Stephen King

Stephen Edwin King (born 1947) is an American writer working in a variety of genres, including horror, detective, fiction, mysticism, and epistolary prose; received the nickname "King of Horrors".

Over 350 million copies of his books have been sold, on which many films, television plays and comics have been filmed.

There are many interesting facts in the biography of Stephen King, which we will talk about in this article.

So, here is a short biography of Stephen King.

Stephen King's biography

Stephen King was born on September 21, 1947 in the American city of Portland (Maine). He grew up in the family of Merchant Marine Captain Donald Edward King and his wife Nellie Ruth Pillsbury.

Childhood and youth

Stephen's birth can be called a real miracle. This is due to the fact that doctors assured his mother that she would never be able to have children.

Therefore, when Nelly married Captain Donald King for the second time, the couple decided to adopt a child. As a result, in 1945, 2 years before the birth of the future writer, they had an adopted son, David Victor.

In 1947, the girl found out about her pregnancy, which was a complete surprise both for herself and for her husband.

However, the birth of a common child did not help hold the family together. The head of the family was rarely at home, traveling around the world.

After the end of World War II (1939-1945), Donald retired, finding a job as a salesman selling vacuum cleaners.

Family life was a burden for King's father, as a result of which he practically did not devote time to his wife and children. Once, when Stephen was barely 2 years old, a man left the house for cigarettes and after that no one saw him.

After Donald left the family, the mother told her sons that the dad was kidnapped by the Martians. However, the woman understood that her husband abandoned her and went to another woman.

An interesting fact is that Stephen King and his brother learned about their father's further biography only in the 90s. As it turned out later, he remarried a Brazilian woman, raising 4 children.

When Nelly was left alone, she had to take on any job to support Stephen and David. She sold bakery products and also worked as a cleaner.

Together with the children, the woman moved to one or another state, trying to find a decent job. As a result, the Kings family settled in Maine.

Frequent house changes negatively affected Stephen King's health. He suffered from measles and an acute form of pharyngitis, which caused an ear infection.

Even in his early years, Stephen had his eardrum pierced three times, causing him unbearable pain. For this reason, he studied in grade 1 for 2 years.

Already at that time biography Stephen King was fond of horror films. In addition, he liked books about superheroes, including "Hulk", "Spiderman", "Superman", as well as the works of Ray Bradbury.

The writer later admits that he relished his fear and "the feeling of losing control over his senses."

Creation

For the first time, King began to write at the age of 7. Initially, he simply retells the comics he viewed on paper.

Over time, his mother encouraged him to write something of his own. As a result, the boy composed 4 short stories about the bunny. Mom praised her son for his work and even paid him $ 1 in reward.

When Stephen was 18 years old, he and his brother began to publish a newsletter - "Dave's Leaf".

The guys reproduced the messenger by means of a mimeograph - a screen printing machine, selling each copy for 5 cents. Stephen King wrote his short stories and reviewed films, and his brother covered local news.

After leaving school, Stephen went to college. It is curious that during that period of his biography, he wanted to voluntarily go to Vietnam to collect material for future works.

However, after much persuasion from his mother, the guy still abandoned this idea.

In parallel with his studies, King worked part-time at a weaving factory and was insanely surprised by the huge number of rats that lived in the building. He often had to drive aggressive rodents away from the goods.

In the future, all these impressions will form the basis of his story "Night shift".

In 1966 Stephen successfully passed his exams at the University of Maine, choosing the English Literature Department. At the same time, he studied at the teacher training college.

The mother sent each son $ 20 a month for pocket expenses, as a result of which she was often left without food.

After graduating from university, King continued to engage in writing, which at first did not bring him any income. By that time he was already married.

Stephen worked part-time in a laundry and received scanty royalties from publishing his stories in magazines. And although the family was experiencing serious financial difficulties, King continued to write.

In 1971, a man began teaching English at a local school. At that time in his biography, he was extremely upset that his work remained unclaimed.

One day his wife found in an urn an unfinished manuscript of the novel "Carrie" thrown out by Stephen. The girl carefully read the work, after which she persuaded her husband to finish it.

After 3 years, Doubleday will agree to send this book to print, paying King a $ 2,500 royalty. To the surprise of all, "Carrie" gained great popularity, as a result of which "Doubleday" sold the copyrights to the large publishing house "NAL", for $ 400,000!

According to the terms of the contract, Stephen King received half of this amount, thanks to which he was able to leave his job at the school and start writing with renewed vigor.

Soon from the pen of the writer came out the second successful novel "Shining".

In the late 70s, Stephen began publishing under the pseudonym Richard Bachmann. A number of King's biographers believe that in this way he wanted to ascertain his talent and make sure that his first novels were not accidentally popular.

The novel "Fury" was published under this pseudonym. Soon the author will withdraw it from sale when it becomes known that the book was read by an underage murderer who shot classmates in Kansas.

And although several more works were published under the name of Bachman, King had already published subsequent books under his real name.

In the 80s and 90s, some of Stephen's best works were published. The novel The Shooter, which was the first novel in the Dark Tower series, gained particular popularity.

An interesting fact is that in 1982 King wrote the 300-page book The Running Man in just 10 days.

In the mid-90s, the novel "The Green Mile" appeared on the bookshelves. The writer admits that he considers this work one of the best in his creative biography.

In 1997, Stephen King signed a contract with Simon & Schuster, which paid him a fantastic advance of $ 8 million for The Bag of Bones, and pledged to give the author half of the profits he sold.

Based on the works of the "King of Horrors", many art pictures were filmed. In 1998, he wrote the script for the popular television series The X-Files, which is known all over the world.

In 1999, Stephen King was hit by a minibus. He was found to have many fractures on his right leg, in addition to head and lung injuries. Doctors miraculously managed to save his leg from amputation.

For a long time, the man could not be in a sitting position for more than 40 minutes, after which unbearable pain began in the area of the broken hip.

This biographical episode will form the basis of the seventh part of the series "The Dark Tower".

In 2002, King announced his retirement from his writing career due to excruciating pain that prevented him from focusing on creativity.

Later, however, Stephen again took up the pen. In 2004, the final part of the Dark Tower series was published, and a couple of years later the novel The Story of Lizzie was published.

In the period 2008-2017. King has published many novels, including Duma Key, 11/22/63, Doctor Sleep, Mister Mercedes, Gwendy and Her Casket and others. In addition, a collection of stories "Darkness - and nothing more", and collections of stories "After Sunset" and "The Shop of Bad Words" were published.

Personal life

With his wife, Tabitha Spruce, Stephen met during his student years. In this marriage, they had a daughter, Naomi, and 2 sons, Joseph and Owen.

For King, Tabitha is not just a wife, but also a loyal friend and helper. She survived poverty with him, always supporting her husband and helping him cope with depression.

In addition, the woman was able to survive the time when Stephen suffered from alcoholism and drug addiction. An interesting fact is that after the release of the novel "Tomminokery", the novelist admitted that he did not remember how he wrote it, because at that time he was "dull" on drugs.

Later, King underwent a course of treatment that helped him return to his former life.

Together with his wife, Stephen owns three houses. As of today, the couple have four grandchildren.

Stephen King now

The writer continues to write books as before. In 2018 he published 2 novels - "Stranger" and "On the Rise". The following year he presented the work "The Institute".

King harshly criticizes Donald Trump. He leaves negative comments about the billionaire on various social networks.

In 2019, Stephen, along with Robert De Niro, Laurence Fishburne and other artists, recorded a video accusing the Russian authorities of attacking American democracy and Trump of collusion with Russia.