Appendix: I A Glance at Stephen King’s Life Illustration 20: Stephen King 182 Stephen Edwin King was born on September 21, 1947 in Portland, Maine, USA, to Donald Edwin King and Nellie Ruth Pillsbury. When he was two years old, his father (born David Spansky) deserted his family and Ruth raised Stephen and his brother David by herself, sometimes under great financial strain. The family moved to Ruth’s home town of Durham, Maine but also spent brief periods in Fort Wayne, Indiana and Stratford, Connecticut. King attended Durham Elementary Grammar School and then nearby Lisbon High School. He has been writing since an early age. When in school, he wrote stories plagiarised from what he’d been reading at the time, and sold them to his friends. This was not popular among his teachers, and he was forced to return his profits when this was discovered. From 1966 to 1970, King studied English at the University of Maine at Orono. There, King wrote a column in the school magazine called “King’s Garbage Truck”. At the university, he also met Tabitha Spruce who he married in 1971. King took on odd jobs to pay for his studies. One of them was at an industrial laundry, from which he drew material for the short story “The Mangler”. This period in his life is readily evident in the second part of Hearts in Atlantis After finishing his university studies with a Bachelor of Science in English and obtaining a certificate to teach high school, King took a job as an English teacher at Hampden Academy in Hampden, Maine. During this time he and his family lived in a trailer. Making ends meet was sometimes difficult, and the money that came from short stories, published mainly in men’s magazines, was very 183 useful. King also developed a drinking problem which stayed with him for over a decade. During this period, King began a number of novels. One of them told a story of a young girl with psychic powers. Frustrated with it, he threw it into the trash. Later, he discovered that Tabitha had rescued it; she encouraged him to finish it as Carrie. In On Writing, King admits that at this time he was consistently drunk and that he was an alcoholic for well over a decade. He’d based the alcoholic father in The Shining on himself, though he didn’t admit it for several years. Shortly after the publication of The Tommyknockers, King’s family and friends finally intervened, dumping his trash on the rug in front of him to show him the evidence of his own addictions: beer cans, cigarette butts, grams of cocaine, Xanax, Valium, NyQuil. He sought help, and quit drinking in the late 1980s. King received the Hugo Award in 1978 from The World Science Fiction Convention for his book The Shining. In 1986, he received the Golden Pen Award from The Young Adult Advisory Committee of the Spokane Public Library as the most entertaining writer. In 1994, he won an O. Henry Award for his short story, “The Man in the Black Suit”, and in 2003 He was honoured with the Lifetime Achievement Award by the National Book Awards. In the summer of 1999, he had a terrible car accident which would likely have killed him or put him in a permanent coma. King has written six books under the pseudonym Richard Bachman. He staged a mock funeral for Bachman after the pseudonym was made public, which in turn inspired the book The 184 Dark Half, in which a novelist stages the burial of his horror author pseudonym after having a “serious” novel published, only to find that his alter ego does not want to leave quite so easily. He has also written a few books or short stories under the names John Swithen and George Stark (the name of the pseudonym in The Dark Half) as well. King plays the guitar in the band Rock Bottom Remainders and is also a lifelong fan of the Boston Red Sox, and is frequently found at both home and away baseball games. He recently co-wrote a book with Steward O’Nan chronicling their reaction to the Red Sox’ win in the 2004 American League Championship Series and World Series. The book is named Faithful. At present, he lives in Bangor, Maine area with his wife Tabitha King, who is also a novelist. He spends winter seasons in an oceanfront mansion located off the Gulf of Mexico in Nokmis, Florida. Their three children, Naomi Rachell, Joe Hill (who appeared in the film Creepshow), and Owen Phillip, are now grown and living on their own. King is a prolific writer. The details follow on the next page. 185 Appendix: II Stephen King’s Literary Works Novels 1. Carrie (1974) 2. Salem’s Lot (1975) 3. Rage (1977) (as Richard Bachman) 4. The Shining (1977) 5. The Stand (1978) 6. The Long Walk (1979) (as Richard Bachman) 7. The Dead Zone (1979) 8. Firestarter (1980) 9. Roadwork (1981) (as Richard Bachman) 10. Cujo (1981) 11. The Dark Tower I: The Gunslinger (1982) 12. The Running Man (1982) (as Richard Bachman) 13. Christine (1983) 14. Pet Sematary (1983) 15. The Talisman (1984) (written with Peter Straub) 16. Thinner (1984) (as Richard Bachman) 17. It (1986) 18. The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three (1987) 19. The Eyes of the Dragon (1987) 20. Misery (1987) 21. The Tommyknockers (1988) 22. The Dark Half (1989) 23. The Stand: The Complete & Uncut Edition (1990) 186 24. The Dark Tower III: The Waste Lands (1991) 25. Needful Things (1991) 26. Gerald’s Game (1992) 27. Dolores Claiborne (1993) 28. Insomnia (1994) 29. Rose Madder (1995) 30. Desperation (1996) 31. The Green Mile 1: The Two dead Girls (1996) 32. The Green Mile 2: The Mouse on the Mile (1996) 33. The Green Mile 3: Coffey’s Hands (1996) 34. The Green Mile 4: The Bad Death of Edward Delacroix (1996) 35. The Green Mile 5: Night Journey (1996) 36. The Green Mile 6: Coffey on the Mile (1996) 37. The Regulators (1996) (as Richard Bachman) 38. The Dark Tower IV: Wizard & Glass (1997) 39. Bag of Bones (1998) 40. The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon (1999) 41. The Green Mile (2000) 42. The Plant (2000) 43. Black House (2001) (written with Peter Straub) 44. Dreamcatcher (2001) 45. From A Buick 8 (2002) 46. The Dark Tower V: Wolves of the Calla (2003) 47. The Dark Tower VI: Song of Susannah (2004) 48. The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower (2004) 49. The Colorado Kid (2005) 187 50. Cell (2006) 51. Lisey’s Story (2006) Short Stories 1. Battleground (1978) 2. The Boogeyman (1978) 3. Children of the Corn (1978) 4. Graveyard Shift (1978) 5. Gray Matter (1978) 6. I am the Doorway (1978) 7. I Know What You Need (1978) 8. Quitters,Inc. (1978) 9. Sometimes They Come Back (1978) 10. Strawberry Spring (1978) 11. Trucks (1978) 12. Jerusalem’s Lot (1978) 13. The Last Rung on the Ladder (1978) 14. The Lawnmower Man (1978) 15. The Ledge (1978) 16. The Man Who Loved Flowers (1978) 17. The Mangler (1978) 18. Night Surf (1978) 19. One for the Road (1978) 20. The Woman in the Room (1978) 21. Apt Pupil (1982) 22. The Body (1982) 188 23. The Breathing Method (1982) 24. Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption (1982) 25. The Ballad of the Flexible Bullet (1985) 26. Beachworld (1985) 27. Big Wheels: A Tale of the Laundry Game (Milkman #2) (1985) 28. Cain Rose Up (1985) 29. Here There Be Tigers (1985) 30. Gramma (1985) 31. For Owen (1985) 32. The Raft (1985) 33. The Reach (1985) 34. The Reaper’s Image (1985) 35. The Survivor Type (1985) 36. The Jaunt (1985) 37. The Man Who Would Not Shake Hands (1985) 38. The Mist (1985) 39. The Monkey (1985) 40. Morning Deliveries (Milkman # 1) (1985) 41. Mrs. Todd’s Shortcut (1985) 42. Nona (1985) 43. Paranoid: A Chant (1985) 44. Uncle Otto’s Truck (1985) 45. The wedding Gig (1985) 46. Word Processor of the Gods (1985) 47. Dolan’s Cadillac (1989) 48. The Sun Dog (1990) 189 49. Secret Window, Secret Garden (1990) 50. The Langoliers (1990) 51. The Library Policeman (1990) 52. Brooklyn August (1993) 53. Chattery Teeth (1993) 54. Crouch End (1993) 55. Dedication (1993) 56. The Doctor’s Case (1993) 57. Dolan’s Cadillac (1993) 58. The End of the Whole Mess (1993) 59. The Fifth Quarter (1993) 60. Home Delivery (1993) 61. The House on Maple Street (1993) 62. Rainy Season (1993) 63. Sneakers (1993) 64. Sorry, Right Number (1993) 65. Suffer the Little Children (1993) 66. The Ten O’ Clock People (1993) 67. Umney’s Last Case (1993) 68. It Grows on You (1993) 69. The Moving Finger (1993) 70. My Pretty Pony (1993) 71. The Night Flier (1993) 72. Popsy (1993) 73. You Know They’ve Got a Hell of a Band (1993) 74. My Pretty Pony (1998) 75. Riding the Bullet (1999) 190 76. Riding the Bullet (2000) 77. 1408 (2002) 78. All That You Love Will Be Carried Away (2002) 79. Autopsy Room Four (2002) 80. The Death of Jack Hamilton (2002) 81. Everything’s Eventual (2002) 82. In The Deathroom (2002) 83. Road Virus Heads North (2002) 84. That Feeling, You can Only Say What It is in French (2002) 85. L.T.’s Theory of Pets (2002) 86. Little Sisters of Eluria (2002) 87. Luckey Quarter (2002) 88. Lunch at the Gotham Cafe (2002) 89. The Man in the Black Suit (2002) 90.