111 Facts About Stephen King

Stephen Edwin King was born on September 21,1947 and is an American author.

Stephen King has explored other genres, among them suspense, crime, science-fiction, fantasy, and mystery.

Stephen King has published under the pseudonym Richard Bachman and has co-written works with other authors, notably his friend Peter Straub and sons Joe Hill and Owen King.

Stephen King has written nonfiction, notably Danse Macabre and On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft.

Stephen King has won honors for his overall contributions to literature, including the 2003 Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, the 2007 Grand Master Award from the Mystery Writers of America and the 2014 National Medal of Arts.

Stephen King was born in Portland, Maine, on September 21,1947.

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.

Stephen King's parents were married in Scarborough, Maine, on July 23,1939.

Stephen King's parents returned to Maine towards the end of World War II, living in a modest house in Scarborough.

Stephen King's mother raised him and his older brother David by herself, sometimes under great financial strain.

When Stephen King was 11, his family moved to Durham, Maine, where his mother cared for her parents until their deaths.

Stephen King contributed to Dave's Rag, the newspaper his brother printed with a mimeograph machine, and later sold stories to his friends.

Stephen King's first independently published story was "I Was a Teenage Grave Robber", serialized over four issues of the fanzine Comics Review in 1965.

Stephen King was a sports reporter for Lisbon's Weekly Enterprise.

In 1966, Stephen King entered the University of Maine at Orono on a scholarship.

Stephen King participated in a writing workshop organized by Hatlen, where he fell in love with Tabitha Spruce.

Stephen King graduated in 1970 with a Bachelor of Arts in English, and his daughter Naomi Rachel was born that year.

Stephen King sold his first professional short story, "The Glass Floor", to Startling Mystery Stories in 1967.

In 1971, Stephen King was hired as an English teacher at Hampden Academy in Hampden, Maine.

Stephen King continued to contribute short stories to magazines and worked on ideas for novels, including the anti-war novel Sword in the Darkness, still unpublished.

Stephen King is a schoolteacher himself, and he gets into Carrie's mind as well as into the minds of her classmates.

Stephen King was teaching Dracula to high school students and wondered what would happen if Old World vampires came to a small New England town.

Stephen King's mother died from uterine cancer around the time 'Salem's Lot was published.

Stephen King paid a visit to the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park which provided the basis for The Shining, about an alcoholic writer and his family taking care of a hotel for the winter.

Stephen King's family returned to Auburn, Maine in 1975, where he completed The Stand, an apocalyptic novel about a pandemic and its aftermath.

Stephen King recalls that it was the novel that took him the longest to write, and that it was " the one my longtime readers still seem to like the best".

In 1982, Stephen King published Different Seasons, a collection of four novellas with a more serious dramatic bent than the horror fiction for which he had become famous.

Stephen King struggled with addiction throughout the decade and often wrote under the influence of cocaine and alcohol; he says he "barely remembers writing" Cujo.

Stephen King imagined a burial ground beyond it that could raise the dead, albeit imperfectly.

Stephen King initially found it too disturbing to publish, but resurrected it to fulfill his contract with Doubleday.

In 1985, Stephen King published Skeleton Crew, a book of short fiction including "The Reach" and The Mist.

Stephen King published The Eyes of the Dragon, a high fantasy novel which he originally wrote for his daughter.

Stephen King published Misery, about a popular writer who is injured in a car wreck and held captive by Annie Wilkes, his self-described "number-one fan".

In 1990, Stephen King published Four Past Midnight, a collection of four novellas with the common theme of time.

Stephen King said he based the character of Claiborne on his mother.

In 1996, Stephen King published The Green Mile, the story of a death row inmate, as a serial novel in six parts.

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.

Later that year, Stephen King was hospitalized after being hit by a van.

In 2000, Stephen King published On Writing, a mix of memoir and style manual which The Wall Street Journal called "a one-of-a-kind classic".

In 2002, Stephen King published From a Buick 8, a return to the territory of Christine.

In 2008, Stephen King published Duma Key, his first novel set in Florida, and the collection Just After Sunset.

In 2010, Stephen King published Full Dark, No Stars, a collection of four novellas with the common theme of retribution.

Stephen King returned to horror with Revival, which he called "a nasty, dark piece of work".

Stephen King announced in June 2014 that Mr Mercedes was part of a trilogy; the sequel, Finders Keepers, was published in 2015.

In 2020, Stephen King released If It Bleeds, a collection of four novellas.

Stephen King announced an upcoming novel named Never Flinch on November 18,2024.

Stephen King took on his own reality, that's all, and when his cover was blown, he died.

In 2006, Stephen King announced that he had discovered another Bachman novel, Blaze, which was published the following year.

Stephen King co-wrote two novels with Peter Straub, The Talisman and Black House.

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.

Castle Rock Entertainment would produce other Stephen King adaptations, including Reiner's Misery and Frank Darabont's The Shawshank Redemption.

In 1986, Stephen King made his directorial debut with Maximum Overdrive, an adaptation of his story "Trucks".

Stephen King wrote the miniseries Rose Red ; The Diary of Ellen Rimbauer: My Life at Rose Red was written by Ridley Pearson and published anonymously as a tie-in for the series.

Stephen King developed Kingdom Hospital, based on Lars von Trier's The Kingdom.

Stephen King collaborated with Stan Winston and Mick Garris on the music video Michael Jackson's Ghosts.

Stephen King co-wrote the musical Ghost Brothers of Darkland County with T Bone Burnett and John Mellencamp.

In 1985, Stephen King wrote a few pages of the benefit X-Men comic book Heroes for Hope Starring the X-Men.

Stephen King wrote the introduction to Batman No 400, an anniversary issue where he expressed his preference for the character over Superman.

Stephen King wrote the backstory of the first American vampire, Skinner Sweet, in the first five-issues story arc.

Stephen King often starts with a "what-if" scenario, asking 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.

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.

Stephen King has extended this to breaking the fourth wall by including himself as a character in three novels of The Dark Tower.

Stephen King takes our daily lives and makes them into something heroic.

Stephen King takes our world, validates our distrust of it and then helps us to see that there's a chance to transcend the muck.

Stephen King tells us that even if we fail in our struggles, we are still worthy enough to pass on our energies in the survival of humanity.

Stephen King has called Richard Matheson "the author who influenced me most".

Stephen King often pays homage to classic horror stories by retelling them in a modern context.

Stephen King has been praised for his use of realistic detail.

Stephen King has often remarked that 'Salem's Lot was Peyton Place meets Dracula.

Many critics argue that Stephen King has matured as a writer.

In 2003, Stephen King was honored by the National Book Awards with a lifetime achievement award, the Medal of Distinguished Contribution to American Letters.

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.

Stephen King writes sentences, and he has a literary focus, and his writing is filled with literary history.

Stephen King has a deadly ear for the way people speak.

Surface-wise, Stephen King's work is a bit televisual, but there's really a lot going on.

Stephen King was raised Methodist, but lost his belief in organized religion while in high school.

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.

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.

On January 25,2013, Stephen King published an essay titled Guns via Amazon.

In 2016, Stephen King was one of many writers who signed a letter condemning the candidacy of Donald Trump.

Steve Stephen King, deeming him a racist and saying he was tired of being confused with him.

In June 2018, Stephen King called for the release of the Ukrainian filmmaker Oleg Sentsov, who was jailed in Russia.

Warren eventually suspended her campaign, and Stephen King later endorsed Joe Biden's campaign in the 2020 general election.

In 2022, during the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Stephen King expressed support for Ukraine.

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.

In July 2022, Stephen King appeared in a video call with the Russian pranksters Vovan and Lexus who played the role of Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Stephen King endorsed Shenna Bellows in the 2014 US Senate election for the seat held by Republican Susan Collins.

Stephen King publicly criticized Paul LePage during LePage's tenure as Governor of Maine, referring to him as one of The Three Stooges.

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.

Stephen King said LePage was "full of the stuff that makes the grass grow green" and demanded that LePage "man up and apologize".

The attention garnered by the LePage criticism led to efforts to encourage Stephen King to run for Governor of Maine in 2018.

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.

Stephen King has been supportive of him throughout his career, even rescuing his early manuscript of Carrie from the trash when he doubted himself.

Stephen King is a longtime fan of baseball, particularly the Boston Red Sox.

In 1990, Stephen King published an essay about Owen's Little League team in The New Yorker.

Stephen King played guitar for the Rock Bottom Remainders, a charity supergroup whose members included Amy Tan, Barbara Kingsolver, Dave Barry, Scott Turow, James McBride, Mitch Albom, Roy Blount, Jr.

In December 2024, Stephen King announced that the stations would shut down at the end of the year.

Stephen King cited his advancing age and financial losses from the stations as reasons for the closure.

Ahead of the planned closure, Stephen King reached a deal to sell WKIT to two Bangor businessmen; WZON and WZLO remain slated for closure.

Stephen King wrote the best single line I've ever read in a novel: Of a funeral he wrote, 'There were that day, o Lord, squadrons of birds.

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.

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.

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.

Shortly before the accident took place, a woman in a car, northbound, passed Stephen King first followed by a light blue Dodge van.

Stephen King was conscious enough to give the deputy phone numbers to contact his family but was in considerable pain.

Stephen King was transported to Northern Cumberland Hospital in Bridgton and then flown by air ambulance to Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston.

Stephen King's wife got in touch with his lawyer to purchase Smith's van, reportedly to prevent it from appearing on eBay.

Stephen King did Misery, Dreamcatcher and he did Hearts in Atlantis, and although he's not credited, he worked on Dolores Claiborne as well, so Bill and I go back a long way.

In 2012, Stephen King provided the narration for Shooter Jennings's album Black Ribbons.

Stephen King voiced himself in The Simpsons episode "Insane Clown Poppy", where he appears with fellow authors Amy Tan, John Updike and Tom Wolfe at a book fair.

Stephen King tells Marge he is taking a break from horror to write a biography of Benjamin Franklin.