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Stephen King

Author profile

born

September 21, 1947 in Portland, Maine, The United States

gender

male

website

http://www.stephenking.com/

genre

Mystery & Thrillers, Horror, Literature & Fiction

influences

Robert Bloch, Ray Bradbury, William Golding, Shirley Jackson, Fritz Le...more

About this author

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Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

Stephen Edwin King was born in Portland, Maine in 1947, the second son of Donald and Nellie Ruth Pillsbury King. After his parents separated when Stephen was a toddler, he and his older brother, David, were raised by his mother. Parts of his childhood were spent in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where his father's family was at the time, and in Stratford, Connecticut. When Stephen was eleven, his mother brought her children back to Durham, Maine, for good. Her parents, Guy and Nellie Pillsbury, had become incapacitated with old age, and Ruth King was persuaded by her sisters to take over the physical care of the el...moreLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

Stephen Edwin King was born in Portland, Maine in 1947, the second son of Donald and Nellie Ruth Pillsbury King. After his parents separated when Stephen was a toddler, he and his older brother, David, were raised by his mother. Parts of his childhood were spent in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where his father's family was at the time, and in Stratford, Connecticut. When Stephen was eleven, his mother brought her children back to Durham, Maine, for good. Her parents, Guy and Nellie Pillsbury, had become incapacitated with old age, and Ruth King was persuaded by her sisters to take over the physical care of the elderly couple. Other family members provided a small house in Durham and financial support. After Stephen's grandparents passed away, Mrs. King found work in the kitchens of Pineland, a nearby residential facility for the mentally challenged.

Stephen attended the grammar school in Durham and then Lisbon Falls High School, graduating in 1966. From his sophomore year at the University of Maine at Orono, he wrote a weekly column for the school newspaper, THE MAINE CAMPUS. He was also active in student politics, serving as a member of the Student Senate. He came to support the anti-war movement on the Orono campus, arriving at his stance from a conservative view that the war in Vietnam was unconstitutional. He graduated from the University of Maine at Orono in 1970, with a B.A. in English and qualified to teach on the high school level. A draft board examination immediately post-graduation found him 4-F on grounds of high blood pressure, limited vision, flat feet, and punctured eardrums.

He and Tabitha Spruce married in January of 1971. He met Tabitha in the stacks of the Fogler Library at the University of Maine at Orono, where they both worked as students. As Stephen was unable to find placement as a teacher immediately, the Kings lived on his earnings as a laborer at an industrial laundry, and her student loan and savings, with an occasional boost from a short story sale to men's magazines.

Stephen made his first professional short story sale ("The Glass Floor") to Startling Mystery Stories in 1967. Throughout the early years of his marriage, he continued to sell stories to men's magazines. Many of these were later gathered into the Night Shift collection or appeared in other anthologies.

In the fall of 1971, Stephen began teaching high school English classes at Hampden Academy, the public high school in Hampden, Maine. Writing in the evenings and on the weekends, he continued to produce short stories and to work on novels.(less)

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64 posts
Stephen King's Blog

Stephen King isn't a Goodreads Author (yet), but he does have a blog, so here are some recent posts imported from his feed.

The Mammoth Book of Body Horror Coming in March

Constable and Robinson will release "The Mammoth Book of Body Horror" on March 1st. The expansive anthology includes "twenty-five stories of transformation, mutation and contagion" by some of the genres very best writers.

The collection includes Stephen's highly disturbing short story "Survivor Type" from Skeleton Crew. For more information please see our ... read more »

View more on Stephen King's website »

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Published on February 09, 2012 09:29 • 807 views

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combine editions
Books by Stephen King

Average rating: 3.81 · 2,133,780 ratings · 77,076 reviews · 615 distinct works

	The Shining 3.88 avg rating — 247,247 ratings — published 1977 — 106 editions	My rating:
	The Stand by Stephen King, Bernie Wrightson (Illustrator) 4.26 avg rating — 96,955 ratings — published 1978 — 103 editions	My rating:
	It 3.93 avg rating — 75,760 ratings — published 1986 — 74 editions	My rating:
	Misery 3.88 avg rating — 65,957 ratings — published 1987 — 82 editions	My rating:
	The Gunslinger (The Dark Tower, #1) 3.94 avg rating — 64,688 ratings — published 1982 — 88 editions	My rating:
	Pet Sematary 3.64 avg rating — 61,322 ratings — published 1983 — 81 editions	My rating:
	Carrie 3.68 avg rating — 60,013 ratings — published 1974 — 98 editions	My rating:
	'Salem's Lot 3.81 avg rating — 54,327 ratings — published 1975 — 99 editions	My rating:
	The Drawing of the Three (The Dark Tower, #2) 4.12 avg rating — 39,864 ratings — published 1987 — 73 editions	My rating:
	The Green Mile 4.29 avg rating — 40,648 ratings — published 1996 — 82 editions	My rating:

More books by Stephen King…

Series by Stephen King

The Dark Tower (7 books)
by Stephen King

4.04 avg rating — 271,399 ratings

The Shining (2 books)
by Stephen King

3.88 avg rating — 246,966 ratings

The Green Mile (6 books)
by Stephen King

4.33 avg rating — 63,466 ratings

The Talisman (2 books)
by Stephen King, Peter Straub (Goodreads Author)

3.96 avg rating — 39,926 ratings

Stephen King Raštai (1 book)
by Stephen King, Gregory Evans (Adaptor)

3.91 avg rating — 304 ratings

More series by Stephen King…

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Quotes by Stephen King

“If you don't have time to read, you don't have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that.”
― Stephen King

tags: reading , writing

3,285 people liked it

“Get busy living or get busy dying.”
― Stephen King, The Shawshank Redemption

tags: life

3,029 people liked it

“When his life was ruined, his family killed, his farm destroyed, Job knelt down on the ground and yelled up to the heavens, "Why god? Why me?" and the thundering voice of God answered, There's just something about you that pisses me off.”
― Stephen King, Storm of the Century: An Original Screenplay

tags: god , humor , religion

2,998 people liked it

See all Stephen King's quotes »

Polls

What frequently challenged or banned book for adults should we read in August and September?

Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes

25 votes, 20.2%

Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

18 votes, 14.5%

Carrie by Stephen King

16 votes, 12.9%

A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway

13 votes, 10.5%

Rabbit, Run by John Updike

12 votes, 9.7%

The Anarchist Cookbook by William Powell

11 votes, 8.9%

An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser

8 votes, 6.5%

Native Son by Richard Wright

8 votes, 6.5%

Final Exit (Third Edition): The Practicalities of Self-Deliverance and Assisted Suicide for the Dying by Derek Humphry

7 votes, 5.6%

Women in Love by D.H. Lawrence

6 votes, 4.8%

124 total votes

15 comments

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