Stephen King

STEPHEN KING

Stephen Edwin King was born in Portland, Maine, in 1947. When he was 2 years old, his father went out for a pack of cigarettes and was never heard from or seen again, leaving King's mother alone and scrambling to provide for her sons. At 13, he discovered something that would change his life forever: a box filled with old paperbacks (left ironically by his father) containing mostly horror and science-fiction novels. King graduated from the University of Maine in 1970 with a B.A. in English and later married his college sweetheart, Tabitha, in 1971, the same year he began his teaching career. In 1973 King sold his novel Carrie to Doubleday Publishing. It became a bestseller and allowed King to concentrate on writing full time, producing horror classics such as 'Salem's Lot, The Shining, The Stand and The Dead Zone. Over the next two decades, King would cement his reputation as the "Master of the Macabre" with novels like Pet Sematary, Christine, The Talisman, IT and Misery. But on June 19, 1999, it all almost came to a tragic end when he was struck while out walking. He suffered a collapsed right lung, multiple fractures to his right leg, scalp laceration and a broken hip. Five operations and intense physical therapy followed. For a time, King threatened to retire from writing but made a triumphant comeback with novels like Cell, Duma Key and Just After Sunset. In 2009, King will publish his longest book since The Stand, entitled Under the Dome. With over 50 books over the past 35 years and with an estimated 350 million copies sold, classic films adapted from his writing, and a lasting contribution to American culture, King is arguably one the bestselling authors of all time.