The amazing person in The amazing person in

modern literaturemodern literature

Early Life• He was born on September 21 1947• He has been writing since an early age

• In school, he wrote stories based on movies he had seen recently and sold them to his friends

• The stories were copied using a mimeo machine that his brother David used to copy a newspaper, "Dave's Rag," which he self-published. "Dave's Rag" was about local events, and King would often contribute. At around the age of thirteen, King discovered a box of his father's old books at his aunt's house, mainly horror and science fiction. He was immediately hooked on these genres.

Stevie at University

• From 1966 to 1971, King studied English at University of Maine at Orono

• He wrote a column titled "King's Garbage Truck" in the university magazine

• He also met Tabitha Spruce; they married in 1971 • King took on odd jobs to pay for his studies, including

one at an industrial laundry. He used the experience to write the short story "The Mangler".

• He finished his university studies with a Bachelor of Arts in English and obtaining a certificate to teach high school

Starting with trouble• After finishing his university studies, King

taught English at Hampden Academy in Hampden. During this time, he and his family lived in a trailer. He wrote short stories (most were published in men's magazines) to help make ends meet.

• King also developed a drinking problem which stayed with him for over a decade.

• During this period, King began a number of novels. One of his first ideas was of a young girl with psychic powers. However, he grew discouraged, and threw it into the trash. Tabitha later rescued it and encouraged him to finish it. After completing the novel, he titled it Carrie, sent it to Doubleday, and more or less forgot about it. Later, he received an offer to buy it with a $2,500 advance (not a large advance for a novel, even at that time). Shortly after, the value of Carrie was realized with the paperback rights being sold for $400,000 (with $200,000 of it going to the publisher). Shortly after its release, his mother died of uterine cancer. She had the novel read to her before she died.

An accident, first time

• In the summer of 1999, King was in the middle of On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft. At the time, he had finished the memoir section and had abandoned the book for nearly eighteen months, unsure of how to procee. King reports that it was the first book that he'd abandoned since writing The Stand decades earlier. He had just decided to continue the book. On June 17, he had written up a list of questions that he was frequently asked about writing, as well as some that he wished he would be asked about it; on June 18, he had written four pages of the section on writing.

• On June 19, about 4:30 PM, he was walking on the right shoulder of Route 5 in North Lovell. Driver Bryan Smith, distracted by an unrestrained Rottweiler moving in the back of his 1985 Dodge Caravan, struck King, who landed in a depression about 14 feet (4 meters) from the pavement of Route 5.

Tell me how do you write…

• He is known for his great eye for detail, for continuity, and for inside references; many stories that may seem unrelated are often linked by secondary characters, fictional towns, or off-hand references to events in previous books

• King is also known for his folksy, informal narration, often referring to his fans as "Constant Readers" or "friends and neighbors." He uses this style to contrast with the often gory or scary content of many of his stories

• King has a very simple formula for learning to write well: "Read four hours a day and write four hours a day. If you cannot find the time for that, you can't expect to become a good writer."

Quotes• "In the vast class of victims there

is a subclass: the victim of victims."

– The Stand • "People want to know why I do

this, why I write such gross stuff. I like to tell them that I have the heart of a small boy... and I keep it in a jar on my desk." (King's source for this was Robert Bloch.)

• You can't deny laughter; when it comes, it plops down in your favorite chair and stays as long as it wants.

– – Stephen King, "Hearts in

Atlantis„• The trust of the innocent is the

liar's most useful tool. • [I work until] beer o’clock.

Bibliography (Contains some Unpublished or

unfinished Novels) • 1959 Charlie(unpublished shory story)

• 1963 The Aftermath (an unpublished novel) • 1970 Sword in the Darkness (aka Good Day Sunshine) (an unpublished novel)

• 1973 Blaze (aka Grand Theft Auto) (an unpublished novel) • 1974 Carrie

• 1974 The House on Value Street (unpublished and unfinished0 • 1975 'Salem's Lot+

• 1976 Welcome to Clearwater (unpublished and unfinished) • 1976 The Corner (unpublished and unfinished)

• 1977 Rage (as Richard Bachman) • 1977 The Shining

• 1977 Wimsey (unpublished and unfinished) • 1978 Night Shift (stories)

• 1978 The Stand+ • 1979 The Dead Zone

• 1979 The Long Walk (as Richard Bachman) • 1980 Firestarter • 1981 Cujo

• 1981 Danse Macabre (nonfiction about horror) • 1981 Road Work (as Richard Bachman)

• 1982 Creepshow (comic book, illustrated by Bernie Wrightson) • 1982 The Dark Tower I: The Gunslinger+

• 1982 Different Seasons (novellas) • 1982 The Running Man (as Richard Bachman)

• 1983 Christine • 1983 The Leprechaun (unpublished and unfinished)

• 1983 The Cannibals (aka Under the Dome) (unpublished and unfinished) • 1983 Pet Sematary

• 1983 Cycle of the Werewolf (illustrated by Bernie Wrightson) • 1984 The Talisman (written with Peter Straub)+

• 1984 Thinner (as Richard Bachman) • 1984 Keyholes (unpublished and unfinished)

• 1985 Skeleton Crew (stories)+ • 1985 The Bachman Books (novel collection)

• 1986 It+ • 1987 The Eyes of the Dragon+

• 1987 Misery • 1987 The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three+

• 1988 The Tommyknockers • 1988 Nightmares in the Sky (gargoyle photo book with text by King; photos by f-stop fitzgerald)

• 1988 Dark Visions • 1989 The Dark Half

• 1989 Dolan's Cadillac (limited edition) • 1989 My Pretty Pony (limited edition)

• 1990 The Stand: The Complete & Uncut Edition+ • 1990 Four Past Midnight (stories)

• 1991 Needful Things • 1991 The Dark Tower III: The Waste Lands+

• 1992 Gerald's Game • 1993 Dolores Claiborne

• 1993 Nightmares & Dreamscapes (stories) • 1994 Insomnia+

• 1995 Rose Madder+ • 1995 Umney's Last Case

• 1996 The Green Mile (originally published as a monthly serial consisting of six parts: The Two Dead Girls, The Mouse on the Mile, Coffey's Hands, The Bad Death of Eduard Delacroix, Night Journey, and Coffey on the Mile) • 1996 Desperation+

• 1996 The Regulators (as Richard Bachman)+ • 1996 The Pretender (unpublished and unfinished)

• 1997 Six Stories (stories) • 1997 The Dark Tower IV: Wizard and Glass+

• 1998 Bag of Bones+ • 1999 Storm of the Century

• 1999 The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon • 1999 The New Lieutenant's Rap (limited edition)

• 1999 Hearts in Atlantis+ • 1999 Blood and Smoke (audio book)

• 2000 Riding the Bullet (electronically published novella) • 2000 The Plant (electronically published) Stephen King (Publishing of 'The Plant')

• 2000 Secret Windows • 2000 On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft (nonfiction and autobiography)

• 2001 Dreamcatcher • 2001 Black House (sequel to The Talisman; written with Peter Straub)+

• 2002 From a Buick 8+ • 2002 Everything's Eventual: 14 Dark Tales (stories)+

• 2003 The Dark Tower I: The Gunslinger (revised version)+ • 2003 The Dark Tower V: Wolves of the Calla+ • 2004 The Dark Tower VI: Song of Susannah+ • 2004 The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower+

• 2004 Faithful: Two Diehard Boston Red Sox Fans Chronicle the Historic 2004 Season • 2005 The Colorado Kid, published in October by Hard Case Crime Paperback

• 2006 Cell • 2006 Stephen King: Uncollected, Unpublished (limited edition)

• 2006 The Secretary of Dreams, a limited edition in two volumes, the first to be released in the first half of 2006 • 2006 Lisey's Story, to be released in October

• 2007 the Dark Tower comic book series, to be released by Marvel Comics from February 2007+

And now something completely different:

DiehardBaseball Fan!!!• Stephen King is a lifelong fan of the Boston Red Sox, and is frequently

found at both home and away baseball games.• In his private role as father, King helped coach his son Owen's Bangor West

team to the Maine Little League Championship in 1989. This experience is recounted in the New Yorker essay Head Down, which also appears in the collection Nightmares and Dreamscapes. King has called Head Down his best piece of nonfiction writing.

• In 1999 King wrote The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, which involved former Red Sox team member Tom Gordon as a major character. King recently co-wrote a book entitled Faithful: Two Diehard Boston Red Sox Fans Chronicle the Historic 2004 Season with Stewart O'Nan. This work recounts the authors' roller coaster reaction to the Red Sox's 2004 season, a season culminating in the Sox winning the 2004 American League Championship Series and World Series.

• In 2002, a Little League stadium opened in Bangor, Maine. This facility was made possible through the efforts and donations of King and his wife Tabitha.

THE SCARY END?

NEVER!!!