Early Years
Born in Portland, Maine on September 21, 1947, his father who was a merchant seaman deserted the family in 1950 when Steven was only three years old. His mother supported her two sons (Steven and his brother, David) by working odd jobs. By the age of six, his eardrum had been punctured several times, which was a painful experience he would always remember. Steven began playing in an amateur rock band, editing the school newspaper, "The Drum," and writing stories while attending high school in Lisbon Falls in Durham.
In 1960, he submitted his first short story and received his first rejection notice. (There wouldn't be many.) His second story, "In A Half World of Terror", was published in a horror fanzine. In 1970, he graduated from the University of Maineand in 1971 married writer, Tabitha Spruce. The couple has three adult children, two boys and a girl.
Writing Horror
From 1971 to 1974, King worked as an instructor at Hampden Academy, earning les than $7,000 a year. His first novel, "Carrie" (1974), had been thrown into the garbage and rescued by King's wife who urged him to finish it. As a hardcover, it had only moderate success, selling about 13,000 copies, but Signet paid $400,000 for its paperback rights! The story was made into a film in 1976, and after "Salem's Lot" later that same year, King became known as a major American horror writer.
His next commercial success was "The Shining," the idea of which derived from an extended holiday in Colorado and a visit to the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park. King was unhappy with the film version, and he himself turned the story into a television miniseries in 1997, some twenty years after the release of the film.
Bangor, Maine, has been King's home for most of his career. His life has had its share of difficulties; he has battled with and won an alcohol and drug addiction, and was terribly injured when he was struck by a truck in the summer of 1999.
He continues to enthrall his adoring public and his genius for the macabre lives on.
