Stephen King
August 1, 1997
This month, we've chosen Stephen King as our featured author. I think the reason is fairly self-explanatory — he's one of the best and most widely appreciated horror authors of all time. His work stands as a benchmark for all other authors in the horror genre. Here's what we scraped together on him. Enjoy!
- The Man: An Abridged Biography
- Publications Listing to Date (Novels, Series, and Anthologies Only)
- Resources
The Man
Stephen Edwin King was born on September 21, 1947, in Portland, Maine to Nellie Ruth Pillsbury and Donald King. He and his older brother, David, were raised primarily by his mother after his father left for a pack of cigarettes and never returned. Stephen's childhood was spent living between Fort Wayne, Indiana, where his father's family lived, and Massachusetts and Maine with his mother and her family. Eventually, Stephen and David settled with their mother in Durham Maine, where the boys attended school.
King graduated from high school in 1966 and pursued a Bachelors of Science degree in English at the University of Maine at Orono. While a student, he met his future wife, Tabitha Spruce, among the shelves of the Folger Campus Library, where both worked as students. King graduated from the University in 1970, and married Tabitha in 1971. King initially was unable to find placement as a teacher, so he and Tabitha lived off his earnings as a laborer at an industrial laundry, and her student loans and savings. Occasionally they would receive a boost from one of his short stories that had been published in various men's magazines. Many of these stories were later compiled into the Night Shift collection.
In the fall of 1971, Stephen began teaching high school English at Hamden Public High School in Maine. Writing in the evenings and on weekends, he continued to produce short stories and to work on novels. In the spring of 1973, King's novel Carrie was published, enabling him to leave teaching and concentrate on his writing.
In his books King has explored almost every terror-producing theme imaginable, from vampires, rabid dogs, deranged killers, and a pyromaniac to ghosts, extrasensory perception and telekinesis, biological warfare, and even a malevolent automobile. Though his work was disparaged as undisciplined and inelegant, King was a talented storyteller whose books gain their effect from realistic detail, forceful plotting, and the author's undoubted ability to involve and scare the reader.
King's major contribution to horror literature is to situate it within the general anxieties of contemporary life. His focus is not on vampires, werewolves and such but on ordinary people faced with these horrors and the darker horrors of the lost jobs, disintegrating families, mental breakdown, and all the other fears that haunt the atomic age. His novels vindicate the dreads of that age.
Publications Listing
Carrie. Doubleday, 1974.
Salem's Lot. Doubleday, 1975.
The Shining. Doubleday, 1977.
Rage. (As Richard Bachman). New American Library, 1977.
The Stand. Doubleday, 1978.
Night Shift. Doubleday, 1978.
The Dead Zone. Viking, 1979.
The Long Walk. New American Library, 1979.
Firestarter. Viking, 1980.
Danse Macabre. Everest House, 1981.
Cujo. Viking, 1981.
Roadwork. (As Richard Bachman). New American Library, 1981.
Different Seasons. Viking, 1982.
The Running Man. (As Richard Bachman). New American Library, 1982.
The Gunslinger (Dark Tower I). Donald M. Grant, 1982.
Christine. Viking, 1983.
Pet Sematary. Doubleday, 1983.
The Talisman. Viking, 1984.
Thinner. (As Richard Bachman). Signet, 1984.
Skeleton Crew. Putnam, 1985.
IT. Viking, 1986.
The Eyes Of The Dragon. Viking, 1987.
Misery. Viking, 1987.
The Drawing Of The Three (Dark Tower II). Donald M. Grant, 1987.
The Tommyknockers. Putnam, 1987.
The Dark Half. Viking, 1989.
Four Past Midnight. Viking, 1990.
Stephen King's Creepshow. Plume, 1990.
The Stand: Complete and Uncut. Doubleday, 1990.
The Wastelands (Dark Tower III). Donald M. Grant, 1991.
Needful Things. Viking, 1991.
Gerald's Game. Viking, 1992.
Dolores Claiborne. Viking, 1993.
Nightmares and Dreamscapes. Viking, 1993.
Insomnia. Viking, 1994.
Rose Madder. Viking, 1995.
The Green Mile (6 parts). Signet, 1996.
Desperation. Viking, 1996.
The Regulators. (As Richard Bachman). Viking, 1996.
Wizard & Glass (Dark Tower IV). Donald M. Grant, 1997.
- Web Resources
Stephen King's 'The Shining'
Lilja's Library - All Things Stephen King
The Stephen King Fan Page
Sanyok's Stephen King Page
The Stephen King WebSite
Stephen King: The Unofficial Web Site
Penguin Putnam's Stephen King Site
Roland's Riddles - A Dark Tower 4 Site
Welcome to Castle Rock
The Stephen King WebRing
Oh the Horror! - Being Stephen King
- Print Resources
Articles About Stephen KingCinefantastique - 2/91 - Stephen King Issue
Fangoria - #20 - Article about Creepshow
Fangoria - #99 - Inteview, Graveyard Shift, It
Fangoria - #100 - Interview
Fangoria - #101 - Misery, Sometimes They Come Back
Fangoria - #105 - Interview, Golden Years, The Dark Half
Fangoria - #113 - Interview
Fangoria - #114 - Interviwe
Fangoria - #121 - The Dark Half
Fangoria - #125 - Needful Things
Fangoria - #130 - The Stand
Fear - #8 - Aug 89 - "The Maine Man"
Fear - #9 - Sep 89 - "The Maine Man Part II: Overlooked"
Oui - Aug 81 - Interview
TV Guide - 5/7-13/94 - The Stand TV Movie, Interview
Writer's Digest - 3/92 - "Digging Up Stories with Stephen King"Interviews with Stephen King
Writer's Digest - Jun 77 - "Witches and Aspirin"
Writer's Digest - Oct 78 - "Booze and the Writer"
Tomb of Dracula #4 - "The Dark Behind the Door: Walking (Nervously) into Stephen King's World"
Tomb of Dracula #5 - "The Dark Behind the Door Part II: Smack in the Middle of Stephen King's World"
Writer's Digest - Mar 92 - "Digging Up Stories with Stephen King"
Time - Apr 27, 92 - "The King of Creep"
Publishers Weekly - Spr 91 - "King of Horror"
Time - Oct 6, 86 - "King of Horror"
American Film - Jun 86 - "King of the Road"
Twilight Zone - Apr 81 - "Stephen King: I Like to Go For the Jugular"
Twilight Zone - Feb 86 - "Talking Terror"
Twilight Zone - Dec 86 - 'The Truth About "It"'
Los Angeles Times - May 4, 89 - "Stephen King's Reign of Terror"
Los Angeles Times - Mar 15, 92 - "Stephen King Kicks Grass"
The New York Times - Oct 26, 88 - "Writer Eats Steak Before It Eats Him"
The New York Times - Jul 14, 91 - "TV Gets a New Poltergeist: Stephen King"
Books About Stephen King
Beahm, George. The Stephen King Story. Andrews & McMeel, November 1992.
Beahm, George, Ed. The Stephen King Companion. Andrews & McMeel, December 1, 1995.
Collings, Michael R. The Annotated Guide to Stephen King : A Primary and Secondary Bibliography of the Works of America's Premier Horror Writer (Starmont Reference Guide). Starmont House, October 1986.
Kayishian, Amy, & Kayishian, Marj. Stephen King (Pop Culture Legends). Chelsea House Publishers, Pennsylvania, August 1, 1995.
Lloyd, Ann. The Films of Stephen King, Volume I. St. Martins Press, December 1, 1994.
Magistrale, Anthony, Ed. The Casebook on the Stand (Studies in Literary Criticism, No 38). Starmont House, October 1992.
Russell, Sharon A. Stephen King : A Critical Companion (Critical Companions to Popular Contemporary Writers). Greenwood Publishing Group, Connecticut, June 1996.
Schweitzer, Darrell. Discovering Stephen King. Starmont House, July 1985.
Spignesi, Stephen J. The Stephen King Quiz Book. New American Library, September 1, 1991.
Spignesi, Stephen J. The Second Stehen King Quiz Book. Signet, New York, July 1, 1992.
Spignesi, Stephen J. The Complete Stephen King Encyclopedia : The Definitive Guide to the Works of America's Master of Horror. Contemporary Books, April 1, 1993.
Underwood, Tim. Bare Bones : Conversations on Terror With Stephen King. Warner Books, New York, July 1989.
- Other Resources
Stephen King Newsgroup - alt.books.stephen-king
Stephen King Newsgroup - alt.fan.authors.stephen-king
Phantasmagoria - The Stephen King Newsletter
