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The King of Terror, Stephen Edwin King, is one of todays most popular and best selling writers. King combines the elements of psychological thrillers, science fiction, the paranormal, and detective themes into his stories. In addition to these themes, King sticks to using great and vivid detail that is set in a realistic everyday place. Stephen King who is mainly known for his novels, has broadened his horizons to different types of writings such as movie scripts, nonfiction, autobiographies, childrens books, and short stories. While Stephen King might be best known for his novels The Stand and It, some of his best work that has been published are his short stories such as The Body and Quitters Inc. Kings works are so powerful because he uses his experience and observations from his everyday life and places them into his unique stories.
Stephen King was born in September 21, 1947, in Portland, Maine. Kings father, Donald, disappeared when he was only three years old; with his mother, Ruth, and older brother, David, King moved around a good deal, finally returning to Maine in 1958. He wrote his first short story at the age of seven, and was a devoted fan of 1950 s horror movies. In high school, King played football and joined a local band; he also began contributing a number of stories to mystery magazines and other publications.
He graduated from the University of Maine in 1970 with a degree in English; in the fall of 1971, he began teaching at a high school called Hampden Academy. After his first two attempts at a novel were rejected, King became frustrated and reportedly threw away his next manuscript. His wife, Tabitha Spruce (whom he met in college and married in early 1971), rescued it and persuaded him to continue 1974, Doubleday published Carrie, which became a bestseller and a hit 1976 movie, directed by Brian De Palma and starring Sissy Spacek. Sale of the paperback rights proved to be enough for King to quit teaching and embark on a full-time writing career. King followed up on the success of Carrie with an astonishing run of bestselling short stories and novels. He published a good deal of work under the pseudonym Richard Bachman, which he used from 1977 to 1984.
This disguised the true extent of his prolific output, until the ruse became public knowledge and he abandoned it. Kings own name became synonymous with blockbuster novels blending horror, fantasy, and science fiction into a consistently creepy mix. He soon earned the title King of Horror for his continuing mastery of the macabre. All together, King has sold well over 100 million copies of his books worldwide and has become the richest writer of all time. He consistently ranks among Americas highest-paid entertainers, according to Forbes magazine. Some of his bestselling novels include Salem's Lot (1975), The Stand (1978), The Dead Zone (1979), Pet Sematary (1983), Needful Things (1991), Gerald's Game (1992), and the Dark Tower series.
An astonishing number of Kings works have been made into movies, many of which were box-office hits. The 1980 film version of his 1977 novel The Shining, directed by Stanley Kubrick and starring Jack Nicholson, became an all-time horror classic. A few other notable films made from his stories and novels include 1983 s Christine (from the 1983 novel); 1986 s Stand By Me (from a story entitled The Body); 1990 s Misery (from the 1987 novel), starring Kathy Bates and James Caan; 1994 s The Shawshank Redemption (from a 1983 story in the collection Different Seasons), starring Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman; and 1999 s The Green Mile (from a six-part serial novel published in 1996), starring Tom Hanks. King has appeared in minor roles in a number of film versions of his works, including K nightriders (1981), Creepshow (1982), Pet Sematary (1989), Sleepwalkers (1992), and the TV movie The Stand (1994). On June 19, 1999, King was seriously injured when he was struck by a minivan on a road near his summer home in Lovell, Maine. The driver who hit King, a disabled man named Bryan Smith, lost control of his vehicle after being distracted by his Rottweiler, which was loose in the minivan; he was indicted for aggravated assault but pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of driving to endanger, allowing him to avoid serving any jail time. (In an eerie twist, Smith was found dead in bed at his locked home in September 2000, and an autopsy failed to reveal a cause of death. ) After undergoing extensive surgery on his leg and hip, King spent months on major rehabilitation and physical therapy before he was able to walk.
In the summer of 2000, King opened new doors in publishing when he released a first installment of The Plant on his official Web site, asking readers to pay $ 1. 00 to download the chapter. The venture was extremely successful, with many faithful readers paying far more than the required dollar to read Kings work. He released a second chapter in late August 2000, and plans to continue such exclusively online ventures in the future. His latest novel, Dreamcatcher, was published in early 2001. King and his wife live near Bangor, Maine, and have three children: Joe, Owen, and Naomi. 1974 Carrie 1975 Salem's Lot 1977 Rage 1977 The Shining 1978 The Stand 1978 Night Shift 1979 The Dead Zone 1979 The Long Walk 1980 Firestarter 1980 Danse Macabre 1981 Cujo 1981 Roadwork 1982 The Running Man 1982 The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger 1982 Different Seasons 1982 Creepshow 1983 Christine 1983 Pet Sematary 1984 The Talisman 1984 Thinner 1985 Cycle of the Werewolf 1985 Skeleton Crew 1986 It 1987 Misery 1987 The Tommyknockers 1987 The Eyes of the Dragon 1987 The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three 1989 The Dark Half 1990 The Stand 1990 Four Past Midnight 1991 Needful Things 1992 Dolores Claiborne 1992 The Dark Tower III: The Waste Lands 1993 Gerald's Game 1993 Nightmares and Dreamscapes 1994 Insomnia 1995 Rose Madder 1996 Desperation 1996 The Green Mile 1996 The Bachman Books 1996 The Regulators 1997 Six Stories 1997 Dark Tower IV: Wizard and Glass 1998 Bag of Bones 1999 Hearts in Atlantis 1999 The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon 1999 Storm of the Century 2000 The Plant 2001 Dreamcatcher
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Research essay sample on Stories And Novels Stephen King
