Carrie is a 1976 American supernatural horror film^[2] directed by Brian De Palma and written by Lawrence D. Cohen, based on the novel Carrie by Stephen King. The film stars Sissy Spacek, Piper Laurie, Betty Buckley, Amy Irving, Nancy Allen, William Katt, John Travolta, P.J. Soles and Priscilla Pointer. It is the story of a socially outcast teenage girl named Carrie White who discovers she possesses latent psionic power which seems to flare up when she becomes angry or otherwise distressed. Carrie's powers become apparent after her humiliation by her peers, teachers, and abusive mother, eventually resulting in tragedy. It was the first of several Stephen King novels to be made into movies for screen and TV: it also introduced young stars who would later be famous, except for Piper Laurie, who had already made several films.

The film was a major success for United Artists, grossing $33.8 million at the U.S. box office, on a budget of $1.8 million. It received a mostly positive response from critics.^[3][4] The film spawned a failed sequel The Rage: Carrie 2 and a fairly well-received made for television film, released in 2002, neither of which involved De Palma. During a survey taken in October 2008, it was revealed that Carrie was considered one of the most popular movies teens watched on Halloween.^[5]

Spacek and Laurie were nominated for Academy Award for Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress respectively.

Plot[link]

Carrie White (Sissy Spacek) is a shy, friendless teenage girl abused by her unstable Christian fundamentalist mother Margaret (Piper Laurie). The girls at Bates High School also harass Carrie with Chris Hargensen (Nancy Allen) being especially cruel.

Carrie experiences her first period while showering after gym class, and, because of her sheltered life, becomes hysterical, thinking she is dying. Popular girl Sue Snell (Amy Irving) notices Carrie's horror, leading to the other girls throwing tampons and sanitary pads at her before Miss Collins (Betty Buckley) intervenes. As Carrie becomes more frantic, a light bulb bursts just before Miss Collins tells the other girls to leave. Miss Collins brings Carrie to Principal Morton's office. While consoling her, Principal Morton (Stefan Gierasch) repeatedly calls Carrie "Cassie", unintentionally emphasizing how overlooked she is. When Carrie corrects the principal and exclaims, "it's Carrie!", an ashtray from the principal's desk flips onto the floor. While Carrie is walking home, a neighborhood boy crashes his bicycle immediately after taunting her.

Margaret, who walks from door to door "spreading the gospel of salvation through Christ's blood", receives a call from Miss Collins about the locker room incident and tells Carrie that the "curse of blood" is punishment for sin. She locks Carrie in a closet and forces her to pray. In her bedroom that night, a miserable Carrie stares at her mirror until it shatters.

The next day, English teacher Mr. Fromm (Sydney Lassick) reads a poem to the class written by Sue's athletic boyfriend Tommy Ross (William Katt). Fromm invites the class to critique Tommy's work, but mocks Carrie when she calls it "beautiful", which irks Tommy, who defends Carrie. Sue (feeling guilty for teasing Carrie) convinces Tommy to take Carrie to the prom.

Carrie suspects she may have a telekinetic gift, and researches it in the library. Tommy asks Carrie to prom but she flees, fearing another trick. After a pep talk from Miss Collins, Carrie accepts Tommy's invitation when he approaches her at her home. Carrie tells her mother that she is going to the prom, and Margaret declares the prom an occasion of sin, refusing to let her attend. However, Carrie causes the windows of the house to slam shut, revealing her telekinesis. Margaret believes this is Satan's power, but Carrie insists she will go to the prom and Margaret reluctantly lets her.

Miss Collins berates the girls who tormented Carrie, subjecting them to a week-long boot-camp-style detention, threatening them with suspension from school and the prom if they do not attend. All the girls show remorse except for Chris. After Chris throws a fit, Miss Collins smacks her in the face and bans her from the prom. Chris tells her delinquent boyfriend Billy Nolan (John Travolta) that she wants revenge on Carrie and Miss Collins and goes with Billy and other kids to a farm where Billy kills a pig. After draining the pig's blood into a bucket, Chris has Billy place the bucket above the school's stage.

Chris makes a deal with her friend Norma Watson (P.J. Soles) and Billy's friend Freddy to rig the election of prom king and queen so Tommy and Carrie win. As Carrie gets ready for the evening, her mother tells her that everyone will laugh at her. Carrie defies her mother, leaving with Tommy. Though her classmates are surprised to see Carrie at prom, they treat her as an equal. Sue, who was unable to attend due to lacking a date, sneaks into the prom to ensure everything is going well for Carrie.

To Carrie's surprise, she and Tommy are named prom king and queen. As the couple approaches the stage to be crowned, Sue discovers Chris hiding behind the stage holding a rope attached to the bucket of pig's blood. Miss Collins forces Sue out, believing she is there for mischief. As the crown is placed on Carrie's head, Chris pulls the rope and Carrie is drenched in pig's blood. As the crowd looks on in silence, Tommy is knocked unconscious by the bucket and Carrie sees the whole room laughing and jeering at her, when it is implied that only a few of Chris's friends are doing so in reality, while everyone else is horrified. Carrie's telekinesis takes over, closing the doors to the gym and turning on a fire hose. Norma is knocked out by the fire hose along with many other people, and Carrie kills Miss Collins with a falling rafter. Principal Morton and Mr. Fromm are electrocuted which then causes a fire in the gym. Leaving her classmates inside the school as it burns, Carrie walks home covered in blood. Chris and Billy, who got out of the gym but witnessed what happened through a window, catch up with her intending to run her over with Billy's car, but Carrie uses her powers to flip the car over, killing Billy and Chris.

At home, Carrie breaks down in her mother's arms after taking a bath. Believing the devil has taken over Carrie, Margaret brings the girl to her knees and stabs Carrie in the back. Carrie falls down the stairs and is cornered in the kitchen by her mother, but sends kitchen knives flying at her mother, killing her in a position reminiscent of the shrine to Saint Sebastian kept in Carrie's punishment closet.^[6] Overcome with guilt and grief, Carrie uses her telekinesis to collapse the house upon her and her mother.

Some time later, Sue, the only survivor of the prom, dreams of visiting the plot where Carrie's house stood. As she places flowers on the ground, a bloody hand reaches out grabbing Sue's wrist. Sue wakes up screaming in her mother's arms.

Cast[link]

• Sissy Spacek as Carrie White
• Amy Irving as Sue Snell
• Piper Laurie as Margaret White
• Betty Buckley as Miss Collins
• William Katt as Tommy Ross
• Nancy Allen as Chris Hargensen
• John Travolta as Billy Nolan
• P. J. Soles as Norma Watson
• Priscilla Pointer as Mrs. Snell
• Sydney Lassick as Mr. Fromm
• Stefan Gierasch as Mr. Morton
• Michael Talbott as Freddy
• Doug Cox as The Beak
• Harry Gold as George Dawson
• Edie McClurg as Helen Shyres

Production[link]

Pre-production[link]

Carrie was the first Stephen King novel to be published and the first to be adapted into a feature film. In an interview in Port Charlotte, Florida at a public appearance near his home on the Gulf coast on March 20, 2010, King said he was 26 years old at the time and was paid just $2,500 for the film rights, but adding "I was fortunate to have that happen to my first book."^[7] De Palma told Cinefantastique magazine in an interview in 1977:

Lawrence D. Cohen was hired as the writer, and produced the first draft, which had closely followed the novel's intentions.^[9] However, later versions departed from King's vision rapidly, and certain scripted scenes were omitted from the final version, mainly due to financial limitations.

The final scene, in which Sue reaches toward Carrie's grave, was shot backwards to give it a dreamlike quality. It was also filmed at night, using artificial lighting to create the desired effect. This scene was inspired by the final scene in Deliverance (1972).^[9] Spacek had insisted on using her own hand in the given scene, so she was positioned under the rocks and gravel. DePalma stated 'Sissy, come on, I'll get a stunt person. What do you want? To be buried in the ground?!' However Spacek declared 'Brian, I have to do this.' DePalma explains that they "had to bury her. Bury her! We had to put her in a box and stick her underneath the ground. Well, I had her husband bury her because I certainly didn't want to bury her. I used to walk around and set up the shot and every once in a while we'd hear Sissy: 'Are we ready yet?' 'Yeah, Sissy, we're going to be ready real soon." The White house was filmed in Santa Paula, California and to give the home a Gothic theme, director and producers went to religious shops looking for artifacts to place in the home.

The site of one of the locations where Carrie was filmed, Palisades Charter High School ("Pali High"), was owned by Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher - parents of Carrie Fisher - years before the school was built. Some years after the couple had purchased the lot, the State acquired the land by eminent domain (compulsory purchase) to build the school.

Initially, Melanie Griffith had auditioned for the role, taking it as an opportunity to begin a career as a mature, adult actress. After Griffith dropped out from the project, Sissy Spacek was persuaded by husband Jack Fisk to audition for the title role. Fisk then convinced De Palma to let her audition. After several auditions, DePalma concluded that Spacek would be playing Chris Hargensen.^[10] Determined to land the leading role, Spacek backed out of a television commercial she was scheduled to film,^[10] rubbed Vaseline into her hair, didn't bother to wash her face, and arrived at the final audition clad in a sailor dress which her mother had made her in the seventh grade, with the hem cut off,^[8] and was given the part.

Amy Irving was cast alongside her mother, Priscilla Pointer, who would play the mother of Irving's character.

Nancy Allen was the last to audition, and her audition came just as she was on the verge of leaving Hollywood.^[9] She and De Palma later married.

Filming[link]

Principal photography and filming began on May 17, 1976 and ended in July, with a 50-day shooting schedule. Principal location shooting occurred in California: in Culver City Studios, and in Los Angeles, the Bates High School scenes were filmed at Pier Avenue Junior High in Hermosa Beach, with the exception of the shots of the Bates High School athletic field, which were filmed at Palisades Charter High School in Pacific Palisades. The shots of the school in flames, and the gym scenes, were both filmed inside Culver City Studios.

De Palma began with director of photography Isidore Mankofsky, who was eventually replaced by Mario Tosi after conflict between Mankofsky and De Palma ensued.^[11] Gregory M. Auer served as the special effects supervisor for Carrie, with Jack Fisk, Spacek's husband, as art director. De Palma borrowed heavily from the films of Alfred Hitchcock, which as a result, gave Carrie a Hitchcockian tone. The most obvious example is the name of the high school, which is Bates High, a reference to Norman Bates from Psycho (1960). In addition, the four note violin theme from Psycho is used throughout the film whenever Carrie uses her telekinetic powers.

Much of the filming and production became problematic, most notably the prom scene, perhaps the most chaotic to film, and took over two weeks to shoot, with 35 takes. Auer added red, green and yellow food colouring to a bulk-sold concoction known in the cosmetics industry as 7-11 Blood. However, when it was put to use, the concoction kept drying and adhering to Spacek's skin because of the hot lights. The only solution was to hose Spacek down when the substance got gluey.

A wraparound segment at beginning and end of the film was scripted and filmed which featured the Whites' home being pummeled by stones that hailed from the sky. The opening scene was filmed as planned, though on celluloid, the tiny pebbles looked like rain water.^[9] A mechanical malfunction botched production the night when the model of the Whites' home was set to be destroyed, so they burned it down instead and dropped the scenes with the stones altogether.^[9] However, some interior scenes had already been filmed which were left in the movie where one can clearly see boulders crashing through the Whites' ceiling.

Reaction[link]

Box office performance[link]

Carrie initially had a limited release on November 3, 1976, opening in 409 theaters. After receiving a broader theatrical release, it grossed $5 million, and was one of the five top grossing films for the following two weeks. Its domestic gross was $33,800,000, more than 18 times its budget, which in today's money, is equivalent to $135 million.

Awards and critical reception[link]

Carrie received immensely positive reviews and is widely regarded as one of the best films of 1976.^[12][13][14] The film currently holds a 90% "Certified Fresh" rating on the review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes.^[15] Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times stated the film was an "absolutely spellbinding horror movie", as well as an "observant human portrait".^[16] Pauline Kael of The New Yorker stated that Carrie was "the best scary-funny movie since Jaws — a teasing, terrifying, lyrical shocker". Take One Magazine critic Susan Schenker said she was "angry at the way Carrie manipulated me to the point where my heart was thudding, and embarrassed because the film really works."^[17] A 1998 edition of The Movie Guide stated Carrie was a "landmark horror film", while Stephen Farber prophetically stated in a 1978 issue of New West Magazine, "it's a horror classic, and years from now it will still be written and argued about, and it will still be scaring the daylights out of new generations of moviegoers."^[18] Quentin Tarantino placed Carrie at number 8 in a list of his favorite films ever.^[19]

Nevertheless, the film was not without its detractors. Andrew Sarris of The Village Voice commented, "There are so few incidents that two extended sequences are rendered in slow-motion as if to pad out the running time..."^[18]

In addition to being a box office success, Carrie is notable for being one of the few horror films to be nominated for multiple Academy Awards. Sissy Spacek and Piper Laurie received nominations for Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress awards, respectively. The film also won the grand prize at the Avoriaz Fantastic Film Festival, while Sissy Spacek was given the Best Actress award by the National Society of Film Critics. In 2008, Carrie was ranked number 86 on Empire Magazine's list of The 500 Greatest Movies of All Time.^[20] This movie also ranked number 15 on Entertainment Weekly's list of the 50 Best High School Movies, and #46 on the American Film Institute's list of 100 Greatest Cinema Thrills, and was also ranked eighth for its famous ending sequence on Bravo's five-hour miniseries The 100 Scariest Movie Moments (2004).^[21]

In a March 20, 2010 interview, King replied that he thought, although dated now, Carrie was a "good movie."^[7]

Legacy[link]

American Film Institute lists

• AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies – Nominated^[22]
• AFI's 100 Years...100 Thrills – #46^[23]
• AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes and Villains:
  • Carrie White – Nominated Hero^[24]
• AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) – Nominated^[25]

Music[link]

The score for Carrie was composed by Pino Donaggio. In addition, Donaggio scored two pop songs ("Born to Have It All" and "I Never Dreamed Someone Like You Could Love Someone Like Me") with lyrics by Merritt Malloy for the early portion of the prom sequence. These songs were performed by Katie Irving, sister of star Amy Irving and daughter of star Priscilla Pointer. Donaggio would work again with De Palma on Dressed to Kill, Home Movies, Blow Out, Body Double, and Raising Cain.

The other songs were uncredited in the film and omitted from all album releases due to different ownership. These songs are "(Love Is Like A) Heat Wave" by Martha and the Vandellas, "Education Blues" by Vance or Towers, and a third song called "Lady Lay", which is also presumed to be by Vance or Towers (it was cowritten by that band's Michael Towers^[26]). Additionally, two brief musical interludes during the prom ("Pre-Prom Disco" and "Ernest's Announcement") were also written by the same songwriting team who wrote "Lady Lay"^[27][28] and have never been issued.

The soundtrack album was originally released on vinyl in 1976 under the United Artists label. It was also released on cassette tape at some time during the 70s or 80s. A deluxe CD edition containing a few tracks of dialogue from the film was released by MGM/Rykodisc in 1997, and a 2005 CD re-release of the original soundtrack (minus dialogue) was available from Varèse Sarabande. Huge portions of the film's score were omitted from all of these releases. A bootleg version of the isolated score ripped from the Criterion laserdisc has also been in circulation on the internet.

In 2010, Kritzerland Records released all 35 cues of Donaggio's score for the film on a 2-disc CD set which was boasted as the complete score. Also included in this edition were bonus instrumental versions of "Born to Have It All" and "I Never Dreamed...", and, hidden at the end of the final track, a version of the "Calisthenics" cue with Betty Buckley's studio-recorded voiceover from the detention scene. The second disc was a remastered copy of the original 13-track album. The Kritzerland release was a limited edition of 1200 copies.^[29]

Sequels, remakes and related works[link]

Carrie, along with the novel, have been reproduced and adapted several times.

Sequel[link]

The Rage: Carrie 2 was released in 1999. It featured another teenager with telekinetic powers who is revealed to have shared a father with Carrie White. The film received universally negative reviews and was a box office failure.

TV remake[link]

In 2002, a television film based on King's novel and starring Angela Bettis in the titular role was released. The film updated the events of the story to modern-day settings and technology while simultaneously attempting to be more faithful to the book's original structure, storyline, and specific events. However, the ending was drastically changed: instead of killing her mother and then herself, the film has Carrie killing her mother, being revived via CPR by Sue Snell and being driven to Florida to hide. This new ending marked a complete divergence from the novel and was a signal that the movie served as a pilot for a Carrie television series, which never materialized. In the new ending, the rescued Carrie vows to help others with similar gifts to her own. Although Angela Bettis' portrayal of Carrie was highly praised, the film was cited by most critics as inferior to the original.^[30]

Stage productions[link]

A 1988 Broadway musical of the same name, based on King's novel and starring Betty Buckley, Linzi Hateley and Darlene Love, closed after only 16 previews and five performances. An English pop opera filtered through Greek tragedy, the show was so notorious that it provided the title to Ken Mandelbaum's survey of theatrical disasters, Not Since Carrie: Forty Years of Broadway Musical Flops.^{[citation needed]}

Early in the 21st century, playwright Erik Jackson attempted to secure the rights to stage another production of Carrie the musical, but his request was rejected. Jackson eventually earned the consent of Stephen King^[31] to mount a new, officially-sanctioned, non-musical production of Carrie, which debuted Off-Broadway in 2006 with female impersonator Sherry Vine in the lead role.^[32] Similarly, many other unofficial spoofs have been staged over the years, usually with a gym teacher named "Miss Collins" (as opposed to the novel's "Miss Desjardin" and the musical's "Miss Gardner"), most notably the "parodage" Scarrie the Musical,^[33] which hit the Illinois stage in 1998 and was revived in 2005; Dad's Garage Theatre's 2002 production of Carrie White the Musical;^[34] and the 2007 New Orleans production of Carrie's Facts of Life,^[35] which was a hybrid of Carrie and the classic American sitcom The Facts of Life.

New remake[link]

In May 2011, it was officially announced that Stephen King's novel Carrie will be newly adapted on film.^[36] MGM and Screen Gems hired Spiderman: Turn Off the Dark playwright Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa to write the script for the new movie with "a more faithful adaptation" of King's novel. Aguirre-Sacasa previously adapted King’s epic The Stand into comic-book form in 2008.

Stephen King suggested Lindsay Lohan for the main role, saying that "it would certainly be fun to cast".^[37] Actress Sissy Spacek also expressed her opinion about Lohan as Carrie White, stating that she "was like, 'Oh my God, she's really a beautiful girl' and so I was very flattered that they were casting someone to look like me instead of the real Carrie described in the book. It's gonna be real interesting."^[38] In March 2012, the role of Carrie was offered to Chloë Moretz .^[39]

Kimberly Peirce, known for her work on Boys Don't Cry, is in talks to direct this new adaptation.^[40]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Carrie at the Internet Movie Database
• Carrie at AllRovi
• Carrie at Box Office Mojo
• Carrie at Rotten Tomatoes
• Carrie at Metacritic

v t e Works of Stephen King Novels Carrie (1974) 'Salem's Lot (1975) The Shining (1977) The Stand (1978) The Dead Zone (1979) Firestarter (1980) Cujo (1981) Christine (1983) Pet Sematary (1983) Cycle of the Werewolf (1983) The Talisman (1984; with Peter Straub) It (1986) The Eyes of the Dragon (1987) Misery (1987) The Tommyknockers (1987) The Dark Half (1989) Needful Things (1991) Gerald's Game (1992) Dolores Claiborne (1992) Insomnia (1994) Rose Madder (1995) The Green Mile (1996) Desperation (1996) Bag of Bones (1998) The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon (1999) Dreamcatcher (2001) Black House (2001; with Peter Straub) From a Buick 8 (2002) The Colorado Kid (2005) Cell (2006) Lisey's Story (2006) Duma Key (2008) Under the Dome (2009) Blockade Billy (2010) 11/22/63 (2011) Doctor Sleep (2013) The Dark Tower series The Gunslinger (1982) The Drawing of the Three (1987) The Waste Lands (1991) Wizard and Glass (1997) Wolves of the Calla (2003) Song of Susannah (2004) The Dark Tower (2004) The Wind Through the Keyhole (2012) Richard Bachman novels Rage (1977) The Long Walk (1979) Roadwork (1981) The Running Man (1982) Thinner (1984) The Bachman Books (1985) The Regulators (1996) Blaze (2007) Short fiction collections Night Shift (1978) Different Seasons (1982) Skeleton Crew (1985) Four Past Midnight (1990) Nightmares & Dreamscapes (1993) Hearts in Atlantis (1999) Everything's Eventual (2002) Just After Sunset (2008) Full Dark, No Stars (2010) Non-fiction Danse Macabre (1981) Nightmares in the Sky (1988) On Writing (2000) Secret Windows (2000) Faithful (2004; with Stewart O'Nan) E-books Riding the Bullet (2000) The Plant (2000; unfinished) Ur (2009) Mile 81 (2011) Screenplays Creepshow (1982) Cat's Eye (1985) Silver Bullet (1985) Maximum Overdrive (1986; also director) Pet Sematary (1989) Sleepwalkers (1992) Cell (2012) Teleplays Sorry, Right Number (1988) Golden Years (1991) The Stand (1994) The Shining (1997) "Chinga" (1998; with Chris Carter) Storm of the Century (1999) Rose Red (2002) Kingdom Hospital (2004) Desperation (2006) Collaborations with musicians Michael Jackson's Ghosts (1997; with Michael Jackson) Black Ribbons (2010; with Shooter Jennings) Ghost Brothers of Darkland County (2012; with John Mellencamp) Graphic novels Creepshow (1982) The Dark Tower (2007) The Stand (2008) The Talisman (2009) American Vampire (2010) N. (2010) Road Rage (2012) Related articles Unpublished and uncollected works by Stephen King Media based on Stephen King works Books about Stephen King Tabitha King Naomi King Joe Hill Owen King Peter Straub Rock Bottom Remainders Dollar Baby Jerusalem's Lot Castle Rock, Maine Derry, Maine The Diary of Ellen Rimbauer: My Life at Rose Red Book:Stephen King

v t e Media based on Stephen King works Films Individual films The Shining (1980) Cujo (1983) The Dead Zone (1983) Christine (1983) Cat's Eye (1985) Silver Bullet (1985) Stand by Me (1986) The Running Man (1987) Tales from the Darkside: The Movie (1990) Graveyard Shift (1990) Misery (1990) Sleepwalkers (1992) The Dark Half (1993) Needful Things (1993) The Shawshank Redemption (1994) Dolores Claiborne (1995) Thinner (1996) The Night Flier (1997) Apt Pupil (1998) The Green Mile (1999) Hearts in Atlantis (2001) Dreamcatcher (2003) Secret Window (2004) Riding the Bullet (2004) 1408 (2007) The Mist (2007) Dolan's Cadillac (2009) Film series Carrie Carrie (1976) The Rage: Carrie 2 (1999) Carrie (2002) Carrie (TBA) Creepshow Creepshow (1982) Creepshow 2 (1987) Children of the Corn Children of the Corn (1984) The Final Sacrifice (1993) Urban Harvest (1995) The Gathering (1996) Fields of Terror (1998) Isaac's Return (1999) Revelation (2001) Children of the Corn (2009) Firestarter Firestarter (1984) Rekindled (2002) Trucks Maximum Overdrive (1986) Trucks (1997) Pet Sematary Pet Sematary (1989) Pet Sematary Two (1992) The Lawnmower Man The Lawnmower Man (1992) Beyond Cyberspace (1996) The Mangler The Mangler (1995) The Mangler 2 (2001) The Mangler Reborn (2005) Television Single films or miniseries Gramma (1986) Sorry, Right Number (1987) It (1990) Golden Years (1991) The Tommyknockers (1993) The Stand (1994) The Langoliers (1995) The Shining (1997) Quicksilver Highway (1997) The Revelations of Becka Paulson (1997) Storm of the Century (1999) Kingdom Hospital (2004) Stephen King's Desperation (2006) Nightmares and Dreamscapes: From the Stories of Stephen King (2006) Bag of Bones (2011) Multiple films or miniseries Salem's Lot Salem's Lot (1979) A Return to Salem's Lot (1987) 'Salem's Lot (2004) Sometimes They Come Back Sometimes They Come Back (1991) Sometimes They Come Back... Again (1996) Sometimes They Come Back… for More (1998) Rose Red Rose Red (2002) The Diary of Ellen Rimbauer (2003) Series The Dead Zone (2002–2007) Haven (2010–present) Book:Media based on Stephen King works

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (February 2010)

Stephen King
Stephen King, February 2007
Born	Stephen Edwin King (1947-09-21) September 21, 1947 (age 64) Portland, Maine
Pen name	Richard Bachman, John Swithen
Occupation	Novelist, short story writer, screenwriter, columnist, actor, television producer, film director
Alma mater	University of Maine (B.A., English, 1970)
Genres	Horror, fantasy, science fiction, drama, gothic, genre fiction, dark fantasy
Notable work(s)	Carrie, The Shining, The Stand, It, and The Dark Tower
Spouse(s)	Tabitha King
Children	Naomi King Joe King Owen King
Influences Burton Hatlen[1] Bram Stoker Elmore Leonard Shirley Jackson H. P. Lovecraft Richard Matheson Ray Bradbury[2] Edgar Allan Poe[3] John D. MacDonald Don Robertson
Influenced Peter David[4] J. J. Abrams[5] Damon Lindelof[5] Jeaniene Frost[6]
Signature
www.stephenking.com

Stephen Edwin King (born September 21, 1947) is an American author of contemporary horror, suspense, science fiction and fantasy fiction. His books have sold more than 350 million copies^[7] and have been adapted into a number of feature films, television movies and comic books. As of 2011, King has written and published 49 novels, including seven under the pen name Richard Bachman, five non-fiction books, and nine collections of short stories. Many of his stories are set in his home state of Maine.

King has received Bram Stoker Awards, World Fantasy Awards, British Fantasy Society Awards, his novella The Way Station was a Nebula Award novelette nominee,^[8] and in 2003, the National Book Foundation awarded him the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters.^[9] He has also received awards for his contribution to literature for his whole career, such as the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement (2004), the Canadian Booksellers Association Lifetime Achievement Award (2007) and the Grand Master Award from the Mystery Writers of America (2007).^[10]

Early life[link]

King's father, Donald Edwin King, who was born circa 1913 in Peru, Indiana, was a merchant seaman.^[11] King's mother, Nellie Ruth (née Pillsbury; March 13, 1913 – December 28, 1973) was born in Scarborough, Maine.^[11] They were married July 23, 1939, in Cumberland County, Maine.^[11]

Stephen King was born September 21, 1947, in Portland, Maine. When King was two years old, his father left the family under the pretense of "going to buy a pack of cigarettes," leaving his mother to raise King and his adopted older brother, David, by herself, sometimes under great financial strain. The family moved to De Pere, Wisconsin, Fort Wayne, Indiana and Stratford, Connecticut. When King was eleven years old, the family returned to Durham, Maine, where Ruth King cared for her parents until their deaths. She then became a caregiver in a local residential facility for the mentally challenged.^[12] King was raised Methodist.^[13]

As a child, King apparently witnessed one of his friends being struck and killed by a train, though he has no memory of the event. His family told him that after leaving home to play with the boy, King returned, speechless and seemingly in shock. Only later did the family learn of the friend's death. Some commentators have suggested that this event may have psychologically inspired some of King's darker works,^[14] but King makes no mention of it in his memoir On Writing.^[15]

King's primary inspiration for writing horror fiction was related in detail in his 1981 non-fiction Danse Macabre, in a chapter titled "An Annoying Autobiographical Pause". King makes a comparison of his uncle successfully dowsing for water using the bough of an apple branch with the sudden realization of what he wanted to do for a living. While browsing through an attic with his elder brother, King uncovered a paperback version of an H.P. Lovecraft collection of short stories entitled The Lurker in the Shadows that had belonged to his father. The cover art—an illustration of a yellow-green Demon hiding within the recesses of a Hellish cavern beneath a tombstone—was, he writes, the moment in his life which "that interior dowsing rod responded to.” King told Barnes & Noble Studios during a 2009 interview, "I knew that I'd found home when I read that book."^[16]

Education and early career[link]

King attended Durham Elementary School and graduated from Lisbon Falls High School, in Lisbon Falls, Maine. He displayed an early interest in horror as an avid reader of EC's horror comics, including Tales from the Crypt (he later paid tribute to the comics in his screenplay for Creepshow). He began writing for fun while still in school, contributing articles to Dave's Rag, the newspaper that his brother published with a mimeograph machine, and later began selling stories to his friends which were based on movies he had seen (though when discovered by his teachers, he was forced to return the profits). The first of his stories to be independently published was "I Was a Teenage Grave Robber", serialized over three published and one unpublished issue of a fanzine, Comics Review, in 1965.^[17] That story was published the following year in a revised form as "In a Half-World of Terror" in another fanzine, Stories of Suspense, edited by Marv Wolfman.^[18]

From 1966, King studied English at the University of Maine, graduating in 1970 with a Bachelor of Arts in English. That same year his first daughter, Naomi Rachel, was born. He wrote a column for the student newspaper, The Maine Campus, titled "Steve King's Garbage Truck", took part in a writing workshop organized by Burton Hatlen,^[1] and took odd jobs to pay for his studies, including one at an industrial laundry. He sold his first professional short story, "The Glass Floor", to Startling Mystery Stories in 1967.^[12] The Fogler Library at the University of Maine now holds many of King's papers.

After leaving the university, King earned a certificate to teach high school but, being unable to find a teaching post immediately, initially supplemented his laboring wage by selling short stories to men's magazines such as Cavalier. Many of these early stories have been published in the collection Night Shift. In 1971, King married Tabitha Spruce, a fellow student at the University of Maine whom he had met at the University's Fogler Library after one of Professor Hatlen's workshops.^[1] That fall, King was hired as a teacher at Hampden Academy in Hampden, Maine. He continued to contribute short stories to magazines and worked on ideas for novels.^[12] It was during this time that King developed a drinking problem, which would plagued him for more than a decade.^{[citation needed]}

Bibliography[link]

1970s–1980s work[link]

In 1973, King's novel Carrie was accepted by publishing house Doubleday. King threw an early draft of the novel in the trash after becoming discouraged with his progress writing about a teenage girl with psychic powers. His wife retrieved the manuscript and encouraged him to finish it.^[19] His advance for Carrie was $2,500, with paperback rights earning $400,000 at a later date. King and his family moved to southern Maine because of his mother's failing health. At this time, he began writing a book titled Second Coming, later titled Jerusalem's Lot, before finally changing the title to 'Salem's Lot (published 1975). In a 1987 issue of The Highway Patrolman magazine, he stated, "The story seems sort of down home to me. I have a special cold spot in my heart for it!"^[20] Soon after the release of Carrie in 1974, his mother died of uterine cancer. His Aunt Emrine read the novel to her before she died. King has written of his severe drinking problem at this time, stating that he was drunk delivering the eulogy at his mother's funeral.^[15]

After his mother's death, King and his family moved to Boulder, Colorado, where King wrote The Shining (published 1977). The family returned to western Maine in 1975, where King completed his fourth novel, The Stand (published 1978). In 1977, the family, with the addition of Owen Phillip (his third and last child), traveled briefly to England, returning to Maine that fall where King began teaching creative writing at the University of Maine. He has kept his primary residence in Maine ever since.^{[citation needed]}

In 1985 King wrote his first work for the comic book medium,^[21] writing a few pages of the benefit X-Men comic book Heroes for Hope Starring the X-Men. The book, whose profits were donated to assist with famine relief in Africa, was written by a number of different authors in the comic book field, such as Chris Claremont, Stan Lee, and Alan Moore, as well as authors not primarily associated with that industry, such as Harlan Ellison.^[22] The following year, King wrote the introduction to Batman #400, an anniversary issue in which he expressed his preference for that character over Superman.^[23][24]

[edit] The Dark Tower books

Stephen King at the Harvard Book Store, January 8, 2007

In the late 1970s, King began what became a series of interconnected stories about a lone gunslinger, Roland, who pursues the "Man in Black" in an alternate-reality universe that is a cross between J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-earth and the American wild west as depicted by Clint Eastwood and Sergio Leone in their spaghetti westerns. The first of these stories, The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger, was first published in five installments by The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction under the editorship of Edward L. Ferman, beginning in 1977 and the last in 1981. The Gunslinger was continued as a large 7-book epic called The Dark Tower, which were written and published infrequently over four decades.

In 1982, the fantasy small-press Donald M. Grant (known for publishing the entire canon of Robert E. Howard) printed these stories for the first time together in hardcover form with color and black-and-white illustrations by fantasy artist Michael Whelan, as The Gunslinger. Each chapter was named for the story previously published in magazine form. King dedicated the hardcover edition to his editor at F&SF, Ed Ferman, who "took a chance on these stories". The original print-run was only 10,000 copies, which was, by this time, a comparatively low run for a first printing of a King novel in hardcover. His 1980 novel, Firestarter, had an initial print-run in trade hardcover at 100,000 copies, and his 1983 novel, Christine, had a trade hardcover print-run of 250,000 copies, both by the much larger publisher Viking. The Gunslinger's initial release was not highly publicized, and only specialty science-fiction and related bookstores carried it on their shelves. The book was generally not available in the larger chain stores, except by special order. Rumors spread among avid fans that there was a King book out that few readers knew about, let alone had actually read. When the initial 10,000 copies sold out, Grant printed another 10,000 copies in 1984, but these runs were still far short of the growing demand among fans for this book. The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger was the beginning of his magnum opus fantasy epic. Both the first and second printings of The Gunslinger garner premium prices on the collectible book market, notably among avid readers and collectors of Stephen King, horror literature, fantasy literature, American western literature, and fans of the artwork of Michael Whelan.^{[citation needed]}

In 1987, King released the second installment, The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three, in which Roland draws three people from 20th-century United States into his world through magical doors. Grant published The Drawing of the Three with illustrations by Phil Hale in a slightly larger run of 30,000 copies, which was still well below King's typical initial hardcover print-run of a new book. (It, published in 1986, had an initial print-run of 1,000,000 copies, King's largest to date.) King had believed that the Dark Tower books would only be of interest to a select group of his fans, and he had resisted releasing it on a larger scale. Finally, in the late 1980s, bowing to pressure from his publishers and fans who were searching for the books (at this point fewer than 50,000 of his millions of readers would have been able to own any of the Dark Tower books), King agreed to release The Gunslinger and all subsequent Dark Tower books in trade paperback and mass market formats.^{[citation needed]}

In the early 2000s King revised the original book, The Gunslinger, because he felt the voice and imagery of the original stories of the late 1970s did not seem to fit the voice of the final installment of 2004. King felt the style of the work had markedly changed during the intervening 27 years. The revised version was published in 2003 by his former hardcover publisher Viking. Grant published its hardcover limited edition of the revised version of The Gunslinger along with a prequel story set in the Dark Tower world called "The Little Sisters of Eluria" (originally published in 1998 in the collection Legends: Short Novels by the Masters of Modern Fantasy) in 2009.

Adaptations[link]

In October 2005, King signed a deal with Marvel Comics to publish a seven-issue, miniseries spin-off of the series called The Gunslinger Born. The series, which focuses on a young Roland Deschain, is plotted by Robin Furth, with dialogue by Peter David, and illustrated by Eisner Award-winning artist Jae Lee. The first issue was published on February 7, 2007, and King, David, Lee and Marvel Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada appeared at a midnight signing at a Times Square, New York comic book store to promote it.^[25][26] The work had sold over 200,000 copies by March 2007. The success of The Gunslinger Born led to an ongoing series of miniseries published by Marvel, with Furth and David continuing to collaborate, featuring both adapted material from the Dark Tower books and new material approved by King; it also led to a second series of King adaptations in the same format, serializing the events of The Stand.

Although The Hollywood Reporter announced in February 2007 that plans were underway for Lost co-creator J. J. Abrams to do an adaptation of King's epic Dark Tower series,^[5] Abrams stated in a November 2009 interview with MTV that he would not be adapting the series.^[27]

Akiva Goldsman, Ron Howard and Brian Grazer will produce a feature film based on The Dark Tower series, with Howard slated to direct.^{[citation needed]}

Richard Bachman[link]

In the late 1970s-early 1980s, King published a handful of short novels—Rage (1977), The Long Walk (1979), Roadwork (1981), The Running Man (1982) and Thinner (1984)—under the pseudonym Richard Bachman. The idea behind this was to test whether he could replicate his success again and to his fears that his popularity was an accident. An alternate explanation was that publishing standards at the time allowed only a single book a year.^[28] He picked up the name from the hard rock band Bachman-Turner Overdrive, of which he is a fan.^[29]

Richard Bachman was exposed as King's pseudonym by a persistent Washington D.C. bookstore clerk, Steve Brown, who noticed similarities between the works and later located publisher's records at the Library of Congress that named King as the author of one of Bachman's novels.^[30] This led to a press release heralding Bachman's "death"—supposedly from "cancer of the pseudonym."^[31] King dedicated his 1989 book The Dark Half, about a pseudonym turning on a writer, to "the deceased Richard Bachman", and in 1996, when the Stephen King novel Desperation was released, the companion novel The Regulators carried the "Bachman" byline.

In 2006, during a press conference in London, King declared that he had discovered another Bachman novel, titled Blaze. It was published on June 12, 2007. In fact, the original manuscript had been held at King's alma mater, the University of Maine in Orono, for many years and had been covered by numerous King experts. King completely rewrote the original 1973 manuscript for its publication.^{[citation needed]}

King has used other pseudonyms, such as John Swithen for The Fifth Quarter.^{[citation needed]}

Car accident and thoughts of retirement[link]

On June 19, 1999 at about 4:30 p.m., King was walking on the shoulder of Route 5, in Lovell, Maine. Driver Bryan Smith, distracted by an unrestrained dog moving in the back of his minivan, struck King, who landed in a depression in the ground about 14 feet from the pavement of Route 5.^[15] According to Oxford County Sheriff deputy Matt Baker, King was hit from behind and some witnesses said the driver was not speeding, reckless, or drinking.^[32]

King was conscious enough to give the deputy phone numbers to contact his family but was in considerable pain. The author was first transported to Northern Cumberland Hospital in Bridgton and then flown by helicopter to Central Maine Medical Center, in Lewiston. His injuries—a collapsed right lung, multiple fractures of his right leg, scalp laceration and a broken hip—kept him at CMMC until July 9. His leg bones were so shattered doctors initially considered amputating his leg, but stabilized the bones in the leg with an external fixator.^[33] After five operations in ten days and physical therapy, King resumed work on On Writing in July, though his hip was still shattered and he could only sit for about forty minutes before the pain became worse. Soon it became nearly unbearable.^[34]

King's lawyer and two others purchased Smith's van for $1,500, reportedly to prevent it from appearing on eBay. The van was later crushed at a junkyard, much to King's disappointment, as he dreamed of beating it with a baseball bat once his leg was healed. King later mentioned during an interview with Fresh Air's Terry Gross that he wanted to completely destroy the vehicle himself with a pickaxe.^[35]

During this time, Tabitha King was inspired to redesign his studio. King visited the space while his books and belongings were packed away. What he saw was an image of what his studio would look like if he died, providing a seed for his novel Lisey's Story.^[36]

In 2002, King announced he would stop writing, apparently motivated in part by frustration with his injuries, which had made sitting uncomfortable and reduced his stamina. He has since resumed writing, but states on his website that:

"I'm writing but I'm writing at a much slower pace than previously and I think that if I come up with something really, really good, I would be perfectly willing to publish it because that still feels like the final act of the creative process, publishing it so people can read it and you can get feedback and people can talk about it with each other and with you, the writer, but the force of my invention has slowed down a lot over the years and that's as it should be."^[37]

2000s work[link]

In 2000, King published a serialized novel, The Plant, online, bypassing print publication. At first it was presumed by the public that King had abandoned the project because sales were unsuccessful, but he later stated that he had simply run out of stories.^[38] The unfinished epistolary novel is still available from King's official site, now free. Also in 2000, he wrote a digital novella, Riding the Bullet, and has said he sees e-books becoming 50% of the market "probably by 2013 and maybe by 2012." But he also warns: "Here's the thing—people tire of the new toys quickly."^[39]

In August 2003 King began writing a column on pop culture appearing in Entertainment Weekly, usually every third week. The column is called "The Pop of King", a play on the nickname "The King of Pop" commonly given to Michael Jackson.^[40]

In 2006, King published an apocalyptic novel, Cell. The book features a sudden force in which every cell phone user turns into a mindless killer. King noted in the book's introduction that he does not use cell phones.

In 2007, Marvel Comics began publishing comic books based on King's Dark Tower series, followed by adaptations of The Stand in 2008 and The Talisman in 2009.

In 2008, King published both a novel, Duma Key, and a collection, Just After Sunset. The latter featured 13 short stories, including a novella, N., which was later released as a serialized animated series that could be seen for free, or, for a small fee, could be downloaded in a higher quality; it then was adopted into a limited comic book series.

In 2009, King published Ur, a novella written exclusively for the launch of the second-generation Amazon Kindle and available only on Amazon.com, and Throttle, a novella co-written with his son Joe Hill, which later was released as an audiobook Road Rage, which included Richard Matheson's short story "Duel". On November 10 that year, King's novel, Under the Dome, was published. It is a reworking of an unfinished novel he tried writing twice in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and at 1,074 pages, it is the largest novel he has written since 1986's It. It debuted at #1 in The New York Times Bestseller List.^[41]

2010s work[link]

On February 16, 2010, King announced on his website that his next book will be a collection of four previously unpublished novellas. The book is called Full Dark, No Stars. In April of that year, King published Blockade Billy, an original novella issued first by independent small press Cemetery Dance Publications and later released in mass market paperback by Simon & Schuster. The following month, DC Comics premiered American Vampire, a monthly comic book series written by King with short story writer Scott Snyder, and illustrated by Rafael Albuquerque, which represents King's first original comics work.^[42][43][44]

King's next novel, 11/22/63, was published November 8, 2011,^[45][46] and the eighth Dark Tower volume, The Wind Through the Keyhole, was published in 2012.^[47] King's next novel is the upcoming sequel to The Shining (1977), titled Dr. Sleep, scheduled to be published in 2013, and King is currently working on Joyland, a novel about "an amusement-park serial killer", according to an article in The Sunday Times published on April 8, 2012.^[48]

Collaborations[link]

King has written two novels with acclaimed horror novelist Peter Straub: The Talisman and a sequel, Black House. King has indicated that he and Straub will likely write the third and concluding book in this series, the tale of Jack Sawyer, but has set no time for its completion.

King also wrote the nonfiction book, Faithful, with novelist and fellow Red Sox fanatic Stewart O'Nan.

In 1996 King collaborated with Michael Jackson to create Ghosts, a 40-minute musical video in which the singer portrays a recluse living in a mansion confronting an unwelcoming group of townsfolk initially calling for his exodus from their community.

"Throttle", a novella written in collaboration with his son Joe Hill, appears in the anthology He Is Legend: Celebrating Richard Matheson, (Gauntlet Press, 2009).^[49]

The Diary of Ellen Rimbauer: My Life at Rose Red, was a paperback tie-in for the King-penned miniseries Rose Red. The book was published under anonymous authorship, and written by Ridley Pearson. This spin-off is a rare occasion of another author being granted permission to write commercial work using characters and story elements invented by King.

King wrote a musical play with John Mellencamp titled Ghost Brothers of Darkland County.

King played guitar for the rock band Rock-Bottom Remainders, several of whose members are authors. Other members include Dave Barry, Ridley Pearson, Scott Turow, Amy Tan, James McBride, Mitch Albom, Roy Blount, Jr., Matt Groening, Kathi Kamen Goldmark, Sam Barry, and Greg Iles. None of them claim to have any musical talent.^{[citation needed]} King is a fan of the rock band AC/DC,^{[citation needed]} who did the soundtrack for his 1986 film, Maximum Overdrive. He is also a fan of The Ramones,^{[citation needed]} who wrote the title song for Pet Sematary and appeared in the music video. King referred to the band several times in various novels and stories^{[citation needed]} and The Ramones referenced King on the song "It's Not My Place (In the 9 to 5 World)", which is on 1981's Pleasant Dreams. In addition he wrote the liner notes for their tribute album We're a Happy Family. In 1988, the band Blue Öyster Cult recorded an updated version of their 1974 song "Astronomy". The single released for radio play featured a narrative intro spoken by King.^[50]

On Sunday, October 25, 2009 the DC Comics/Vertigo announced King's collaboration with short story writer Scott Snyder and artist Rafael Albuquerque for the monthly Vertigo comic book series American Vampire, which debuted in March 2010.^[42] King wrote the background history of the very first American vampire, Skinner Sweet, in the first five -issues story arc. Scott Snyder wrote the story of Pearl.^[51]

In 2010, King collaborated with musician Shooter Jennings and his band Hierophant, providing the narration for their most recent album, Black Ribbons.

Analysis[link]

Writing style[link]

King's formula for learning to write well is: "Read and write four to six hours a day. If you cannot find the time for that, you can't expect to become a good writer." He sets out each day with a quota of 2000 words and will not stop writing until it is met. He also has a simple definition for talent in writing: "If you wrote something for which someone sent you a check, if you cashed the check and it didn't bounce, and if you then paid the light bill with the money, I consider you talented."^[52]

Shortly after his accident, King wrote the first draft of the book Dreamcatcher with a notebook and a Waterman fountain pen, which he called "the world's finest word processor."^[53]

When asked why he writes, King responds: "The answer to that is fairly simple—there was nothing else I was made to do. I was made to write stories and I love to write stories. That's why I do it. I really can't imagine doing anything else and I can't imagine not doing what I do."^[54] He is also often asked why he writes such terrifying stories and he answers with another question: "Why do you assume I have a choice?"^[55]

King often uses authors as characters, or includes mention of fictional books in his stories, novellas and novels, such as Paul Sheldon who is the main character in Misery and Jack Torrance in The Shining. See also List of fictional books in the works of Stephen King for a complete list. In September 2009 it was announced he would serve as a writer for Fangoria.^[56]

Influences[link]

King has called Richard Matheson "the author who influenced me most as a writer."^[15] Both authors casually integrate characters' thoughts into the third person narration, just one of several parallels between their writing styles. In a current edition of Matheson's The Shrinking Man, King is quoted: "A horror story if there ever was one...a great adventure story—it is certainly one of that select handful that I have given to people, envying them the experience of the first reading."

King refers to H. P. Lovecraft several times in Danse Macabre. "Gramma", a short story made into a film in the 1980s anthology horror show The New Twilight Zone, mentions Lovecraft's notorious fictional creation Necronomicon, also borrowing the names of a number of the fictional monsters mentioned therein. "I Know What You Need" from the 1976 collection Night Shift, and 'Salem's Lot also mention the tome. In On Writing, King is critical of Lovecraft's dialogue-writing skills, using passages from The Colour Out of Space as particularly poor examples. There are also several examples of King referring to Lovecraftian characters in his work, such as Nyarlathotep and Yog-Sothoth.

King acknowledges the influence of Bram Stoker, particularly on his novel 'Salem's Lot, which he envisioned as a retelling of Dracula.^[57] Its related short story "Jerusalem's Lot", is reminiscent of Stoker's The Lair of the White Worm.^{[citation needed]}

King has also referenced author Shirley Jackson. 'Salem's Lot opens with a quotation from Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House, and a character in Wolves of the Calla references the Jackson book We Have Always Lived in the Castle.

King is a fan of John D. MacDonald, and dedicated the novella "Sun Dog" to MacDonald, saying "I miss you, old friend." For his part, MacDonald wrote an admiring preface to Night Shift, and even had his famous character, Travis McGee, reading Cujo in one of the last McGee novels and Pet Sematary in the last McGee novel, The Lonely Silver Rain.

In 1987 King's Philtrum Press published Don Robertson's novel, The Ideal, Genuine Man. In his forenote to the novel, King wrote, "Don Robertson was and is one of the three writers who influenced me as a young man who was trying to 'become' a novelist (the other two being Richard Matheson and John D. MacDonald)."^[58]

Robert A. Heinlein's book The Door into Summer is repeatedly mentioned in King's Wolves of the Calla.

In an interview with King, Published in the USA Weekend in March 2009, the author stated, "People look on writers that they like as an irreplaceable resource. I do. Elmore Leonard, every day I wake up and – not to be morbid or anything, although morbid is my life to a degree – don't see his obituary in the paper, I think to myself, "Great! He's probably working somewhere. He's gonna produce another book, and I'll have another book to read." Because when he's gone, there's nobody else."^[59]

King partly dedicated his book Cell to film director George Romero, and wrote an essay for the Elite DVD version of Night of the Living Dead.

Critical response[link]

Although critical reaction to King's work has been mostly positive, he has occasionally come under fire from academic writers.

Science fiction editors John Clute and Peter Nichols^[60] offer a largely favorable appraisal of King, noting his "pungent prose, sharp ear for dialogue, disarmingly laid-back, frank style, along with his passionately fierce denunciation of human stupidity and cruelty (especially to children) [all of which rank] him among the more distinguished 'popular' writers."

In his analysis of post-World War II horror fiction, The Modern Weird Tale (2001), critic S. T. Joshi^[61] devotes a chapter to King's work. Joshi argues that King's best-known works (his supernatural novels), are his worst, describing them as mostly bloated, illogical, maudlin and prone to deus ex machina endings. Despite these criticisms, Joshi argues that since Gerald's Game (1993), King has been tempering the worst of his writing faults, producing books that are leaner, more believable and generally better written. Joshi suggests that King's strengths as a writer include the accessible "everyman" quality of his prose, and his unfailingly insightful observations about the pains and joys of adolescence. Joshi cites two early non-supernatural novels—Rage (1977) and The Running Man (1982)—as King's best, suggesting both are riveting and well-constructed suspense thrillers, with believable characters.

In 1996, King won an O. Henry Award for his short story "The Man in the Black Suit".^[62]

In his short story collection A Century of Great Suspense Stories, editor Jeffrey Deaver noted that King “singlehandedly made popular fiction grow up. While there were many good best-selling writers before him, King, more than anybody since John D. MacDonald, brought reality to genre novels. He’s often remarked that 'Salem's Lot was “Peyton Place meets Dracula.” And so it was. The rich characterization, the careful and caring social eye, the interplay of story line and character development announced that writers could take worn themes such as vampirism and make them fresh again. Before King, many popular writers found their efforts to make their books serious blue-penciled by their editors. ‘Stuff like that gets in the way of the story,’ they were told. Well, it’s stuff like that that has made King so popular, and helped free the popular name from the shackles of simple genre writing. He is a master of masters.”^[63]

In 2003, King was honored by the National Book Awards with a lifetime achievement award, the Medal of Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, with his work being described thus:

Stephen King’s writing is securely rooted in the great American tradition that glorifies spirit-of-place and the abiding power of narrative. He crafts stylish, mind-bending page-turners that contain profound moral truths–some beautiful, some harrowing–about our inner lives. This Award commemorates Mr. King’s well-earned place of distinction in the wide world of readers and book lovers of all ages.

Some in the literary community expressed disapproval of the award: Richard Snyder, the former CEO of Simon & Schuster, described King's work as "non-literature", and critic Harold Bloom denounced the choice:

The decision to give the National Book Foundation's annual award for "distinguished contribution" to Stephen King is extraordinary, another low in the shocking process of dumbing down our cultural life. I've described King in the past as a writer of penny dreadfuls, but perhaps even that is too kind. He shares nothing with Edgar Allan Poe. What he is is an immensely inadequate writer on a sentence-by-sentence, paragraph-by-paragraph, book-by-book basis.^[64]

However, others came to King's defense, such as writer Orson Scott Card, who responded:

Let me assure you that King's work most definitely is literature, because it was written to be published and is read with admiration. What Snyder really means is that it is not the literature preferred by the academic-literary elite."^[65]

In Roger Ebert's review of the 2004 movie Secret Window, he stated, "A lot of people were outraged that [King] was honored at the National Book Awards, as if a popular writer could not be taken seriously. But after finding that his book On Writing had more useful and observant things to say about the craft than any book since Strunk and White's The Elements of Style, I have gotten over my own snobbery."^[66]

In 2008, King's book On Writing was ranked 21st on Entertainment Weekly list of "The New Classics: The 100 Best Reads from 1983 to 2008".^[67]

Appearances and adaptations in other media[link]

King and his wife Tabitha own Zone Radio Corp, a radio station group consisting of WZON 103.1 FM and 620 AM.^[68]

King has stated that his favorite book-to-film adaptations are Stand by Me, The Shawshank Redemption, and The Mist.^[69]

King's first film appearance was in George Romero's Knightriders as a buffoonish audience member. His first featured role was in Creepshow, playing Jordy Verrill, a backwoods redneck who, after touching a fallen meteorite in hopes of selling it, grows moss all over his body. He has since made cameos in several adaptations of his works. He appeared in Pet Sematary as a minister at a funeral, in Thinner as a pharmacist, in Rose Red as a pizza deliveryman, as a news reporter in The Storm of the Century, in The Stand as "Teddy Wieszack," in the Shining miniseries as a band member, in The Langoliers as Tom Holby and in Sleepwalkers as the cemetery caretaker. He has also appeared in The Golden Years, in Chappelle's Show and, along with fellow author Amy Tan, on The Simpsons as himself. In addition to acting, King tried his hand at directing with Maximum Overdrive, in which he also made a cameo appearance as a man using an ATM that is on the fritz.

King produced and acted in a miniseries, Kingdom Hospital, which is based on the Danish miniseries Riget by Lars von Trier. He also co-wrote The X-Files season 5 episode "Chinga" with the creator of the series Chris Carter.

King made an appearance as a contestant on Celebrity Jeopardy! in 1995, playing to benefit the Bangor Public Library.

King provided the voice of Abraham Lincoln in the audiobook version of Assassination Vacation.

In 2010, King appeared in a cameo role as a cleaner named Bachman (a reference to his pen name Richard Bachman) on the FX series Sons of Anarchy.^[70]

The Syfy TV series Haven is based on King's novella, The Colorado Kid.^[71]

Political activism[link]

In April 2008, King spoke out against HB 1423, a bill pending in the Massachusetts state legislature that would restrict or ban the sale of violent video games to anyone under the age of 18. Although King stated that he had no personal interest in video games as a hobby, he criticized the proposed law, which he sees as an attempt by politicians to scapegoat pop culture, and to act as surrogate parents to others' children, which he asserted is usually "disastrous" and "undemocratic". He also saw the law as inconsistent, as it would forbid a 17-year-old, legally able to see Hostel: Part II, from buying or renting Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, which is violent but less graphic. While conceding that he saw no artistic merit in some violent video games, King also opined that such games reflect the violence that already exists in society, which would not be lessened by such a law, and would be redundant in light of the ratings system that already exists for video games. King argued that such laws allow legislators to ignore the economic divide between the rich and poor, and the easy availability of guns, which he felt were the more legitimate causes of violence.^[72] Regarding video games, he later stated that he enjoys playing light gun shooter arcade games such as Time Crisis.^[73]

A controversy emerged on May 5, 2008, when a conservative blogger posted a clip of King at a Library of Congress reading event. King, talking to high-school students, had said: "If you can read, you can walk into a job later on. If you don't, then you've got the Army, Iraq, I don't know, something like that."^[74] The comment was described by the blog as "another in a long line of liberal media members bashing the military," and likened to John Kerry's similar remark from 2006.^[75] King responded later that day, saying, "That a right-wing-blog would impugn my patriotism because I said children should learn to read, and could get better jobs by doing so, is beneath contempt...I live in a national guard town, and I support our troops, but I don’t support either the war or educational policies that limit the options of young men and women to any one career—military or otherwise." King again defended his comment in an interview with the Bangor Daily News on May 8, saying, "I’m not going to apologize for promoting that kids get better education in high school, so they have more options. Those that don’t agree with what I’m saying, I’m not going to change their minds."^[76]

King's website states that he is a supporter of the Democratic Party. During the 2008 presidential election, King voiced his support for Democratic candidate Barack Obama.^[77] King was quoted as calling conservative commentator Glenn Beck "Satan's mentally challenged younger brother."^[78]

On March 8, 2011, King spoke at a political rally in Sarasota aimed against Governor Rick Scott (R-FL), voicing his opposition to the Tea Party movement.^[79]

In November 2011, King donated $70,000 in matched funding via his radio station to help pay the heating bills for families in need in his home town of Bangor, Maine, during the winter.^[80]

On April 30, 2012, King published an article in The Daily Beast calling for rich Americans, including himself, to pay more taxes, citing it as "a practical necessity and moral imperative that those who have received much should be obligated to pay ... in the same proportion".^[81]

Personal life[link]

King's home in Bangor

King and his wife own and occupy three different houses, one in Bangor, one in Lovell, Maine, and they regularly winter in their waterfront mansion located off the Gulf of Mexico, in Sarasota, Florida. He and Tabitha have three children, Naomi, Joe and Owen, and three grandchildren.^[12]

Shortly after publication of The Tommyknockers, King's family and friends staged an intervention, dumping evidence of his addictions taken from the trash including beer cans, cigarette butts, grams of cocaine, Xanax, Valium, NyQuil, dextromethorphan (cough medicine) and marijuana, on the rug in front of him. As King related in his memoir, he then sought help and quit all forms of drugs and alcohol in the late 1980s, and has remained sober since.^[15]

Tabitha King has published nine of her own novels. Both King's sons are published authors: Owen King published his first collection of stories, We're All in This Together: A Novella and Stories, in 2005. Joseph Hillstrom King, who writes under the professional name Joe Hill, published a collection of short stories, 20th Century Ghosts, in 2005. His debut novel, Heart-Shaped Box, was published in 2007 and will be adapted into a feature film by director Neil Jordan.^[82] King's daughter Naomi is a Unitarian Universalist Church minister in Plantation, Florida with her same-sex partner, Rev. Dr. Thandeka.^[83]

King is a fan of baseball, and of the Boston Red Sox in particular; he frequently attends the team's home and away games, and occasionally mentions the team in his novels and stories. He helped coach his son Owen's Bangor West team to the Maine Little League Championship in 1989. He recounts this experience in the New Yorker essay "Head Down", which also appears in the collection Nightmares & Dreamscapes. In 1999, King wrote The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, which featured former Red Sox pitcher Tom Gordon as the protagonist's imaginary companion. In 2004, King co-wrote a book titled Faithful: Two Diehard Boston Red Sox Fans Chronicle the Historic 2004 Season with Stewart O'Nan, recounting the authors' roller coaster reaction to the Red Sox's 2004 season, a season culminating in the Sox winning the 2004 American League Championship Series and World Series.^[84] In the 2005 film Fever Pitch, about an obsessive Boston Red Sox fan, King tosses out the first pitch of the Sox's opening day game.

Awards[link]

This biographical section of an article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (October 2010)

See also[link]

Bibliography Short fiction by Stephen King Stephen King bibliography Unpublished and uncollected works by Stephen King Family Joseph Hillstrom King Naomi King Owen King Tabitha King

King's fictional topography Castle Rock, Maine Derry, Maine Jerusalem's Lot, Maine Projects Dollar Baby Rock Bottom Remainders

Publishers Cemetery Dance Publications Scribner Doubleday Grant Philtrum Press Viking Press Derivative works Media based on Stephen King works

Book: Stephen King Wikipedia books are collections of articles that can be downloaded or ordered in print.

References[link]

Additional reading[link]

• Brooks, Justin (2008). Stephen King: A Primary Bibliography of the World's Most Popular Author. Cemetery Dance. ISBN 1-58767-153-0. 
• Collings, Michael R. (1985). The Many Facets of Stephen King. Starmont House. ISBN 0-930261-14-3. 
• Collings, Michael R.; David A. Engebretson (1985). The Shorter Works of Stephen King. Starmont House. ISBN 0-930261-02-X. 
• Collings, Michael R. (1985). Stephen King as Richard Bachman. Starmont House. ISBN 0-930261-00-3. 
• Collings, Michael R. (1986). The Annotated Guide to Stephen King: A Primary and Secondary Bibliography of the Works of America’s Premier Horror Writer. Starmont House. ISBN 0-930261-80-1. 
• Collings, Michael R. (1986). The Films of Stephen King. Starmont House. ISBN 0-930261-10-0. 
• Collings, Michael R. (1987). The Stephen King Phenomenon. Starmont House. ISBN 0-930261-12-7. 
• Collings, Michael R. (2003). Horror Plum'd: An International Stephen King Bibliography and Guide 1960-2000. Overlook Connection Press. ISBN -892950-45-6. 
• Spignesi, Stephen (1991). The Complete Stephen King Encyclopedia. Contemporary Books. ISBN 978-0-8092-3818-7. 
• Spignesi, Stephen (1998). The Lost Work of Stephen King. Birch Lane Press. ISBN 978-1-55972-469-2. 
• Spignesi, Stephen (2001). The Essential Stephen King. Career Press. ISBN ISBN 978-1-56414-710-3. 
• Wood, Rocky; David Rawsthorne, Norma Blackburn. The Complete Guide to the Works of Stephen King,. Kanrock Partners,. ISBN 0-9750593-3-5. 
• Wood, Rocky (2006). Stephen King: Uncollected, Unpublished. Cemetery Dance. ISBN 1-58767-130-1. 
• Wood, Rocky; Justin Brooks. The Stephen King Collector's Guide. Kanrock Partners. ISBN 978-0-9750593-5-7. 
• Wood, Rocky; Justin Brooks (2008). Stephen King: The Non-Fiction. Cemetery Dance. ISBN 1-58767-160-3. 
• Collings, Michael R. (2008). Stephen King Is Richard Bachman. Overlook Connection Press. ISBN 1-892950-74-X. 
• Gary Hoppenstand, ed. (2010). Stephen King. Salem Press. ISBN 978-1-58765-685-9. 

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Stephen King

• Stephen King's Official Web Site
• Official Website for Carrie the Musical
• Stephen & Tabitha King Foundation
• Christopher Lehmann-Haupt and Nathaniel Rich (Fall 2006). "Stephen King, The Art of Fiction No. 189". The Paris Review. http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/5653/the-art-of-fiction-no-189-stephen-king. 
• Working with the King - Shotsmag Ezine Interview with Philippa Pride, King's UK editor
• La Torre Nera – Stephen King Italian/English Website
• Club Stephen King French English Website
• Video of a March 2008 interview with King in Sarasota, Fla.
• German web site
• Stephen King quotes...everyday
• Works by or about Stephen King in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• Stephen King at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
• Stephen King at the Internet Book List
• Stephen King at the Internet Movie Database

v t e Works of Stephen King Novels Carrie (1974) 'Salem's Lot (1975) The Shining (1977) The Stand (1978) The Dead Zone (1979) Firestarter (1980) Cujo (1981) Christine (1983) Pet Sematary (1983) Cycle of the Werewolf (1983) The Talisman (1984; with Peter Straub) It (1986) The Eyes of the Dragon (1987) Misery (1987) The Tommyknockers (1987) The Dark Half (1989) Needful Things (1991) Gerald's Game (1992) Dolores Claiborne (1992) Insomnia (1994) Rose Madder (1995) The Green Mile (1996) Desperation (1996) Bag of Bones (1998) The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon (1999) Dreamcatcher (2001) Black House (2001; with Peter Straub) From a Buick 8 (2002) The Colorado Kid (2005) Cell (2006) Lisey's Story (2006) Duma Key (2008) Under the Dome (2009) Blockade Billy (2010) 11/22/63 (2011) Doctor Sleep (2013) Joyland (2013) The Dark Tower series The Gunslinger (1982) The Drawing of the Three (1987) The Waste Lands (1991) Wizard and Glass (1997) Wolves of the Calla (2003) Song of Susannah (2004) The Dark Tower (2004) The Wind Through the Keyhole (2012) Richard Bachman novels Rage (1977) The Long Walk (1979) Roadwork (1981) The Running Man (1982) Thinner (1984) The Bachman Books (1985) The Regulators (1996) Blaze (2007) Short fiction collections Night Shift (1978) Different Seasons (1982) Skeleton Crew (1985) Four Past Midnight (1990) Nightmares & Dreamscapes (1993) Hearts in Atlantis (1999) Everything's Eventual (2002) Just After Sunset (2008) Full Dark, No Stars (2010) Non-fiction Danse Macabre (1981) Nightmares in the Sky (1988) On Writing (2000) Secret Windows (2000) Faithful (2004; with Stewart O'Nan) E-books Riding the Bullet (2000) The Plant (2000; unfinished) Ur (2009) Mile 81 (2011) Screenplays Creepshow (1982) Cat's Eye (1985) Silver Bullet (1985) Maximum Overdrive (1986; also director) Pet Sematary (1989) Sleepwalkers (1992) Cell (2012) Teleplays Sorry, Right Number (1988) Golden Years (1991) The Stand (1994) The Shining (1997) "Chinga" (1998; with Chris Carter) Storm of the Century (1999) Rose Red (2002) Kingdom Hospital (2004) Desperation (2006) Collaborations with musicians Michael Jackson's Ghosts (1997; with Michael Jackson) Black Ribbons (2010; with Shooter Jennings) Ghost Brothers of Darkland County (2012; with John Mellencamp) Graphic novels Creepshow (1982) The Dark Tower (2007-Present) The Stand (2008-2012) The Talisman (2009-2010) American Vampire (2010) N. (2010) Road Rage (2012) Related articles Unpublished and uncollected works by Stephen King Media based on Stephen King works Books about Stephen King Tabitha King Naomi King Joe Hill Owen King Peter Straub Rock Bottom Remainders Dollar Baby Jerusalem's Lot Castle Rock, Maine Derry, Maine The Diary of Ellen Rimbauer: My Life at Rose Red Book:Stephen King