DELIGHTFUL SATURDAYS WITH MY FAVORITE AUTHORS AND POETS (60)

STEPHEN KING

( Image and information : Wikipedia)

Do you love horror stories? I certainly do. And speaking of the genre of horror, Stephen King is undoubtedly the best.

Stephen Edwin King, an American writer of horror, science fiction, fantasy, suspense, and supernatural literature, was born on September 21, 1947 at Portland, Maine, U.S. He is known as the “King of Horror,” as more than 350 million copies of his books  have been sold and also there are movies and television series adaptations of his books.

King has authored five non-fiction works and 64 novels, seven of which were published under the pen name Richard Bachman. He has also authored around 200 short stories, most of which have been published in book collections.

Stephen’s father, Donald Edwin King, travelled a lot, earning his income as a vacuum salesman after coming back from World War II. His original last name was Pollock but he changed it to King. Nellie Ruth King ( Pillsbury) was his mother. His parents got married on July 23, 1939 in Scarborough, Maine. They shifted their residence from Maine to Chicago before moving to Croton-on-Hudson, New York and back to Scarborough, near the end of World War II. Stephen’s father deserted his family when Stephen was two.

He and his older brother David were raised solely by their mother amidst financial difficulties.They left Scarborough and  relocated to Chicago, Croton-on-Hudson,  West De Pere, Fort Wayne, Malden,  Massachusetts, and Stratford, Connecticut,  depending on family members in those  places. King’s family relocated to Durham, Maine when he was 11 years old, and his  mother cared for her parents there until they  passed away.

She later started working as a caregiver in a  nearby home for mentally challenged people.Although King was raised as a Methodist, he  abandoned organised religion during his  senior year of high school. He claims he is  no longer religious but yet chooses to  believe in God.

King happened to witness a tragic incident,which according to some critics, might have made an impact on some of his dark works. This incident involved  Stephen’s friend being hit and killed by the train. King found a paperback copy of an H. P. Lovecraft collection of short stories, The Lurker in the Shadows, while searching through an attic with his older brother. This book had belonged to King’s father. His interest in horror, was intensified, by reading EC horror comics, including Tales from the Crypt.

In 1966, King graduated from Lisbon Falls  High School in Lisbon Falls, Maine, after  attending Durham Elementary School. He started writing for his brother’s newspaper, Dave’s Rag, printed on a mimeograph machine. “I Was a Teenage Grave Robber,” which was serialised over four issues (three published and one unpublished) of a fanzine called Comics Review in 1965, was the first of his stories to be independently published.King also worked a variety of jobs to support himself while attending school, such as  those of a janitor, a gas station attendant  and an employee of an industrial laundry.

King did his Bachelor of Arts in English from the University of Maine in 1970. It was the  same year, in which he was blessed with his daughter, Naomi Rachel. He met and married   fellow student Tabitha Spruce, in 1971.

His writing career took off with the publication of  his short story, “The Glass Floor“, to Startling Mystery Stories in 1967.

His popular works:

1974 Carrie

1975 ‘Salem’s Lot

1977 The Shining , Rage

1978 The Stand

1979 The Long Walk, The Dead Zone

1980 Firestarter

1981 Roadwork, Cujo

1982 The Running Man , The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger

1983: Christine, Pet Sematary, Cycle of the Werewolf.

Since the volume of his books is quite long, I mentioned some of his books here.

His awards:

May Stephen King continue to rule our hearts and keep giving us goosebumps with many more of his awesome books to come.

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