Stephen Edwin King (born 21 September 1947) is an American author widely known as the "King of Horror," whose novels and short stories have sold an estimated 350–400 million copies worldwide. Though best known for horror, his work spans suspense, crime, science fiction, and fantasy, and his short story "1408" — and its 2007 film adaptation, 1408 — is one of the more direct points of connection between his fiction and documented real-world paranormal claims on The Vault, drawing on the reported hauntings of the Hotel del Coronado.[1]
Early life
King was born at Maine General Hospital in Portland, Maine, the second son of Nellie Ruth Pillsbury and Donald Edwin King. His father, a merchant marine captain, abandoned the family when King was two years old and was never seen by them again. His early childhood was divided between Indiana and Connecticut before the family settled in Durham, Maine, where he attended grammar and high school, graduating from Lisbon Falls High School in 1966.[2] He attended the University of Maine, graduating in 1970 with a bachelor's degree in English, and made his first professional short story sale in 1967 to Startling Mystery Stories.[3] He met his future wife, novelist Tabitha Spruce, while studying at the university.[4]
Early career
To support himself while writing, King worked as a labourer and, from autumn 1971, as a high school English teacher at Hampden Academy in Hampden, Maine, writing in the evenings and on weekends.[3] In spring 1973, Doubleday accepted his novel Carrie for publication — famously rescued from the rubbish bin by his wife after King, dissatisfied with an early draft, had discarded it.[4] Carrie's success in 1974 allowed King to leave teaching and write full-time, and established him instantly within the horror genre.[2]
Major works
King's early novels — Carrie (1974), 'Salem's Lot (1975), The Shining (1977), The Stand (1978), Cujo (1981), and It (1986) — established his reputation for blending horror, the macabre, fantasy, and science fiction, often addressing how obsession, technology, and small-town secrets can disrupt ordinary lives.[5] He has published under the pseudonym Richard Bachman, and has co-written works with author Peter Straub and with his own sons, Joe Hill and Owen King.[4] He has written roughly 200 short stories, most collected in anthologies, and his 1982 collection Different Seasons marked his first major departure from horror as a primary genre.[4]
Ghosts and hauntings in King's fiction
Several of King's works deal directly with reported hauntings and ghosts, most explicitly The Shining (1977), a gothic horror novel set in a haunted hotel, and the 1999 short story "1408," describing a paranormal debunker who checks into what is billed as one of the most haunted hotel rooms in America.[5][6] "1408" is often cited as King's closest approach to a traditional haunted house story, and — via the 2007 film adaptation, 1408 — is directly linked to real-world reporting on the Hotel del Coronado and its documented investigation by Christopher Chacon.[6] His 1999 novel Bag of Bones also centres on a haunting, and his 2008 novel Duma Key follows a disabled artist whose paintings gain the power to alter reality.[6]
Personal views on the supernatural
King has spoken about his own fascination with ghost stories and the supernatural in interviews, saying he still enjoys ghost films as an adult, even if they no longer frighten him the way they did as a child.[7] He has recounted a conversation with director Stanley Kubrick, who was adapting The Shining for film, in which Kubrick argued ghost stories were "rather optimistic" because they imply survival after death; King, who has said he does believe in an afterlife including hell, disagreed with Kubrick's further claim that he did not believe in hell.[8]
The 1999 accident
In the summer of 1999, King was struck by a van while walking along the shoulder of Route 5 near his home in Lovell, Maine, sustaining injuries that nearly killed him and left him in lasting chronic pain. He has said he no longer thinks about the pain constantly, crediting regular exercise for helping him stay mobile. He completed his non-fiction book on the craft of writing, On Writing, during his recovery.[9][7]
Personal life
King married Tabitha Spruce on 2 January 1971; she is herself a novelist and philanthropist, and has been supportive of King's career throughout, including her role in preserving his early Carrie manuscript. The couple have three children, Naomi, Joe, and Owen, and divide their time between homes in Bangor and Lovell, Maine, and a winter residence near the Gulf of Mexico in Sarasota, Florida.[4]
Adaptations
Numerous King works have been adapted for film and television, including Carrie (1976, 2013), The Shining (1980), The Dead Zone and Christine (both 1983), Stand by Me (1986), Misery (1990), The Shawshank Redemption (1994), Dolores Claiborne (1995), The Green Mile (1999), The Mist (2007), 1408 (2007), It (2017), and The Long Walk (2025).[4]
See also
References
- ↑ "Stephen King: How the Maine Author Became the "King of Horror"."Biography.com.24 September 2025.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Stephen King."EBSCO Research Starters.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 "Stephen King."StephenKing.com.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 "Stephen King."Stephen King's IT Wiki.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 "Stephen King."Encyclopaedia Britannica.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 "Stephen King's 10 Best Ghost Stories, Ranked."ScreenRant.5 November 2024.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 "Stephen King On Growing Up, Believing In God And Getting Scared."NPR.
- ↑ "The Stephen King Method."1517.
- ↑ "Stephen King: The 'Craft' Of Writing Horror Stories."NPR.2 July 2010.