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 ...more 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 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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books by Stephen King

	The Shining by Stephen King avg rating 3.84 — 112,577 ratings — published 1977 75 editions	my rating: add to my books
	The Stand by Stephen King avg rating 4.25 — 44,186 ratings — published 1978 60 editions	my rating: add to my books
	It by Stephen King avg rating 3.85 — 33,707 ratings — published 1986 59 editions	my rating: add to my books
	Misery by Stephen King avg rating 3.82 — 30,089 ratings — published 1987 71 editions	my rating: add to my books
	The Gunslinger (The Dark Tower, #1) by Stephen King avg rating 3.92 — 28,180 ratings — published 1982 57 editions	my rating: add to my books
	Pet Sematary by Stephen King avg rating 3.53 — 27,661 ratings — published 1983 73 editions	my rating: add to my books
	Carrie by Stephen King avg rating 3.60 — 26,931 ratings — published 1974 83 editions	my rating: add to my books
	Salem's Lot by Stephen King avg rating 3.74 — 25,356 ratings — published 1975 89 editions	my rating: add to my books
	The Drawing of the Three (The Dark Tower, #2) by Stephen King avg rating 4.10 — 21,531 ratings — published 1987 49 editions	my rating: add to my books
	The Green Mile Book Box Set by Stephen King avg rating 4.26 — 20,819 ratings — published 1996 62 editions	my rating: add to my books

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videos about Stephen King

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Stephen King responds to the Stephenie Meyer/Twilight controversy
109 people liked it | 4985 views 51 comments

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

1,506 people liked it

"Get busy living or get busy dying."
— Stephen King (Shawshank Redemption)

tags: life

1,400 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

1,386 people liked it

see all Stephen King's quotes »

polls

What frequently challenged or banned adult-themed book should we read in January and February?

[Note: if you want to see different books in the polls, suggest some!]

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

11 votes, 29.7%

The Flowers of Evil by Charles Baudelaire

7 votes, 18.9%

1984 by George Orwell

5 votes, 13.5%

Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut

4 votes, 10.8%

Carrie by Stephen King

3 votes, 8.1%

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

3 votes, 8.1%

American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis

2 votes, 5.4%

Native Son by Richard Wright

2 votes, 5.4%

The Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy

0 votes, 0.0%

My House by Nikki Giovanni

0 votes, 0.0%

37 total votes

2 comments

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