Stephen King

For other people with either the same or similar names, seeStephen King (disambiguation).

Not to be confused withSteve King.

Stephen Edwin King(born September 21, 1947) is an American author. Called the "King of Horror",he has also explored other genres, among themsuspense,crime,science-fiction,fantasyandmystery.He has also written approximately200 short stories,most of which have been published in collections.

Stephen King
King in 2007
Born	Stephen Edwin King (1947-09-21)September 21, 1947 Portland,Maine,U.S.
Pen name	Richard Bachman John Swithen Beryl Evans
Occupation	Author
Alma mater	University of Maine(BA)
Period	1967–present
Genre	Horror fantasy supernatural fiction drama gothic genre fiction dark fantasy post-apocalyptic fiction crime fiction suspense thriller
Spouse	Tabitha Spruce ​ (m.1971)​
Children	3, includingJoeandOwen
Signature
Website
stephenking.com

His debut,Carrie(1974), established him in horror.Different Seasons(1982), a collection of four novellas, was his first major departure from the genre. Among the films adapted from King's fiction areCarrie,Christine,The Shining,The Dead Zone,Stand by Me,Misery,Dolores Claiborne,The Shawshank Redemption,The Green MileandIt.He has published under the pseudonymRichard Bachmanand has co-written works with other authors, notably his friendPeter Strauband sonsJoe HillandOwen King.He has also written nonfiction, notablyOn Writing: A Memoir of the Craft.

Several of King's works have won theBram StokerandAugust DerlethAwards. He has also won awards for his overall contributions to literature, including the 2003Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters,the 2007 Grand Master Award from theMystery Writers of Americaand the 2014National Medal of Arts.Joyce Carol Oatescalled King "a brilliantly rooted, psychologically 'realistic' writer for whom the American scene has been a continuous source of inspiration, and American popular culture a vast cornucopia of possibilities."

Early life and education

King was born inPortland, Maine,on September 21, 1947. His father, Donald Edwin King, a traveling vacuum salesman after returning fromWorld War II,was born in Indiana with the surname Pollock, changing it to King as an adult.King's mother was Nellie Ruth King (née Pillsbury).His parents were married inScarborough, Maine,on July 23, 1939. They lived with Donald's family inChicagobefore moving toCroton-on-Hudson, New York.King's parents returned to Maine towards the end ofWorld War II,living in a modest house in Scarborough. He is ofScots-Irishdescent.

When King was two, his father left the family. His mother raised him and his older brother David by herself, sometimes under great financial strain. They moved from Scarborough and depended on relatives inChicago, Illinois;Croton-on-Hudson;West De Pere, Wisconsin;Fort Wayne, Indiana;Malden, Massachusetts;andStratford, Connecticut.When King was 11, his family moved toDurham, Maine,where his mother cared for her parents until their deaths. After that, she became a caregiver in a local residential facility for the mentally challenged.

King says he started writing when he was "about six or seven, just copying panels out of comic books and then making up my own stories... Film was also a major influence. I loved the movies from the start. So when I started to write, I had a tendency to write in images because that was all I knew at the time."King recalls showing his mother a story he copied out of a comic book. She responded: "I bet you could do better. Write one of your own." He recalls "an immense feeling ofpossibilityat the idea, as if I had been ushered into a vast building filed with closed doors and had been given the key to open any I liked. "King was a voracious reader in his youth: "I read everything fromNancy DrewtoPsycho.My favorite wasThe Shrinking Man,byRichard Matheson— I was 8 when I found that. "

King asked a bookmobile driver, "Do you have any stories about how kids really are?" She gave himLord of the Flies.It proved formative: "It was, so far as I can remember, the first book with hands—strong ones that reached out of the pages and seized me by the throat. It said to me, 'This is not just entertainment; it's life or death.'... To me,Lord of the Flieshas always represented what novels arefor,why they are indispensable. "He attended Durham Elementary School and enteredLisbon High SchoolinLisbon Falls, Maine,in 1962.He contributed toDave's Rag,the newspaper his brother printed with amimeograph machine,and later sold stories to his friends. His first independently published story was "I Was a Teenage Grave Robber",serialized over four issues of thefanzineComics Reviewin 1965. He was a sports reporter for Lisbon'sWeekly Enterprise.

In 1966, King entered theUniversity of Maine at Oronoon a scholarship. While there, he wrote for the student newspaper,The Maine Campus,and found mentors in the professors Edward Holmes andBurton Hatlen.King participated in a writing workshop organized by Hatlen, where he fell in love withTabitha Spruce.King graduated in 1970 with aBachelor of Artsin English, and his daughter Naomi Rachel was born that year. King and Spruce wed in 1971.King paid tribute to Hatlen: "Burt was the greatest English teacher I ever had. It was he who first showed me the way to the pool, which he called 'the language pool, the myth-pool, where we all go down to drink.' That was in 1968. I have trod the path that leads there often in the years since, and I can think of no better place to spend one's days; the water is still sweet, and the fish still swim."

Career

Beginnings

In 1971, King worked as a teacher atHampden Academy.

King sold his first professional short story, "The Glass Floor",toStartling Mystery Storiesin 1967.After graduating from the University of Maine, King earned a certificate to teach high school but was unable to find a teaching post immediately. He sold short stories to magazines likeCavalier.Many of these early stories were republished inNight Shift(1978). In 1971, King was hired as an English teacher atHampden AcademyinHampden, Maine.He continued to contribute short stories to magazines and worked on ideas for novels, including theanti-war novelSword in the Darkness,still unpublished.

1970s:CarrietoThe Dead Zone

Portrait from the first edition ofCarrie(1974)

Portrait from the first edition ofThe Shining(1977)

King recalls the origin of hisdebut novel,Carrie:"Two unrelated ideas, adolescent cruelty and telekinesis, came together." It began as a short story intended forCavalier;King tossed the first three pages in the trash but his wife,Tabitha,recovered them, saying she wanted to know what happened next. He followed her advice and expanded it into a novel.She told him: "You've got something here. I really think you do."PerThe Guardian,Carrie"is the story of Carrie White, a high-school student with latent—and then, as the novel progresses, developing—telekinetic powers. It's brutal in places, affecting in others (Carrie's relationship with her almost hysterically religious mother being a particularly damaged one), and gory in even more."The review ofCarrieinThe New York Timesnoted that "King does more than tell a story. He is a schoolteacher himself, and he gets into Carrie's mind as well as into the minds of her classmates."

King was teachingDraculato high school students and wondered what would happen if Old Worldvampirescame to a small New England town. This was the germ of'Salem's Lot,which King called "Peyton PlacemeetsDracula".King's mother died from uterine cancer around the time 'Salem's Lotwas published.After his mother's death, King and his family moved toBoulder, Colorado.He paid a visit to theStanley HotelinEstes Parkwhich provided the basis forThe Shining,about an alcoholic writer and his family taking care of a hotel for the winter.

King's family returned toAuburn, Mainein 1975, where he completedThe Stand,an apocalyptic novel about a pandemic and its aftermath. King recalls that it was the novel that took him the longest to write, and that it was "also the one my longtime readers still seem to like the best".In 1977, the Kings, with the addition ofOwen Philip,their third and youngest child, traveled briefly to England. They returned to Maine that fall, and King began teaching creative writing at theUniversity of Maine.The courses he taught on horror provided the basis for his first nonfiction book,Danse Macabre.In 1979, he publishedThe Dead Zone,about an ordinary man gifted withsecond sight.It was the first of his novels to take place inCastle Rock, Maine.King later reflected that withThe Dead Zone,"I really hit my stride."

1980s:Different SeasonstoThe Dark Half

In 1982, King publishedDifferent Seasons,a collection of four novellas with a more serious dramatic bent than the horror fiction for which he had become famous.Alan Cheuse wrote "Each of the first three novellas has its hypnotic moments, and the last one is a horrifying little gem."Three of the four novellas were adapted as films:The BodyasStand by Me(1986);Rita Hayworth and Shawshank RedemptionasThe Shawshank Redemption(1994);andApt Pupilas thefilm of the same name(1998).The fourth,The Breathing Method,won theBritish Fantasy Awardfor Best Short Fiction.King recalls "I got the best reviews in my life. And that was the first time that people thought, woah, this isn't really a horror thing."

King struggled with addiction throughout the decade and often wrote under the influence of cocaine and alcohol; he says he "barely remembers writing"Cujo.In 1983, he publishedChristine,"A love triangle involving 17-year-old misfit Arnie Cunningham, his new girlfriend and a haunted 1958Plymouth Fury."Later that year, he publishedPet Sematary,which he had written in the late 1970s, when his family was living near a highway that "used up a lot of animals" as a neighbor put it. His daughter's cat was killed, and they buried it in a pet cemetery built by the local children. King imagined a burial ground beyond it that could raise the dead, albeit imperfectly. He initially found it too disturbing to publish, but resurrected it to fulfill his contract withDoubleday.

In 1985, King publishedSkeleton Crew,a book of short fiction including "The Reach"andThe Mist.He recalls: "I would be asked, 'What happened in your childhood that makes you want to write those terrible things?' I couldn't think of any real answer to that. And I thought to myself, 'Why don't you write a final exam on horror, and put in all the monsters that everyone was afraid of as a kid? Put in Frankenstein, the werewolf, the vampire, the mummy, the giant creatures that ate up New York in the old B movies. Put 'em all in there."These influences coalesced intoIt,about a shapeshifting monster that takes the form of its victims' fears and haunts the town ofDerry, Maine.He said he thought he was done writing about monsters, and wanted to "bring on all the monsters one last time…and call it It."Itwon theAugust Derleth Awardin 1987.

1987 was an unusually productive year for King. He publishedThe Eyes of the Dragon,ahigh fantasynovel which he originally wrote for his daughter.He publishedMisery,about a popular writer who is injured in a car wreck and held captive by Annie Wilkes, his self-described "number-one fan".Miseryshared the inauguralBram Stoker AwardwithSwan SongbyRobert R. McCammon.King says the novel was influenced by his experiences with addiction: "Annie was my drug problem, and she was my number-one fan. God, she never wanted to leave."He publishedThe Tommyknockers,a science fiction novel filled, he says, with metaphors for addiction. After the book was published, King's wife staged an intervention, and he agreed to seek treatment for addiction.Two years later, he publishedThe Dark Half,about an author whose literary alter-ego takes on a life of his own.In the author's note, King writes that "I am indebted to the late Richard Bachman."

Pseudonyms

King published five short novels—Rage(1977),The Long Walk(1979),Roadwork(1981),The Running Man(1982) andThinner(1984)—under the pseudonymRichard Bachman.He explains: "I did that because back in the early days of my career there was a feeling in the publishing business that one book a year was all the public would accept...eventually the public got wise to this because you can change your name but you can't really disguise your style."Bachman's surname is derived from the bandBachman-Turner Overdriveand his first name is a nod to Richard Stark, the pseudonymDonald E. Westlakeused to publish his darker work.The Bachman books are grittier than King's usual fare; King called his alter-ego "Dark-toned, despairing...not a very nice guy." ALiterary Guildmember praisedThinneras "what Stephen King would write like if Stephen King could really write."

Bachman was exposed as King's pseudonym by Steve Brown, a Washington, D.C. bookstore clerk who noticed stylistic similarities between King and Bachman and located publisher's records at theLibrary of Congressthat named King as the author ofRage.King announced Bachman's death from "cancer of the pseudonym". King reflected that "Richard Bachman began his career not as a delusion but as a sheltered place where I could publish a few early books which I felt readers might like. Then he began to grow and come alive, as the creatures of a writer's imagination so frequently do... He took on his own reality, that's all, and when his cover was blown, he died."

In 1996, whenDesperationwas released, the companion novelThe Regulatorswas published as a "discovered manuscript" by Bachman. In 2006, King announced that he had discovered another Bachman novel,Blaze,which was published the following year. The original manuscript had been held at the University of Maine for many years and had been covered by numerous King experts. King rewrote the original 1973 manuscript for its publication.

King has used other pseudonyms. In 1972, the short story "The Fifth Quarter"was published under the name John Swithen (aCarriecharacter) inCavalier.Charlie the Choo-Choo: From the World of The Dark Towerwas published in 2016 under the pseudonym Beryl Evans and illustrated byNed Dameron.It is adapted from a fictional book central to the plot of King'sThe Dark Tower III: The Waste Lands.

The Dark Tower

Main article:The Dark Tower (series)

In the late 1970s, King began a series about a lone gunslinger, Roland, who pursues the "Man in Black" in an alternate universe that is a cross betweenJ. R. R. Tolkien'sMiddle-earthand the AmericanWild Westas depicted byClint EastwoodandSergio Leonein theirspaghetti Westerns.The first story,The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger,was initially published in five installments inThe Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fictionunder the editorship ofEdward L. Ferman,from 1977 to 1981. It grew into an eight-volume epic,The Dark Tower,published between 1978 and 2012.

1990s:Four Past MidnighttoHearts in Atlantis

In 1990, King publishedFour Past Midnight,a collection of four novellas with the common theme of time. In 1991, he publishedNeedful Things,his first novel since achieving sobriety, billed as "The Last Castle Rock Story".In 1992, he publishedGerald's GameandDolores Claiborne,two novels about women loosely linked by a solar eclipse.The latter novel is narrated by the title character in an unbroken monologue;Mark Singerdescribed it as "a morally riveting confession from the earthy mouth of a sixty-six-year-old Maine coastal-island native with a granite-hard life but not a grain of self-pity". King said he based the character of Claiborne on his mother.

In 1996, King publishedThe Green Mile,the story of a death row inmate, as aserialnovel in six parts. It had the distinction of holding the first, fourth, tenth, twelfth, fourteenth, and fifteenth positions on theNew York Timespaperback-best-seller list at the same time.In 1998, he published ofBag of Bones,his first book withScribner,about a recently widowed novelist. Several reviewers said that it showed King's maturation as a writer;Charles de Lintwrote "He hasn't forsaken the spookiness and scares that have made him a brand name, but he uses them more judiciously now... The present-day 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."Bag of Boneswon theBram StokerandAugust DerlethAwards.

In 1999, he publishedThe Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon,about a girl who gets lost in the woods and finds solace in listening to broadcasts ofBoston Red Soxgames, andHearts in Atlantis,a book of linked novellas and short stories about coming of age in the 1960s. Later that year, King was hospitalized after being hit by the driver of a van. Reflecting on the incident, he said "it occurs to me that I have nearly been killed by a character out of one of my own novels. It's almost funny." He said his nurses were "told in no uncertain terms, don't make anyMiseryjokes ".

2000s:On WritingtoUnder the Dome

Stephen King at theHarvard Book Store,June 6, 2005

In 2000, King publishedOn Writing,a mix of memoir and style manual whichThe Wall Street Journalcalled "a one-of-a-kind classic".Later that year he publishedRiding the Bullet,"the world's first mass e-book, with more than 500,000 downloads". Inspired by its success, he began publishing anepistolaryhorror novel,The Plant,in online installments using thepay what you wantmethod. He suggested readers pay $1 per installment, and said he'd only continue publishing if 75% of readers paid.WhenThe Plantfolded, the public assumed that King had abandoned the project because sales were unsuccessful, but King later said he had simply run out of stories.The unfinished novel is still available from King's official site, now free. King wrote the first draft ofDreamcatcher(2001) with a notebook and aWatermanfountain pen,which he called "the world's finest word processor".

In 2002, King publishedFrom a Buick 8,a return to the territory ofChristine.In 2005, he published the mysteryThe Colorado Kidfor theHard Case Crimeimprint.In 2006, he publishedCell,in which a mysterious signal broadcast over cell phones turns users into mindless killers. That same year, he publishedLisey's Story,about the widow of a novelist. He calls it his favorite of his novels, because "I've always felt that marriage creates its own secret world, and only in a long marriage can two people at least approach real knowledge about each other. I wanted to write about that, and felt that I actually got close to what I really wanted to say."In 2007, King served as guest editor for the annual anthologyThe Best American Short Stories.

In 2008, King publishedDuma Key,his first novel set in Florida,and the collectionJust After Sunset.In 2009, it was announced he would serve as a writer forFangoria.King's novelUnder the Domewas published later that year, and debuted at No. 1 onThe New York TimesBestseller List.Janet Maslinsaid of it, "Hard as this thing is to hoist, it's even harder to put down."

2010s:Full Dark, No StarstoThe Institute

In 2010, King publishedFull Dark, No Stars,a collection of four novellas with the common theme of retribution. In 2011, he published11/22/63,about a time portal leading to 1958, and an English teacher who travels through it to try to prevent theKennedy assassination.Errol Morriscalled it "one of the best time travel stories sinceH. G. Wells".In 2013, he publishedJoyland,his second book for Hard Case Crime.Later that year, he publishedDoctor Sleep,a sequel toThe Shining.

During his Chancellor's Speaker Series talk atUniversity of Massachusetts Lowellon December 7, 2012, King said that he was writing a crime novel about a retired policeman being taunted by a murderer, with the working titleMr. Mercedes.In an interview withParade,he confirmed that the novel was "more or less" completed.It was published in 2014 and won theEdgar Allan Poe Award for Best Novel.He returned to horror withRevival,which he called "a nasty, dark piece of work".King announced in June 2014 thatMr. Mercedeswas part of a trilogy; the sequel,Finders Keepers,was published in 2015.The third book of the trilogy,End of Watch,was released in 2016.In 2018, he releasedThe Outsider,which features the characterHolly Gibney,and the novellaElevation.In 2019, he releasedThe Institute.

2020s:If It Bleedsto present

In 2020, King releasedIf It Bleeds,a collection of four novellas. In 2021, he publishedLater,his third book for Hard Case Crime.In 2022, King released the novelFairy Tale.Holly,about Holly Gibney was released in September 2023.In November 2023, the short story collectionYou Like It Darker,featuring twelve stories (seven previously published and five unreleased) was announced for a May 2024 release.

Collaborations

Literature

King co-wrote two novels withPeter Straub,The Talisman(1984) andBlack House(2001).Straub recalls that "We tried to make it as difficult as possible for readers to identify who wrote what. Eventually, we were able to successfully imitate each other's style... Steve threw in more commas or clauses, and I kind of made things more simple in sentence structure. And I tried to make things as vivid as I could because Steve is just fabulous at that, and also I tried to write more colloquially." Straub said the only person who could correctly identify who wrote which passages was a fellow author,Neil Gaiman.

King and the photographer by f-stop Fitzgerald collaborated on thecoffee table bookNightmares in the Sky: Gargoyles and Grotesques(1988).He produced anartist's bookwith designerBarbara Kruger,My Pretty Pony(1989), published in a limited edition of 250 by the Library Fellows of theWhitney Museum of American Art.Alfred A. Knopfreleased it in a general trade edition.

King co-wroteThrottle(2009) with his sonJoe Hill.The novella is an homage toRichard Matheson's "Duel".Their second collaboration,In the Tall Grass(2012), was published in two parts inEsquire.King and his sonOwenco-wroteSleeping Beauties(2018), set in a West Virginia women's prison.King andRichard Chizmarco-wroteGwendy's Button Box(2017).A sequel,Gwendy's Magic Feather(2019), was a solo effort by Chizmar.In 2022, King and Chizmar rejoined forces forGwendy's Final Task.

Film and television

King made his screenwriting debut withGeorge A. Romero'sCreepshow(1982), a tribute toEC horror comics.In 1985, he wrote another horror anthology film,Cat's Eye.Rob Reiner,whose filmStand By Me(1986) is an adaptation of King's novellaThe Body,named his production companyCastle Rock Entertainmentafter King's fictional town.Castle Rock Entertainment would produce other King adaptations, including Reiner'sMisery(1990) andFrank Darabont'sThe Shawshank Redemption(1994).

In 1986, King made his directorial debut withMaximum Overdrive,an adaptation of his story "Trucks".He recalls:" I was coked out of my mind all through its production, and really didn't know what I was doing. "It was neither a critical nor a commercial success; King was nominated for aGolden Raspberryfor Worst Director, but lost toPrince,forUnder the Cherry Moon.

In 1999, King wrote the miniseriesStorm of the Century.He wrote the miniseriesRose Red(2002);The Diary of Ellen Rimbauer: My Life at Rose Red(2001) was written byRidley Pearsonand published anonymously as a tie-in for the series. He also developedKingdom Hospital(2004), based onLars von Trier'sThe Kingdom.

Music and theater

King collaborated withStan WinstonandMick Garrison the music videoMichael Jackson's Ghosts(1996).He co-wrote the musicalGhost Brothers of Darkland County(2012) withT. Bone BurnettandJohn Mellencamp.A soundtrack album was released, featuringTaj Mahal,Elvis CostelloandRosanne Cash,among others.

Comics

In 1985, King wrote a few pages of the benefitX-Mencomic bookHeroes for Hope Starring the X-Men.He wrote the introduction toBatmanNo. 400, an anniversary issue where he expressed his preference for the character overSuperman.In 2010,DC ComicspremieredAmerican Vampire,a comic book series co-written by King andScott Snyderand illustrated byRafael Albuquerque.King wrote the backstory of the first American vampire, Skinner Sweet, in the first five-issues story arc.

Style, themes and influences

Style

Stephen King in 2011

InOn Writing,King recalls:

When, during the course of an interview forThe New Yorker,I told the interviewer (Mark Singer) that I believed stories are found things, like fossils in the ground, he said that he didn't believe me. I replied that that was fine, as long as he believed thatIbelieve it. And I do. Stories aren't souvenir tee-shirts or GameBoys. Stories are relics, part of an undiscovered pre-existing world. The writer's job is to use the tools in his or her toolbox to get as much of each one out of the ground intact as possible. Sometimes the fossil you uncover is small, a seashell. Sometimes it's enormous, aTyrannosaurus Rexwith all those gigantic ribs and grinning teeth. Either way, short story or thousand-page whopper of a novel, the techniques of excavation remain basically the same.

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 (The Shining), or if one could see the outcome of future events (The Dead Zone), or if one could travel in time to alter the course of history (11/22/63).He writes that "The situation comes first. The characters—always flat and unfeatured, to begin with—come next. Once these things are fixed in my mind, I begin to narrate. I often have an idea of what the outcome may be, but I have never demanded a set of characters that they do things my way. On the contrary, I want them to do thingstheirway. In some instances, the outcome is what I visualized. In most, however, it's something I never expected. "

Joyce Carol Oatescalled King "both a storyteller and an inventor of startling images and metaphors, which linger long in the memory."An example of King's imagery is seen inThe Bodywhen the narrator recalls a childhood clubhouse with a tin roof and rusty screen door: "No matter what time of day you looked out that screen door, it looked like sunset... When it rained, being inside the club was like being inside a Jamaican steel drum."King writes that "The use of simile and other figurative language is one of the chief delights of fiction—reading it and writing it, as well. [...] By comparing two seemingly unrelated objects—a restaurant bar and a cave, a mirror and a mirage—we are sometimes able to see an old thing in a new and vivid way. Even if the result is mere clarity instead of beauty, I think writer and reader are participating together in a kind of miracle. Maybe that's drawing it a little strong, but yeah—it's what I believe."

Themes

When asked if fear was his main subject, King said "In every life you get to a point where you have to deal with something that's inexplicable to you, whether it's the doctor saying you have cancer or a prank phone call. So whether you talk about ghosts or vampires or Nazi war criminals living down the block, we're still talking about the same thing, which is an intrusion of the extraordinary into ordinary life and how we deal with it. What that shows about our character and our interactions with others and the society we live in interests me a lot more than monsters and vampires and ghouls and ghosts."

Joyce Carol Oates said that "Stephen King's characteristic subject is small-town American life, often set in fictitious Derry, Maine; tales of family life, marital life, the lives of children banded together by age, circumstance, and urgency, where parents prove oblivious or helpless. The human heart in conflict with itself—in the guise of the malevolent Other. The 'gothic' imagination magnifies the vicissitudes of 'real life' in order to bring it into a sharper and clearer focus. "King'sThe Bodyis aboutcoming of age,a theme he has returned to several times, for example inJoyland.

King often uses authors as characters, such as Ben Mears in'Salem's Lot,Jack Torrance inThe Shining,adultBill DenbroughinIt,and Mike Noonan inBag of Bones.He has extended this to breaking thefourth wallby including himself as a character in three novels ofThe Dark Tower.Among other things, this allows King to explore themes of authorship;George Stadewrites thatMisery"is a parable in chiller form of the popular writer's relation to his audience, which holds him prisoner and dictates what he writes, on pain of death" whileThe 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."

Introducing King at theNational Book Awards,Walter Mosleysaid "Stephen King once said that daily life is the frame that makes the picture. His commitment, as I see it, is to celebrate and empower the everyday man and woman as they buy aspirin and cope with cancer. He takes our daily lives and makes them into something heroic. He takes our world, validates our distrust of it and then helps us to see that there's a chance to transcend the muck. He 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." In his speech accepting the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, King said: "Frank Norris,the author ofMcTeague,said something like this: 'What should I care if they, i.e., the critics, single me out for sneers and laughter? I never truckled, I never lied. I told the truth.' And that's always been the bottom line for me. The story and the people in it may be make believe but I need to ask myself over and over if I've told the truth about the way real people would behave in a similar situation... We understand that fiction is a lie to begin with. To ignore the truth inside the lie is to sin against the craft, in general, and one's own work in particular. "

Influences

InOn Writing,King says "If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all: read a lot and write a lot."He emphasizes the importance of good description, which "begins with clear seeing and ends with clear writing, the kind of writing that employs fresh images and simple vocabulary. I began learning my lessons in this regard by readingChandler,Hammett,andRoss Macdonald;I gained perhaps even more respect for the power of compact, descriptive language from readingT. S. Eliot(those ragged claws scuttling across the ocean floor; those coffee spoons), andWilliam Carlos Williams(white chickens, red wheelbarrow, the plums that were in the ice box, so sweet and so cold). "

King has calledRichard Matheson"the author who influenced me most".Other influences includeRay Bradbury,Joseph Payne Brennan,James M. Cain,Jack Finney,Graham Greene,Elmore Leonard,John D. MacDonald,Don RobertsonandThomas Williams.He often pays homage to classic horror stories by retelling them in a modern context. He recalls that while writing'Salem's Lot,"I decided I wanted to try to use the book partially as a form of literary homage (asPeter Straubhad done inGhost Story,working in the tradition of such 'classical' ghost story writers asHenry James,M. R. James,andNathaniel Hawthorne.) So my novel bears an intentional similarity toBram Stoker'sDracula,and after a while it began to seem I was playing an interesting—to me, at least—game of literary racquet-ball:'Salem's Lotitself was the ball andDraculawas the wall I kept hitting it against, watching to see how and where it could bounce, so I could hit it again. As a matter of fact, it took some pretty interesting bounces, and I ascribe this mostly to the fact that, while my ball existed in the twentieth century, the wall was very much a product of the nineteenth. "Similarly, King'sRevivalis a modern riff onMary Shelley'sFrankenstein.King dedicated it to "the people who built my house": Shelley, Stoker,H. P. Lovecraft,Clark Ashton Smith,Donald Wandrei,Fritz Leiber,August Derleth,Shirley Jackson,Robert Bloch,Straub andArthur Machen,"whose short novelThe Great God Panhas haunted me all my life ".

InJ. Peder Zane'sThe Top Ten: Authors Pick Their Favorite Books,King choseThe Golden Argosy,Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,The Satanic Verses,McTeague,Lord of the Flies,Bleak House,Nineteen Eighty-Four,The Raj Quartet,Light in AugustandBlood Meridian.In 2022, he provided another list of ten favorite books;Lord of the Flies,Nineteen Eighty-FourandBlood Meridianremained, and he addedShip of Fools,The Orphan Master's Son,Invisible Man,Watership Down,The Hair of Harold Roux,American PastoralandThe Lord of the Rings.He added, "AlthoughAnthony Powell's novels should probably be on here, especially the sublimely titledCasanova's Chinese RestaurantandBooks Do Furnish a Room.AndPaul Scott's Raj Quartet. And at least six novels byPatricia Highsmith.And what aboutPatrick O'Brian?See how hard this is to do? "

Reception and influence

Critical reception

King has been praised for his use of realistic detail. InA Century of Great Suspense Stories,editorJeffery Deaverwrote that "While there were many good best-selling writers before him, King, more than anybody sinceJohn D. MacDonald,brought reality to genre novels. He has often remarked that'Salem's Lotwas 'Peyton PlacemeetsDracula.' And so it was. The rich characterization, the careful and caring social eye, the interplay of story line and character development announced that writers could take worn themes such as vampirism and make them fresh again. Before King, many popular writers found their efforts to make their books serious blue-penciled by their editors. 'Stuff like that gets in the way of the story,' they were told. Well, it's stuff like that that has made King so popular, and helped free the popular name from the shackles of simple genre writing. He is a master of masters. "

Daniel Mendelsohn,reviewingBag of Bones,wrote that "Stephen King is so widely accepted as America's master of paranormal terrors that you can forget his real genius is for the everyday... This is a book about reanimation: the ghosts', of course, but also Mike's, his desire to re-embrace love and work after a long bereavement that King depicts with an eye for the kind of small but moving details that don't typically distinguish blockbuster horror novels."

Many critics argue that King has matured as a writer. In his analysis of post–World War II horror fiction,The Modern Weird Tale(2001),S. T. Joshidevotes a chapter to King's work. Joshi argues that King's best-known works are his worst, describing them as mostly bloated, illogical, maudlin and prone todeus ex machinaendings. Despite these criticisms, Joshi argues that sinceGerald's Game(1992), King has been tempering the worst of his writing faults, producing books that are leaner, more believable and generally better written.

In 2003, King was honored by theNational Book Awardswith a lifetime achievement award, the Medal of Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. Some in the literary community expressed disapproval of the award:Richard E. Snyder,the former CEO ofSimon & Schuster,described King's work as "non-literature" and criticHarold Bloomdenounced the choice: "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 ofdumbing downour cultural life. I've described King in the past as a writer ofpenny dreadfuls,but perhaps even that is too kind. He shares nothing withEdgar Allan Poe.What he is is an immensely inadequate writer on a sentence-by-sentence, paragraph-by-paragraph, book-by-book basis. "

King acknowledged the controversy in his acceptance speech: "There are some people who have spoken out passionately about giving me this medal. There are some people who think it's an extraordinarily bad idea. There have been some people who have spoken out who think it's an extraordinarily good idea. You know who you are and where you stand and most of you who are here tonight are on my side. I'm glad for that. But I want to say it doesn't matter in a sense which side you were on. The people who speak out, speak out because they are passionate about the book, about the word, about the page and, in that sense, we're all brothers and sisters. Give yourself a hand."Shirley Hazzard,whose novelThe Great Firewas that year's National Book Award winner, responded by criticising King; she later said that she had never read him.

Roger Ebertwrote that "A lot people were outraged when he was honored at the National Book Awards, as if a popular writer couldn't be taken seriously. But after finding that his bookOn Writinghas more useful and observant things to say about the craft than any book sinceStrunkandWhite'sThe Elements of Style,I have gotten over my own snobbery. King has, after all, been responsible for the moviesThe Shawshank Redemption,The Green Mile,The Dead Zone,Misery,Apt Pupil,Christine,Hearts in Atlantis,Stand By MeandCarrie... And we must not be ungrateful forSilver Bullet,which I awarded three stars because it was 'either the worst movie made from a Stephen King story, or the funniest', and you know which side of that I'm gonna come down on. "

Appraisal by other authors

Cynthia Ozicksaid that, upon giving a reading with King, "It dawned on me as I listened to him that, never mind all the best sellers and all the stereotypes -- this man is a genuine, true-bornwriter,and that was a revelation. He is not Tom Clancy. He writes sentences, and he has a literary focus, and his writing is filled with literary history. It's not glib, it's not just contemporary chatter and it's not stupid -- that's a bad way to say that something's smart, but that's what I mean. "

Joyce Carol Oatespraised King'ssense of place:"His fiction is famously saturated with the atmosphere of Maine; much of his mostly vividly imagined work—Salem's Lot,Dolores Claiborne,the elegantly composed story 'The Reach', for instance—is a poetic evocation of that landscape, its history and its inhabitants. "Oates included the latter story in the second edition ofThe Oxford Book of American Short Stories.

Peter Straubcompared King favorably toCharles Dickens:"Both are novelists of vast popularity and enormous bibliographies, both are beloved writers with a pronounced taste for the morbid and grotesque, both display a deep interest in the underclass."Straub included King's short story "That Feeling, You Can Only Say What It Is in French"in theLibrary of AmericaanthologyAmerican Fantastic Tales.

David Foster WallaceassignedCarrieandThe Standwhile teaching atIllinois State University.Wallace praised King's ear for dialogue: "He's one of the first people to talk about real Americans and how they live, to capture real American dialogue in all its, like, foulmouthed grandeur... He has a deadly ear for the way people speak... Students come to me and a lot of them have been led to believe that there's good stuff and bad stuff, literary books and popular books, stuff that's redemptive and commercial shit—with a sharp line drawn between the two categories. It's good to show them that there's a certain amount of blurring. Surface-wise, King's work is a bit televisual, but there's really a lot going on."

Influence

In an interview,Sherman Alexierecalls the influence of "Stephen King, who was always writing about underdogs, and bullied kids, and kids fighting back against overwhelming, often supernatural forces... The world aligned against them. As an Indian boy growing up on a reservation, I always identified with his protagonists. Stephen King, fighting the monsters."

Lauren Groffsays that "I love Stephen King and I owe him more than I could ever express... I love his wild imagination and his vivid scenes, many of which populate my nightmares even decades after I last read the books they're in. But the greatest thing I gleaned most from reading Stephen King is his big-hearted glee, the way he treats writing with gratitude, the way he sees his job not as the source of anguish and pain many writers self-pityingly see it as, but rather as something he's over-the-moon delighted to be lucky enough to do. If I could steal one thing from King, and keep it close to my heart forever, it is his sense of almost-holy glee when it comes to writing."

The hero ofJunot Díaz'sThe Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Waodreams of being "the Dominican Stephen King", and Díaz alludes to King's work several times throughout the novel.Colson Whiteheadrecalls that "The first big book I read wasNight Shiftby Stephen King, you know, a huge book of short stories. And so for many years I just wanted to write horror fiction. "In a talk atVirginia Commonwealth University,Whitehead recalls that in college "I wanted to write the blackShiningor the blackSalem's Lot... Take any Stephen King title and put 'the black' in front of it. That's basically what I wanted to do. "

Views and activism

King campaigning for Gary Hart for President in 1984

King was raisedMethodist,but lost his belief in organized religion while in high school. While not conventionally religious, he says he chooses to believe in God.In1984,King endorsedGary Hart's presidential campaign.In April 2008, King spoke out against HB 1423, a bill pending in theMassachusetts state legislaturethat would restrict or ban the sale ofviolent video gamesto anyone under the age of 18. 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.

King at theRamstein Air BaseinGermany,2013

During the2008 presidential election,King endorsedBarack Obama.On March 8, 2011, King spoke at a political rally inSarasotaaimed against GovernorRick Scott(R-FL), voicing his opposition to theTea Party movement.On April 30, 2012, King published an article inThe Daily Beastcalling for rich Americans, including himself, to pay more taxes, citing it as "a practical necessity and moral imperative that those who have received much should be obligated to pay... in the same proportion".

On January 25, 2013, King published an essay titledGunsviaAmazon.com'sKindle singlefeature, which discusses thegun debatein the wake of theSandy Hook Elementary School shooting.King called for gun owners to support a ban on automatic and semi-automatic weapons, writing, "Autos and semi-autos are weapons of mass destruction...When lunatics want to make war on the unarmed and unprepared, these are the weapons they use."The essay became the fifth-bestselling nonfiction title for the Kindle.

In 2016, King was one of many writers who signed a letter condemning the candidacy ofDonald Trump.It began: "Because, as writers, we are particularly aware of the many ways that language can be abused in the name of power" and concluded "Because the rise of a political candidate who deliberately appeals to the basest and most violent elements in society, who encourages aggression among his followers, shouts down opponents, intimidates dissenters, and denigrates women and minorities, demands, from each of us, an immediate and forceful response; For all these reasons, we, the undersigned, as a matter of conscience, oppose, unequivocally, the candidacy of Donald J. Trump for the Presidency of the United States."

King criticized former Iowa Rep.Steve King,deeming him a racist and saying he was tired of being confused with him.In June 2018, King called for the release of the Ukrainian filmmakerOleg Sentsov,who was jailed in Russia.In the2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries,King endorsedElizabeth Warren'scampaign.Warren eventually suspended her campaign, and King later endorsedJoe Biden'scampaignin the2020 general election.In 2022, during theRussian invasion of Ukraine,King expressed support for Ukraine. On his Twitter account,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 prankstersVovan and Lexuswho played the role ofVolodymyr Zelenskyy.In the call Stephen King said "You can always find things about people to pull them down.WashingtonandJeffersonwere slave owners — that doesn't mean they didn't do many good things to the United States of America. There are always people who have flaws, we are humans. On the whole, I thinkBanderais a great man, and you're a great man, and Viva Ukraine! "However, King later realized that he was pranked and apologized on Twitter, noting that he was not the only victim and "other victims who fell for these guys includeJ. K. Rowling,Prince Harry,andJustin Trudeau".

King testified in an August 2022 case brought by the U.S.Justice Departmentto block a $2.2 billion merger ofPenguin Random HouseandSimon & Schuster(two of the "Big Five" book publishers).The New York Timescredited King's high-profile testimony, which was against his own publisher, with helping to convince presiding judgeFlorence Y. Panwith ultimately blocking the merger.

Maine politics

King endorsedShenna Bellowsin the2014 U.S. Senate electionfor the seat held byRepublicanSusan Collins.King publicly criticizedPaul LePageduring LePage's tenure asGovernor of Maine,referring to him as one ofThe Three Stooges(with then-Florida GovernorRick Scottand then-Wisconsin GovernorScott Walkerbeing the other two).He 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. The statement was later corrected by the governor's office, but no apology was issued. King said LePage was "full of the stuff that makes the grass grow green"and demanded that LePage "man up and apologize".LePage declined to apologize to King, stating, "I never said Stephen King did not pay income taxes. What I said was, Stephen King's not in Maine right now. That's what I said."

The attention garnered by the LePage criticism led to efforts to encourage King to run for Governor of Maine in2018.King said he would not run or serve.King sent a tweet on June 30, 2015, calling LePage "a terrible embarrassment to the state I live in and love. If he won't govern, he should resign." He later clarified that he was not calling on LePage to resign, but to "go to work or go back home".On August 27, 2016, King called LePage "a bigot, a homophobe, and a racist".

Philanthropy

King subsidizes theNational Poetry Foundation,which was directed by his professor and mentorBurton Hatlen,and has endowed scholarships named for another professor, Edward Holmes. Mark Singer also notes Bangor's "most monumental testament to King's philanthropy", the "Shawn T. Mansfield Baseball Complex, dedicated six years ago in memory of the son of a Little League coach and friend of King's who died at fourteen of cerebral palsy."King has stated that he donates approximately $4 million per year "to libraries, local fire departments that need updated lifesaving equipment (Jaws of Lifetools are always a popular request), schools, and a scattering of organisations that underwrite the arts ".The Stephen and Tabitha King Foundation, chaired by King and his wife, ranks sixth among Maine charities in terms of average annual giving, with over $2.8 million in grants per year, according toThe Grantsmanship Center.

In 2002, King,Peter Straub,John GrishamandPat Conroyorganized the Wavedancer Benefit, a public reading to raise funds for the actor and audiobook readerFrank Muller,who had been injured in a motorcycle accident.Their reading was released as an audiobook.In November 2011, the STK Foundation donated $70,000 in matched funding via his radio station to help pay the heating bills for families in need in his hometown of Bangor, Maine, during the winter.In February 2021, King's Foundation donated $6,500 to help children from the Farwell Elementary School inLewiston, Maine,to publish two novels on which they had been working over the course of several prior years, before being stopped due to theCOVID-19 pandemic in Maine.

Personal life

King's home inBangor

King marriedTabitha Spruceon January 2, 1971.She is also a novelist and philanthropist. They own and divide their time between three houses: one inBangor, Maine,one inLovell, Maine,and for the winter a waterfront mansion located off theGulf of MexicoinSarasota, Florida.King's home in Bangor has been described as an unofficial tourist attraction, and as of 2019,the couple plan to convert it into a facility housing his archives and a writers' retreat.

Portrait ofOwenand Stephen from the first edition ofDifferent Seasons(1982)

The Kings have three children—two sons and a daughter,who identifies as genderqueer,and is aUnitarian Universalist Churchminister inPlantation, Florida,with their partner,Thandeka.Both of the Kings' sons are authors:Owen Kingpublished his first collection of stories,We're All in This Together: A Novella and Stories,in 2005.Joseph Hillström King,who writes as Joe Hill, published his first collection of short stories,20th Century Ghosts,in 2005.

King wearing aBoston Red Soxjersey at a book signing in November 2004

King is a longtime fan ofbaseball,particularly theBoston Red Sox.In 1990, King published an essay about Owen'sLittle Leagueteam inThe New Yorker.King andStewart O'NancoauthoredFaithful,a chronicle of their correspondence about the historic2004 Boston Red Sox seasonwhich culminated in the Sox winning the2004 World Series.The game features in King's novellasThe Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon(1999) andBlockade Billy(2010).

King and his wife own Zone Radio Corp, a radio station group consisting ofWZON/620 AM,WKIT/100.3 &WZLO/103.1. Music, particularlyrock,plays a role in much of King's work. On theBBCprogramDesert Island Discs,King's number one choice wasBob Dylan's "Desolation Row".On another BBC program,Paperback Writers,he made new selections, among themAC/DC's"Stiff Upper Lip",Danny & the Juniors's "At the Hop"andCreedence Clearwater Revival's "It Came Out of the Sky".He played guitar for theRock Bottom Remainders,acharity supergroupwhose members includedAmy Tan,Barbara Kingsolver,Dave Barry,Scott Turow,James McBride,Mitch Albom,Roy Blount, Jr.,Matt Groening,Greg Iles,Kathi Kamen Goldmarkand other authors. They released an album,Stranger Than Fiction(1998), under Goldmark's label, Don't Quit Your Day Job Records.King and his band-mates coauthoredMidlife Confidential: The Rock Bottom Remainders Tour America With Three Chords and an Attitude(1994) and the e-bookHard Listening: The Greatest Rock Band Ever (of Authors) Tells All(2013).King's favorite books about music areGreil Marcus'sMystery TrainandLipstick Tracesand Chris Willman'sRednecks and Bluenecks.

King remains a voracious reader. When asked about his reading habits, King replied, "I'm sort of an omnivore, apt to go from the latestJohn SandfordtoD. H. LawrencetoCormac McCarthy."When asked what books we'd be surprised to find on his shelves, he answered" Poetry, maybe? I loveAnne Sexton,Richard Wilbur,W. B. Yeats.The poetry I come back to again and again are the narrative poems ofStephen Dobyns."When asked which novel he comes back to, he namedThomas Williams'sThe Hair of Harold Roux.When asked who his favorite novelist is, he said "ProbablyDon Robertson,author ofParadise Falls,The Ideal, Genuine Manand the marvelously titledMiss Margaret Ridpath and the Dismantling of the Universe.What I appreciate most in novels and novelists is generosity, a complete baring of the heart and mind, and Robertson always did that. He also 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.' "

Car accident and aftermath

On June 19, 1999, at about 4:30 p.m., King was walking on the shoulder ofMaine State Route 5,inLovell, Maine.Driver Bryan Edwin Smith, distracted by an unrestrained dog moving in the back of his minivan, struck King, who landed in a depression in the ground about 14 feet (four meters) from the pavement of Route 5.Early reports at the time from Oxford County Sheriff deputy Matt Baker claimed King was hit from behind, and some witnesses said the driver was not speeding, reckless, or drinking.

However, Smith was later arrested and charged withdriving to endangerand aggravated assault. He pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of driving to endanger and was sentenced to six months in county jail (suspended) and had his driving license suspended for a year.In his bookOn Writing,King states he was heading north, walking against the traffic. Shortly before the accident took place, a woman in a car, also northbound, passed King first followed by a light blueDodge van.The van was looping from one side of the road to the other, and the woman told her passenger she hoped "that guy in the van doesn't hit him".

King was conscious enough to give the deputy phone numbers to contact his family but was in considerable pain. He was transported to Northern Cumberland Hospital in Bridgton and then flown by air ambulance toCentral Maine Medical Center(CMMC) inLewiston.His injuries—a collapsed right lung, multiple fractures of his right leg, scalp laceration and a broken hip—kept him at CMMC until July 9. His leg bones were so shattered that doctors initially considered amputating his leg but stabilized the bones in the leg with anexternal fixator.After five operations in 10 days andphysical therapy,King resumed work onOn Writingin July, though his hip was still shattered and he could sit for only about 40 minutes before the pain became unbearable.

King's wife got in touch with his lawyer to purchase Smith's van, reportedly to prevent it from appearing oneBay.He recalls: "When I was in the hospital, mostly unconscious; my wife got a lawyer who's just a friend of the family...And she got in touch with him and said, buy it so that somebody else doesn't buy it and decide to break it up and sell it on eBay, on the Internet. And so he did. And for about six months, I did have these, sort of, fantasies of smashing the van up. But my wife – I don't always listen to her the first time, but sooner or later, she usually gets through. And what she says makes more sense than what I had planned. And her thought was that the best thing to do would be to very quietly remove it from this plane of existence, which is what we did."

Appearances in other media

InThe Princess Bride,William Goldmanwrites that Stephen King is "doing the abridgment" of the fictional bookButtercup's Baby.King explains this is an inside joke from Goldman, "who's an old friend. He's done the screen adaptations for a number of my novels. He didMisery,Dreamcatcherand he also didHearts in Atlantis,and although he's not credited, he worked onDolores Claiborneas well, so Bill and I go back a long way. I admired his books before I ever met him and as a kind of return tip of the cap, he put me in that bookThe Princess Bride."

In 1988, the bandBlue Öyster Cultrecorded an updated version of its 1974 song"Astronomy";the single released for radio play featured a narrative intro spoken by King.In 2012, King provided the narration forShooter Jennings's albumBlack Ribbons.King was a contestant onCelebrity Jeopardy!in 1995 and 1998.He's made cameos in adaptations of his work, and appeared as the character Bachman onSons of Anarchy;the name is a nod to his pseudonymRichard Bachman.He voiced himself inThe Simpsonsepisode "Insane Clown Poppy",where he appears with fellow authors Amy Tan andJohn Updikeat a book fair. King tellsMargehe's taking a break from horror to write a biography ofBenjamin Franklin.

Awards and honors

Main article:List of awards and nominations received by Stephen King

• August Derleth Award,awarded by theBritish Fantasy Society
  • 1981: Special Award
  • 1982:Cujo'
  • 1987:It
  • 1999:Bag of Bones
  • 2005:The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower
    • British Fantasy Award For Best Short Fiction
    • 1983: "The Breathing Method"
• Balrog Award Best Collection / Anthology 1980:Night Shift
• Black Quill Award Best Dark Genre Novel 2009:Duma Key
• Bram Stoker Award,awarded by theHorror Writers Association
  • Best Novel
    • 1987:Misery.
    • 1996:The Green Mile
    • 1998:Bag of Bones
    • 2006:Lisey's Story
    • 2008:Duma Key
    • 2013:Doctor Sleep
  • Best Fiction Collection
    • 1990:Four Past Midnight
    • 2009:Just After Sunset
    • 2011:Full Dark, No Stars
  • Best Short Fiction
    • 1995: "Lunch at the Gotham Café"
    • 2000: "Riding the Bullet"
    • 2011: "Herman Wouk is Still Alive"
  • Best Non-Fiction
    • 2000:On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
  • 2002:Lifetime Achievement Award
• Edgar Awardfor Best Novel, awarded by theMystery Writers of America
  • 2015:Mr. Mercedes
• Mystery Writers of America2007Grand Master Award
• 1982Hugo Award for Best Related Work:Danse Macabre
• International Horror Guild Awards
  • 1999:Storm of the Century
  • 2003: Living Legend
• Locus Awards
  • 1982:Danse Macabre
  • 1986:Skeleton Crew
  • 1997:Desperation
  • 1999:Bag of Bones
  • 2001:On Writing
• 2003Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters
• 2014National Medal of Arts
• National Magazine Awards
  • 2004: "Rest Stop"
  • 2013: "Batman and Robin Have an Altercation"
• 1996O. Henry Award"The Man in the Black Suit"
• 2005Quill AwardforFaithful(withStewart O'Nan)
• 2009Shirley Jackson Awardfor "Morality"
• Spokane Public Library Golden Pen Award 1986: Golden Pen Award
• University of Maine1980: Alumni Career Award
• World Fantasy Award
  • 1980:Convention Award
  • 1982: "Do the Dead Sing?"
  • 1995: "The Man in the Black Suit"
  • 2004:Lifetime Achievement
• 1992World Horror Convention:World Horror Grandmaster
• 1997 Writers For Writers Award, awarded byPoets & Writers Magazine

Carriewas included on theNew York Public Library's list of Books of the Century under the category "Pop Culture Mass & Entertainment".In 2008,On Writingwas ranked 21st onEntertainment Weekly's list of "The New Classics: The 100 Best Reads from 1983 to 2008".It also madeTime'slist of the 100 greatest nonfiction books published since the magazine's founding in 1923. Gilbert Cruz wrote, "it's the most practical and unpretentious writer's manual around — as practical and unpretentious as its author, who, yes, just happens to be one of the world's most famous novelists."

11/22/63(2011) was named one of the five best fiction books of the year inThe New York Times:"Throughout his career, King has explored fresh ways to blend the ordinary and the supernatural. His new novel imagines a time portal in a Maine diner that lets an English teacher go back to 1958 in an effort to stop Lee Harvey Oswald and — rewardingly for readers — also allows King to reflect on questions of memory, fate and free will as he richly evokes midcentury America. The past guards its secrets, this novel reminds us, and the horror behind the quotidian is time itself."

Bibliography

Main articles:Stephen King bibliography,Stephen King short fiction bibliography,andUnpublished and uncollected works by Stephen King

Audiobooks

• 2000:On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft(read by Stephen King), Simon & Schuster Audio.ISBN978-0-7435-0665-6.
• 2004:Salem's Lot(introduction), Simon & Schuster Audio.ISBN978-0-7435-3696-7.
• 2005 (Audible:2000):Bag of Bones(read by Stephen King). Simon & Schuster Audio.ISBN978-0743551755.
• 2008:Needful Things(read by Stephen King), Highbridge Audio.ISBN978-1598877540.
• 2012:The Wind Through The Keyhole – A Dark Tower Novel(read by Stephen King), Simon & Schuster Audio.ISBN978-1-4423-4697-0.
• 2016:Desperation(read by Stephen King), Simon & Schuster Audio.ISBN978-1508218661.
• 2018:Elevation(read by Stephen King), Simon & Schuster Audio.ISBN978-1508260479.

Filmography

Year	Title	Director	Executive producer	Writer	Actor	Notes
1981	Knightriders	No	No	No	Yes	Role: Hoagie Man
1982	Creepshow	No	No	Yes	Yes	Role: Jordy Verrill
1983	The Dead Zone	No	No	Yes	No
1985	Cat's Eye	No	No	Yes	No
1985	Silver Bullet	No	No	Yes	No
1986	Maximum Overdrive	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Role: Man at Bank ATM
1987	Creepshow 2	No	No	No	Yes	Role: Truck Driver
1987	Tales from the Darkside	No	No	Yes	No	1 episode: "Sorry, Right Number"
1989	Pet Sematary	No	No	Yes	Yes	Role: Minister
1991	Golden Years	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Miniseries, also created by King, role: Bus Driver
1992	Sleepwalkers	No	No	Yes	Yes	Role: Cemetery Caretaker
1994	The Stand	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Miniseries, role: Teddy Weizak
1995	The Langoliers	No	No	No	Yes	Miniseries, role: Tom Holby
1996	Thinner	No	No	No	Yes	Role: Pharmacist
1997	The Shining	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Miniseries, role: Gage Creed
1998	The X-Files	No	No	Yes	No	1 episode: "Chinga"
1999	Storm of the Century	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Miniseries, role: Lawyer in Ad / Reporter on Broken TV
1999	Frasier	No	No	No	Yes	1 episode: "Mary Christmas",role: Brian
2000	The Simpsons	No	No	No	Yes	1 episode: "Insane Clown Poppy",role: Himself
2002	Rose Red	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Miniseries, role: Pizza Delivery Guy
2003	The Diary of Ellen Rimbauer	No	Yes	No	No	TV film
2004	Kingdom Hospital	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	9 episodes, also developed by King, role: Johnny B. Goode
2004	Riding the Bullet	No	Yes	No	No
2005	Fever Pitch	No	No	No	Yes	Role: Stephen King
2005	Gotham Cafe	No	No	No	Yes	Short film, role: Mr. Ring
2006	Desperation	No	Yes	Yes	No	TV film
2007	Diary of the Dead	No	No	No	Yes	Role: Newsreader (voice, uncredited)
2010	Sons of Anarchy	No	No	No	Yes	1 episode: "Caregiver", role: Bachman
2012	Stuck in Love	No	No	No	Yes	Role: Stephen King (voice)
2014	Under the Dome	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	1 episode: "Heads Will Roll",role: Diner Patron
2014	A Good Marriage	No	No	Yes	No
2016	11.22.63	No	Yes	No	No
2016	Cell	No	No	Yes	No
2017	Mr. Mercedes	No	Yes	No	Yes	Role: Diner Patron
2018	Castle Rock	No	Yes	No	No
2019	It Chapter Two	No	No	No	Yes	Role: Shopkeeper
2021	Lisey's Story	No	Yes	Yes	No	Miniseries

See also

• List of adaptations of works by Stephen King
• Castle Rock (Stephen King)
• Charles Scribner's Sons(aka Scribner)
• Derry (Stephen King)
• Dollar Baby
• Jerusalem's Lot (Stephen King)
• Haven

Further reading

See also:Books about Stephen King

• Brooks, Justin (2008).Stephen King: A Primary Bibliography of the World's Most Popular Author.Cemetery Dance.ISBN978-1-58767-153-1.
• Collings, Michael R.(1985).The Many Facets of Stephen King.Starmont House.ISBN0-930261-14-3.
• Collings, Michael R.;Engebretson, David A. (1985).The Shorter Works of Stephen King.Starmont House.ISBN0-930261-02-X.
• Collings, Michael R.(1985).Stephen King as Richard Bachman.Starmont House.ISBN0-930261-00-3.
• Collings, Michael R. (1986).The Films of Stephen King.Starmont House.ISBN0-930261-10-0.
• Collings, Michael R.(1986).The Annotated Guide to Stephen King: A Primary and Secondary Bibliography of the Works of America's Premier Horror Writer.Starmont House.ISBN0-930261-80-1.
• Collings, Michael R. (1987).The Stephen King Phenomenon.Starmont House.ISBN0-930261-12-7.
• Collings, Michael R. (2003).Horror Plum'd: An International Stephen King Bibliography and Guide 1960–2000.Overlook Connection Press.ISBN1-892950-45-6.
• Collings, Michael R.(2008).Stephen King Is Richard Bachman.Overlook Connection Press.ISBN978-1-892950-74-1.
• Hoppenstand, Gary, ed. (2010).Stephen King.Salem Press.ISBN978-1-58765-685-9.
• Spignesi, Stephen (1991).The Complete Stephen King Encyclopedia.Contemporary Books.ISBN978-0-8092-3818-7.
• Spignesi, Stephen (1998).The Lost Work of Stephen King.Birch Lane Press.ISBN978-1-55972-469-2.
• Spignesi, Stephen (2001).The Essential Stephen King.Career Press.ISBN978-1-56414-710-3.
• Wood, Rocky;Rawsthorne, David; Blackburn, Norma.The Complete Guide to the Works of Stephen King.Kanrock Partners.ISBN0-9750593-3-5.
• Wood, Rocky(2006).Stephen King: Uncollected, Unpublished.Cemetery Dance.ISBN1-58767-130-1.
• Wood, Rocky;Brooks, Justin.The Stephen King Collector's Guide.Kanrock Partners.ISBN978-0-9750593-5-7.
• Wood, Rocky;Brooks, Justin (2008).Stephen King: The Non-Fiction.Cemetery Dance.ISBN978-1-58767-160-9.

External links

• Official website
• Stephen KingonX
• Stephen Kingat theInternet Speculative Fiction Database
• Stephen KingatIMDb
• AppearancesonC-SPAN
• Working with the King – Shotsmag Ezine Interview with Philippa Pride, King's UK editor
• Lehmann-Haupt, Christopher; Rich, Nathaniel (Fall 2006)."Stephen King, The Art of Fiction No. 189".The Paris Review.Fall 2006 (178).