written two novels with horror novelist Peter Straub: The Talisman and a sequel, Black House.
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Stephen King has indicated that he and Straub would likely write the third and concluding book in this series, the tale of Jack Sawyer, but after Straub passed away in 2022 the future of the series is in doubt.
54.
Stephen King produced an artist's book with designer Barbara Kruger, My Pretty Pony, published in a limited edition of 250 by the Library Fellows of the Whitney Museum of American Art.
55.
The Diary of Ellen Rimbauer: My Life at Rose Red was a paperback tie-in for the Stephen King-penned miniseries Rose Red.
56.
In November 2020, Chizmar announced that he and Stephen King were writing a third installment in the series titled Gwendy's Final Task, this time as a full-length novel, to be released in February 2022.
57.
Stephen King collaborated with Michael Jackson to create Ghosts, a 40-minute musical video.
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In 2005, Stephen King featured with a small spoken word part during the cover version of Everlong in Bronson Arroyo's album Covering the Bases, at the time, Arroyo was a pitcher for the Boston Red Sox, of whom Stephen King is a longtime fan.
59.
In 2012, Stephen King collaborated with musician Shooter Jennings and his band Hierophant, providing the narration for their album, Black Ribbons.
60.
Stephen King played guitar for the rock band Rock Bottom Remainders, several of whose members are authors.
61.
Stephen King wrote a musical entitled Ghost Brothers of Darkland County with John Mellencamp.
62.
In 1985, Stephen King wrote his first work for the comic book medium, writing a few pages of the benefit X-Men comic book Heroes for Hope Starring the X-Men.
63.
Stephen King wrote the introduction to Batman No 400, an anniversary issue where he expressed his preference for the character over Superman.
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Stephen King wrote the background history of the very first American vampire, Skinner Sweet, in the first five-issues story arc.
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Stephen King often starts with a "what-if" scenario, such as what would happen if an alcoholic writer was stranded with his family in a haunted hotel, or if one could see the outcome of future events, or if one could travel in time to alter the course of history.
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Stephen King has called Richard Matheson "the author who influenced me most as a writer".
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Stephen King provided an appreciation for The Golden Argosy, a collection of short stories featuring Cather, Hemingway, Faulkner, Fitzgerald and others.
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Stephen King often uses authors as characters, such as Ben Mears in 'Salem's Lot, Jack Torrance in The Shining, adult Bill Denbrough in It, and Mike Noonan in Bag of Bones.
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Stephen King has extended this to breaking the fourth wall by including himself as a character in the three novels of The Dark Tower series released in 2003 and 2004.
70.
Mr Stephen King's new novel, The Dark Half, is a parable in chiller form of the popular writer's relation to his creative genius, the vampire within him, the part of him that only awakes to raise Cain when he writes.
71.
In 1996, Stephen King won an O Henry Award for his short story "The Man in the Black Suit".
72.
In 2003, Stephen King was honored by the National Book Awards with a lifetime achievement award, the Medal of Distinguished Contribution to American Letters.
73.
The decision to give the National Book Foundation's annual award for "distinguished contribution" to Stephen King is extraordinary, another low in the shocking process of dumbing down our cultural life.
74.
Stephen King has, after all, been responsible for the movies The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile, The Dead Zone, Misery, Apt Pupil, Christine, Hearts in Atlantis, Stand By Me and Carrie.
75.
The actual, non-allegorical, non-pithy truth: Stephen King saved my life strictly in the sense that after an especially humiliating junior high school afternoon, it was re-reading It that persuaded me not to run away and join the circus.
76.
Stephen King argued that such laws allow legislators to ignore the economic divide between the rich and poor and the easy availability of guns, which he believed were the actual causes of violence.
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Stephen King was quoted as calling conservative commentator Glenn Beck "Satan's mentally challenged younger brother".
78.
On March 8,2011, Stephen King spoke at a political rally in Sarasota aimed against Governor Rick Scott, voicing his opposition to the Tea Party movement.
79.
On January 25,2013, Stephen King published an essay titled "Guns" via Amazon.
80.
In June 2018, Stephen King called for the release of the Ukrainian filmmaker Oleg Sentsov, who was jailed in Russia.
81.
Warren eventually suspended her campaign, and Stephen King later endorsed Joe Biden's campaign in the 2020 general election.
82.
In 2022, during the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Stephen King expressed support for Ukraine.
83.
On his Twitter account, Stephen King posted a photo in an "I stand with Ukraine" t-shirt and later tweeted that he refuses to cooperate with Russian publishers.
84.
In July 2022, Stephen King appeared in a video call with the Russian pranksters Vovan and Lexus who played the role of Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
85.
Stephen King endorsed Shenna Bellows in the 2014 US Senate election for the seat held by Republican Susan Collins.
86.
Stephen King publicly criticized Paul LePage during LePage's tenure as Governor of Maine, referring to him as one of The Three Stooges.
87.
Stephen King was critical of LePage for incorrectly suggesting in a 2015 radio address that King avoided paying Maine income taxes by living out of state for part of the year.
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Stephen King said LePage was "full of the stuff that makes the grass grow green" and demanded that LePage "man up and apologize".
89.
The attention garnered by the LePage criticism led to efforts to encourage Stephen King to run for Governor of Maine in 2018.
90.
In February 2021, Stephen King's Foundation donated $6,500 to help children from the Farwell Elementary School in Lewiston, Maine, to publish two novels on which they had been working over the course of several prior years, before being stopped due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Maine.
91.
Joseph Hillstrom Stephen King, who writes as Joe Hill, published his first collection of short stories, 20th Century Ghosts, in 2005.
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Stephen King has a history of abusing alcohol and other drugs.
93.
Stephen King wrote of his struggles with addiction in On Writing.
94.
In 1990, Stephen King published an essay about his son Owen's Little League team in The New Yorker.
95.
Driver Bryan Edwin Smith, distracted by an unrestrained dog moving in the back of his minivan, struck Stephen King, who landed in a depression in the ground about 14 feet from the pavement of Route 5.
96.
Early reports at the time from Oxford County Sheriff deputy Matt Baker claimed Stephen King was hit from behind, and some witnesses said the driver was not speeding, reckless, or drinking.
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Stephen King pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of driving to endanger and was sentenced to six months in county jail and had his driving license suspended for a year.
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Shortly before the accident took place, a woman in a car, northbound, passed Stephen King first followed by a light blue Dodge van.
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Stephen King was conscious enough to give the deputy phone numbers to contact his family but was in considerable pain.
100.
Stephen King was transported to Northern Cumberland Hospital in Bridgton and then flown by air ambulance to Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston.