King, Stephen 1947–

(Richard Bachman, Eleanor Druse, Stephen Edwin King, Steve King, John Swithen)

PERSONAL: Born September 21, 1947, in Portland, ME; son of Donald (a merchant sailor) and Nellie Ruth (Pillsbury) King; married Tabitha Jane Spruce (a novelist), January 2, 1971; children: Naomi Rachel, Joseph Hill, Owen Phillip. Education: University of Maine at Orono, B.Sc., 1970. Politics: Democrat Hobbies and other interests: Reading (mostly fiction), jigsaw puzzles, playing the guitar ("I'm terrible and so try to bore no one but myself"), movies, bowling.

ADDRESSES: Agent—Arthur Greene, 101 Park Ave., New York, NY 10178.

CAREER: Writer. Has worked as a janitor, a laborer in an industrial laundry, and in a knitting mill. Hampden Academy (high school), Hampden, ME, English teacher, 1971–73; University of Maine, Orono, writer-in-residence, 1978–79. Owner, Philtrum Press (publishing house), and WZON-AM (rock 'n' roll radio station), Bangor, ME. Has made cameo appearances in films, including Knightriders, 1981, Creepshow, 1982, Maximum Overdrive, 1986, Pet Sematary, 1989, and The Stand, 1994; has also appeared in American Express credit card television commercial. Served as judge for 1977 World Fantasy Awards, 1978. Participated in radio honor panel with George A. Romero, Peter Straub, and Ira Levin, moderated by Dick Cavett, WNET, 1980.

MEMBER: Authors Guild, Authors League of America, Screen Artists Guild, Screen Writers of America, Writers Guild.

AWARDS, HONORS: Carrie named to School Library Journal's Book List, 1975; World Fantasy Award nominations, 1976, for Salem's Lot, 1979, for The Stand and Night Shift, 1980, for The Dead Zone, 1981, for "The Mist," and 1983, for "The Breathing Method: A Winter's Tale," in Different Seasons; Hugo Award nomination, World Science Fiction Society, and Nebula Award nomination, Science Fiction Writers of America, both 1978, both for The Shining; Balrog Awards, second place in best novel category, for The Stand, and second place in best collection category for Night Shift, both 1979; named to the American Library Association's list of best books for young adults, 1979, for The Long Walk, and 1981, for Firestarter; World Fantasy Award, 1980, for contributions to the field, and 1982, for story "Do the Dead Sing?"; Career Alumni Award, University of Maine at Orono, 1981; Nebula Award nomination, Science Fiction Writers of America, 1981, for story "The Way Station"; special British Fantasy Award for outstanding contribution to the genre, British Fantasy Society, 1982, for Cujo; Hugo Award, World Science Fiction Convention, 1982, for Stephen King's Danse Macabre; named Best Fiction Writer of the Year, Us Magazine, 1982; Locus Award for best collection, Locus Publications, 1986, for Stephen King's Skeleton Crew; Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel, Horror Writers Association, 1988, for Misery; Bram Stoker Award for Best Collection, 1991, for Four Past Midnight; World Fantasy award for short story, 1995, for The Man in the Black Suit; Bram Stoker Award for Best Novelette, Horror Writers Association, 1996, for Lunch at the Gotham Cafe; O. Henry Award, 1996, for "The Man in the Black Suit"; Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel, 1997, for The Green Mile, and 1999, for Bag of Bones; Bram Stoker Award nomination (with Peter Straub), 2001, for Black House; Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, National Book Award, 2003; The Stand was voted one of the nation's 100 best-loved novels by the British public as part of the BBC's The Big Read, 2003; Bram Stoker Award nomination, 2004, for The Dark Tower VII; Lifetime Achievement Award, World Fantasy Awards, 2004; Quill Book Award in the sports category, for Faithful: Two Die-Hard Boston Red Sox Fans Chronicle the Historic 2004 Season, 2005.

WRITINGS:

NOVELS

Carrie: A Novel of a Girl with a Frightening Power (also see below), Doubleday (New York, NY), 1974, movie edition published as Carrie, New American Library/Times Mirror (New York, NY), 1975, published in a limited edition with introduction by Tabitha King, Plume (New York, NY), 1991.

Salem's Lot (also see below), Doubleday (New York, NY), 1975, television edition, New American Library (New York, NY), 1979, published in a limited edition with introduction by Clive Barker, Plume (New York, NY), 1991.

The Shining (also see below), Doubleday (New York, NY), 1977, movie edition, New American Library (New York, NY), 1980, published in a limited edition with introduction by Ken Follett, Plume (New York, NY), 1991.

The Stand (also see below), Doubleday (New York, NY), 1978, enlarged and expanded edition published as The Stand: The Complete and Uncut Edition, Doubleday (New York, NY), 1990.

The Dead Zone (also see below), Viking (New York, NY), 1979, movie edition published as The Dead Zone: Movie Tie-In, New American Library (New York, NY), 1980.

Firestarter (also see below), Viking (New York, NY), 1980, with afterword by King, 1981, published in a limited, aluminum-coated, asbestos-cloth edition, Phantasia Press (Huntington Woods, MI), 1980.

Cujo (also see below), Viking (New York, NY), 1981, published in limited edition, Mysterious Press (New York, NY), 1981.

Pet Sematary (also see below), Doubleday (New York, NY), 1983.

Christine (also see below), Viking (New York, NY), 1983, published in a limited edition, illustrated by Stephen Gervais, Donald M. Grant (Hampton Falls, NH), 1983.

(With Peter Straub) The Talisman, Viking Press/Putnam (New York, NY), 1984, published in a limited two-volume edition, Donald M. Grant (Hampton Falls, NH), 1984.

The Eyes of the Dragon (young adult), limited edition, illustrated by Kenneth R. Linkhauser, Philtrum Press, 1984, new edition, illustrated by David Palladini, Viking (New York, NY), 1987.

It (also see below), limited German edition published as Es, Heyne (Munich), 1986, Viking (New York, NY), 1986.

Misery (also see below), Viking (New York, NY), 1987.

The Tommyknockers (also see below), Putnam (New York, NY), 1987.

The Dark Half (also see below), Viking (New York, NY), 1989.

Needful Things (also see below), Viking (New York, NY), 1991.

Gerald's Game, Viking (New York, NY), 1992.

Dolores Claiborne (also see below), Viking (New York, NY), 1993.

Insomnia, Viking (New York, NY), 1994.

Rose Madder, Viking (New York, NY), 1995.

The Green Mile (serialized novel), Signet (New York, NY), Chapter 1, "The Two Dead Girls" (also see below), Chapter 2, "The Mouse on the Mile," Chapter 3, "Coffey's Hands," Chapter 4, "The Bad Death of Eduard Delacroix," Chapter 5, "Night Journey," Chapter 6, "Coffey on the Mile," March-August, 1996, published as The Green Mile: A Novel in Six Parts, Plume (New York, NY), 1997.

Desperation, Viking (New York, NY), 1996.

(And author of foreword) The Two Dead Girls, Signet (New York, NY), 1996.

Bag of Bones, Viking (New York, NY), 1998.

Hearts in Atlantis, G.K. Hall (Thorndike, ME), 1999.

The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, Scribner (New York, NY), 1999.

Dreamcatcher, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 2001.

(With Peter Straub) Black House (sequel to The Talisman), Random House (New York, NY), 2001.

(Editor) Ridley Pearson, The Diary of Ellen Rimbauer: My Life As Rose Red, Hyperion (New York, NY), 2001.

From a Buick 8, Scribner (New York, NY), 2002.

(Under name Eleanor Druse) The Journals of Eleanor Druse: My Investigation of the Kingdom Hospital Incident, Hyperion (New York, NY), 2004.

Cell, Scribner (New York, NY), 2006.

Also author of early unpublished novels "Sword in the Darkness" (also referred to as "Babylon Here"), "The Cannibals," and "Blaze," a reworking of John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men.

"THE DARK TOWER" SERIES

The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger (also see below), Amereon (New York, NY), 1976, published as The Gunslinger, New American Library (New York, NY), 1988, published in limited edition, illustrated by Michael Whelan, Donald M. Grant (Hampton Falls, NH), 1982, 2nd limited edition, 1984, revised and expanded edition, Viking (New York, NY), 2003.

The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three (also see below), illustrated by Phil Hale, New American Library (New York, NY), 1989.

The Dark Tower III: The Waste Lands (also see below), illustrated by Ned Dameron, Donald M. Grant (Hampton Falls, NH), 1991.

The Dark Tower Trilogy: The Gunslinger; The Drawing of the Three; The Waste Lands (box set), New American Library (New York, NY), 1993.

The Dark Tower IV: Wizard and Glass, Plume (New York, NY), 1997.

The Dark Tower V: Wolves of the Calla, Plume (New York, NY), 2003.

The Dark Tower VI: The Songs of Susannah, Donald M. Grant (Hampton Falls, NH), 2004.

The Dark Tower VII, Scribner (New York, NY), 2004.

NOVELS; UNDER PSEUDONYM RICHARD BACHMAN

Rage (also see below), New American Library/Signet (New York, NY), 1977.

The Long Walk (also see below), New American Library/Signet (New York, NY), 1979.

Roadwork: A Novel of the First Energy Crisis (also see below) New American Library/Signet (New York, NY), 1981.

The Running Man (also see below), New American Library/Signet (New York, NY), 1982.

Thinner, New American Library (New York, NY), 1984.

The Regulators, Dutton (New York, NY), 1996.

SHORT FICTION

(Under name Steve King) The Star Invaders (privately printed stories), Triad/Gaslight Books (Durham, ME), 1964.

Night Shift (story collection; also see below), introduction by John D. MacDonald, Doubleday (New York, NY), 1978, published as Night Shift: Excursions into Horror, New American Library/Signet (New York, NY), 1979.

Different Seasons (novellas; contains Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption: Hope Springs Eternal [also see below]; Apt Pupil: Summer of Corruption; The Body: Fall from Innocence; and The Breathing Method: A Winter's Tale), Viking (New York, NY), 1982.

Cycle of the Werewolf (novella; also see below), illustrated by Berni Wrightson, limited portfolio edition published with "Berni Wrightson: An Appreciation," Land of Enchantment (Westland, MI), 1983, enlarged edition including King's screenplay adaptation published as Stephen King's Silver Bullet, New American Library/Signet (New York, NY), 1985.

Stephen King's Skeleton Crew (story collection), illustrated by J. K. Potter, Viking (New York, NY), 1985, limited edition, Scream Press, 1985.

My Pretty Pony, illustrated by Barbara Kruger, Knopf (New York, NY), 1989, limited edition, Library Fellows of New York's Whitney Museum of American Art, 1989.

Four Past Midnight (contains "The Langoliers," "Secret Window, Secret Garden," "The Library Policeman," and "The Sun Dog"; also see below), Viking (New York, NY), 1990.

Nightmares and Dreamscapes, Viking (New York, NY), 1993.

Lunch at the Gotham Cafe, published in Dark Love: Twenty-two All Original Tales of Lust and Obsession, edited by Nancy Collins, Edward E. Kramer, and Martin Harry Greenberg, ROC (New York, NY), 1995.

Everything's Eventual: 14 Dark Tales, Scribner (New York, NY), 2002.

Also author of short stories "Slade" (a western), "The Man in the Black Suit," 1996, and, under pseudonym John Swithen, "The Fifth Quarter." Contributor of short story "Squad D" to Harlan Ellison's The Last Dangerous Visions; contributor of short story "Autopsy Room Four" to Robert Bloch's Psychos, edited by Robert Bloch. Also contributor to anthologies and collections, including The Year's Finest Fantasy, edited by Terry Carr, Putnam (New York, NY), 1978; Shadows, edited by Charles L. Grant, Doubleday (New York, NY), Volume 1, 1978, Volume 4, 1981; New Terrors, edited by Ramsey Campbell, Pocket Books (New York, NY), 1982; World Fantasy Convention 1983, edited by Robert Weinberg, Weird Tales, 1983; The Writer's Handbook, edited by Sylvia K. Burack, Writer (Boston, MA), 1984; The Dark Descent, edited by David G. Hartwell, Doherty Associates, 1987; Prime Evil: New Stories by the Masters of Modern Horror, by Douglas E. Winter, New American Library (New York, NY), 1988; and Dark Visions, Gollancz (London, England), 1989.

SCREENPLAYS

Stephen King's Creep Show: A George A. Romero Film (based on King's stories "Father's Day," "The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill" [previously pub-lished as "Weeds"], "The Crate," and "They're Creeping Up on You"; released by Warner Bros. as Creepshow, 1982), illustrated by Berni Wrightson and Michele Wrightson, New American Library (New York, NY), 1982.

Cat's Eye (based on King's stories "Quitters, Inc.," "The Ledge," and "The General"), Metro Goldwyn-Mayer/United Artists, 1984.

Stephen King's Silver Bullet (based on and published with King's novella Cycle of the Werewolf; released by Paramount Pictures/Dino de Laurentiis's North Carolina Film Corp., 1985), illustrated by Berni Wrightson, New American Library/Signet (New York, NY), 1985.

(And director) Maximum Overdrive (based on King's stories "The Mangler," "Trucks," and "The Lawn-mower Man"; released by Dino de Laurentiis's North Carolina Film Corp., 1986), New American Library (New York, NY), 1986.

Pet Sematary (based on King's novel of the same title), Laurel Production, 1989.

Stephen King's Sleepwalkers, Columbia, 1992.

(Author of introduction) Frank Darabont, The Shaws1hank Redemption: The Shooting Script, Newmarket Press (New York, NY), 1996.

Storm of the Century (also see below), Pocket Books (New York, NY), 1999.

(Author of introductions with William Goldman and Lawrence Kasdan) William Goldman and Lawrence Kasdan, Dreamcatcher: The Shooting Script, Newmarket Press (New York, NY), 2003.

TELEPLAYS

Stephen King's Golden Years, CBS-TV, 1991.

(And executive producer) Stephen King's The Stand (based on King's novel The Stand), ABC-TV, 1994.

(With Chris Carter) Chinga, (episode of The X-Files,) Fox-TV, 1998.

Storm of the Century, ABC-TV, 1999.

Rose Red (also see below), ABC-TV, 2001.

Stephen King's Kingdom Hospital, ABC-TV, 2004.

Desperation, USA, c. 2004.

Also author of Battleground (based on short story of same title; optioned by Martin Poll Productions for NBC-TV), and "Sorry, Right Number," for television series Tales from the Dark Side, 1987.

RECORDINGS

The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger, New American Library (New York, NY), 1988.

The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three, New American Library (New York, NY), 1989.

The Dark Tower III: The Waste Lands, Penguin-HighBridge Audio (St. Paul, MN), 1991.

Needful Things, Penguin-HighBridge Audio (St. Paul, MN), 1991.

OMNIBUS EDITIONS

Stephen King (contains The Shining, Salem's Lot, Night Shift, and Carrie), W.S. Heinemann/Octopus Books (London, England), 1981.

(And author of introduction) The Bachman Books: Four Early Novels (contains Rage, The Long Walk, Roadwork, and The Running Man), New American Library (New York, NY), 1985.

Another Quarter Mile: Poetry, Dorrance (Philadelphia, PA), 1979.

Stephen King's Danse Macabre (nonfiction), Everest House (New York, NY), 1981.

The Plant (privately published episodes of a comic horror novel in progress), Philtrum Press (Bangor, ME), Part 1, 1982, Part 2, 1983, Part 3, 1985.

Black Magic and Music: A Novelist's Perspective on Bangor (pamphlet), Bangor Historical Society (Bangor, ME), 1983.

Dolan's Cadillac, Lord John Press (Northridge, CA), 1989.

Stephen King (contains Desperation and The Regulators) Signet (New York, NY), 1997.

Stephen King's Latest (contains Dolores Claiborne, Insomnia and Rose Madder) Signet (New York, NY), 1997.

OTHER

Nightmares in the Sky: Gargoyles and Grotesques (non-fiction), photographs by F. Stop FitzGerald, Viking (New York, NY), 1988.

On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft, Scribner (New York, NY), 2000.

(With Stewart O'Nan) Faithful: Two Die-Hard Boston Red Sox Fans Chronicle the Historic 2004 Season, Scribner (New York, NY), 2004.

The Colorado Kid, Hard Case Crime (New York, NY), 2004.

Author of e-book The Plant, self-published first two chapters on his Web site (www.stephenking.com), August, 2000; also published a short story, "Riding the Bullet," as an e-book, March, 2000. Author of weekly column "King's Garbage Truck" for Maine Campus, 1969–70, and of monthly book review column for Adelina, 1980. Contributor of short fiction and poetry to numerous magazines, including Art, Castle Rock: The Stephen King Newsletter, Cavalier, Comics Review, Cosmopolitan, Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, Fantasy and Science Fiction, Gallery, Great Stories from Twilight Zone Magazine, Heavy Metal, Ladies' Home Journal, Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Maine, Maine Review, Marshroots, Marvel comics, Moth, Omni, Onan, Playboy, Redbook, Reflections, Rolling Stone, Science-Fiction Digest, Startling Mystery Stories, Terrors, Twilight Zone Magazine, Ubris, Whisper, and Yankee. Contributor of book reviews to the New York Times Book Review.

Most of King's papers are housed in the special collection of the Folger Library at the University of Maine at Orono.

ADAPTATIONS: Many of King's novels have been adapted for the screen. Carrie was produced as a motion picture in 1976 by Paul Monash for United Artists, screenplay by Lawrence D. Cohen, directed by Brian De Palma, featuring Sissy Spacek and Piper Laurie, and was also produced as a Broadway musical in 1988 by Cohen and Michael Gore, developed in England by the Royal Shakespeare Company, featuring Betty Buckley; Salem's Lot was produced as a television miniseries in 1979 by Warner Brothers, teleplay by Paul Monash, featuring David Soul and James Mason, and was adapted for the cable channel TNT in 2004, with a teleplay by Peter Filardi and direction by Mikael Salomon; The Shining was filmed in 1980 by Warner Brothers/Hawks Films, screenplay by director Stanley Kubrick and Diane Johnson, starring Jack Nicholson and Shelley Duvall, and it was filmed for television in 1997 by Warner Brothers, directed by Mick Garris, starring Rebecca De Mornay, Steven Weber, Courtland Mead, and Melvin Van Peebles; Cujo was filmed in 1983 by Warner Communications/Taft Entertainment, screenplay by Don Carlos Dunaway and Lauren Currier, featuring Dee Wallace and Danny Pintauro; The Dead Zone was filmed in 1983 by Paramount Pictures, screenplay by Jeffrey Boam, starring Christopher Walken; was adapted as a cable television series starring Anthony Michael Hall by USA Network, beginning 2002; Christine was filmed in 1983 by Columbia Pictures, screenplay by Bill Phillips; Firestarter was produced in 1984 by Frank Capra, Jr., for Universal Pictures in association with Dino de Laurentiis, screenplay by Stanley Mann, featuring David Keith and Drew Barrymore; Stand by Me (based on King's novella The Body) was filmed in 1986 by Columbia Pictures, screenplay by Raynold Gideon and Bruce A. Evans, directed by Rob Reiner; The Running Man was filmed in 1987 by Taft Entertainment/Barish Productions, screenplay by Steven E. de Souza, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger; Misery was produced in 1990 by Columbia, directed by Reiner, screenplay by William Goldman, starring James Caan and Kathy Bates; Graveyard Shift was filmed in 1990 by Paramount, directed by Ralph S. Singleton, adapted by John Esposito; Stephen King's It (based on King's novel It) was filmed as a television miniseries by ABC-TV in 1990; The Dark Half was filmed in 1993 by Orion, written and directed by George A. Romero, featuring Timothy Hutton and Amy Madigan; Needful Things was filmed in 1993 by Columbia/Castle Rock, adapted by W. D. Richter and Lawrence Cohen, directed by Fraser C. Heston, starring Max Von Sydow, Ed Harris, Bonnie Bedelia, and Amanda Plummer; The Tommyknockers was filmed as a television miniseries by ABC-TV in 1993; The Shawshank Redemption, based on King's novella Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption: Hope Springs Eternal, was filmed in 1994 by Columbia, written and directed by Frank Darabont, featuring Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman; Dolores Claiborne was filmed in 1995 by Columbia; Thinner was filmed by Paramount in 1996, directed by Dom Holland, starring Robert John Burke, Joe Mantegna, Lucinda Jenney, and Michael Constantine; Night Flier was filmed by New Amsterdam Entertainment/Stardust International/Medusa Film in 1997, directed by Mark Pavia, starring Miguel Ferrer, Julie Entwisle, Dan Monahan, and Michael H. Moss; Apt Pupil was filmed in 1998 by TriStar Pictures, directed by Bryan Singer, starring David Schwimmer, Ian McKellen, and Brad Renfro; The Green Mile was filmed in 1999 by Castle Rock, directed by Frank Darabont, who also wrote the screenplay, starring Tom Hanks; Hearts in Atlantis was filmed in 2001 by Castle Rock, directed by Scott Hicks, screenplay written by William Goldman, starring Anthony Hopkins; Dreamcatcher was released in 2003 by Warner Brothers and Castle Rock Entertainment and was directed by Lawrence Kasdan, written by William Goldman, starring Morgan Freeman. Several of King's short stories have also been adapted for the screen, including The Boogeyman, filmed by Tantalus in 1982 and 1984 in association with the New York University School of Undergraduate Film, screenplay by producer-director Jeffrey C. Schiro; The Woman in the Room, filmed in 1983 by Darkwoods, screenplay by director Frank Darabont, broadcast on public television in Los Angeles, 1985 (released with The Boogeyman on videocassette as Two Mini-Features from Stephen King's Nightshift Collection by Granite Entertainment Group, 1985); Children of the Corn, produced in 1984 by Donald P. Borchers and Terrence Kirby for New World Pictures, screenplay by George Goldsmith; The Word Processor (based on King's "The Word Processor of the Gods"), produced by Romero and Richard Ruben-stein for Laurel Productions, 1984, teleplay by Michael Dowell, broadcast November 19, 1985, on Tales from the Darkside series and released on videocassette by Laurel Entertainment, 1985; Gramma, filmed by CBS-TV in 1985, teleplay by Harlan Ellison, broadcast February 14, 1986, on The Twilight Zone series; Creep-show 2 (based on "The Raft" and two unpublished stories by King, "Old Chief Wood'nhead" and "The Hitchhiker"), was filmed in 1987 by New World Pictures, screenplay by Romero; Sometimes They Come Back, filmed by CBS-TV in 1987; "The Cat from Hell" is included in a three-segment anthology film titled Tales from the Darkside—The Movie, produced by Laurel Productions, 1990; The Lawnmower Man, written by director Brett Leonard and Gimel Everett for New Line Cinema, 1992; The Mangler, filmed by New Line Cinema, 1995; and The Langoliers, filmed as a television mini-series by ABC-TV in 1995; the short fiction "Secret Window, Secret Garden" was adapted into the film Secret Window, distributed by Columbia Pictures, written and directed by David Koepp; 2004; the short story "All That You Love Will Be Carried Away" from the collection Everything's Eventual has been adapted and made into a short film by James Renner; film rights to the short story "1408" from the collection Everything's Eventual has been optioned by Dimension Films. From a Buick 8 has been optioned by Chesapeake Films.

WORK IN PROGRESS: A series of original graphic novels based on the "Dark Tower" series, for Marvel.

SIDELIGHTS: "With Stephen King," mused Chelsea Quinn Yarbro in Fear Itself: The Horror Fiction of Stephen King, "you never have to ask 'Who's afraid of the big bad wolf?'—You are. And he knows it." Throughout a prolific array of novels, short stories, and screen work in which elements of horror, fantasy, science fiction, and humor meld, King deftly arouses fear from dormancy. The breadth and durability of his popularity alone evince his mastery as a compelling storyteller. "Nothing is as unstoppable as one of King's furies, except perhaps King's word processor," remarked Gil Schwartz in People, which selected King as one of twenty individuals who had defined the decade of the Eighties. And although the critical reception of his work has not necessarily matched its sweeping success with readers, colleagues and several critics alike discern within it a substantial and enduring literary legitimacy. In American Film, for instance, Darrell Ewing and Dennis Meyers called him "the chronicler of contemporary America's dreams, desires, and fears."

While striking a deep and responsive chord within its readers, the genre of horror is frequently trivialized by critics who tend to regard it, when at all, less seriously than mainstream fiction. In an interview with Charles Platt in Dream Makers: The Uncommon Men and Women Who Write Science Fiction, King suspected that "most of the critics who review popular fiction have no understanding of it as a whole." Regarding the "propensity of a small but influential element of the literary establishment to ghettoize horror and fantasy and instantly relegate them beyond the pale of so-called serious literature," King told Eric Norden in a Playboy interview, "I'm sure those critics' nineteenth-century precursors would have contemptuously dismissed [Edgar Allan] Poe as the great American hack." But as King contends in "The Horror Writer and the Ten Bears," his foreword to Kingdom of Fear: "Horror isn't a hack market now, and never was. The genre is one of the most delicate known to man, and it must be handled with great care and more than a little love." Furthermore, in a panel discussion at the 1984 World Fantasy Convention in Ottawa, reprinted in Bare Bones: Conversations on Terror with Stephen King, he predicted that horror writers "might actually have a serious place in American literature in a hundred years or so."

King's ability to comprehend "the attraction of fantastic horror to the denizen of the late twentieth century," according to Deborah L. Notkin in Fear Itself, partially accounts for his unrivaled popularity in the genre. But what distinguishes him is the way in which he transforms the ordinary into the horrific. Pointing out in the Atlantic Monthly that horror frequently represents "the symbolic depiction of our common experience," Lloyd Rose observed that "King takes ordinary emotional situations—marital stress, infidelity, peer-group-acceptance worries—and translates them into violent tales of vampires and ghosts. He writes supernatural soap operas." But to Gary Williams Crawford in Discovering Stephen King, King is "a uniquely sensitive author" within the Gothic literary tradition, which he described as "essentially a literature of nightmare, a conflict between waking life and the darkness within the human mind." Perpetuating the legacy of Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Henry James, and H. P. Lovecraft, "King is heir to the American Gothic tradition in that he has placed his horrors in contemporary settings and has depicted the struggle of an American culture to face the horrors within it," explained Crawford, and because "he has shown the nightmare of our idealistic civilization." Observing that children suspend their disbelief easily, King argued in his Danse Macabre that, ironically, they are actually "better able to deal with fantasy and terror on its own terms than their elders are." In an interview for High Times, for instance, he marveled at the resilience of a child's mind and the inexplicable, yet seemingly harmless, attraction of children to nightmare-inducing stories: "We start kids off on things like 'Hansel and Gretel,' which features child abandonment, kidnapping, attempted murder, forcible detention, cannibalism, and finally murder by cremation. And the kids love it." Adults are capable of distinguishing between fantasy and reality, but in the process of growing up, laments King in Danse Macabre, they develop "a good case of mental tunnel vision and a gradual ossification of the imaginative faculty"; thus, he perceives the task of the fantasy or horror writer as enabling one to become "for a little while, a child again." In Time King discussed the prolonged obsession with childhood that his generation has had. "We went on playing for a long time, almost feverishly," he recalled. "I write for that buried child in us, but I'm writing for the grown-up too. I want grown-ups to look at the child long enough to be able to give him up."

The empowerment of estranged young people is a theme that recurs throughout King's fiction. "If Stephen King's kids have one thing in common," declared young-adult novelist Robert Cormier in the Washington Post Book World, "it's the fact that they all are losers. In a way, all children are losers, of course—how can they be winners with that terrifying adult world stacked against them?" His first novel, Carrie, is about a persecuted teenaged girl. "The novel examines female power," stated Dictionary of Literary Biography contributor Carol Senf, "for Carrie gains her telekinetic abilities with her first menstruation." "It is," Senf concluded, "a compelling character study of a persecuted teenager who finally uses her powers to turn the table on her persecutors. The result is a violent explosion that destroys the mother who had taught her self-hatred and the high-school peers who had made her a scapegoat." An alienated teenaged boy is the main character in King's Christine, and Rage features Charlie Decker, a young man who tells the story of his descent into madness and murder. In The Shining and Firestarter, Danny Torrance and Charlie McGee are alienated not from their families—they have loving, if sometimes weak, parents—but through the powers they possess and by those who want to manipulate them: evil supernatural forces in The Shining, the U.S. Government in Firestarter. Children also figure prominently, although not always as victims, in Salem's Lot, The Tommyknockers, Pet Sematary, The Eyes of the Dragon, and The Talisman.

King's most explicit examination of alienation in childhood, however, comes in the novel It. The eponymous IT is a creature that feeds on children—on their bodies and on their emotions, especially fear. IT lives in the sewers of Derry, Maine, having arrived there ages ago from outer space, and emerges about every twenty-seven years in search of victims. "It begins, demonically enough, in 1957," explained New York Review of Books contributor Thomas R. Edwards, "when a six-year-old boy has his arm torn off by what appears to be a circus clown lurking down a storm drain…. King organizes the tale as two parallel stories, one tracing the activities of seven unprepossessing fifth-graders—'The Losers' Club'—who discovered and fought the horror in 1958, the other describing their return to Derry in 1985 when the cycle resumes." The surviving members of the Losers' Club return to Derry to confront IT and defeat IT once and for all. The only things that appears to hurt IT are faith, humor, and childlike courage. "Only brave and imaginative children, or adults who learn to remember and honor their childish selves," Edwards concluded, "can hope to foil It, as the Losers finally do in 1985."

"It involves the guilts and innocences of childhood and the difficulty for adults of recapturing them," Christopher Lehmann-Haupt stated in the New York Times. "It questions the difference between necessity and free will. It also concerns the evil that has haunted America from time to time in the forms of crime, racial and religious bigotry, economic hardship, labor strife and industrial pollution." The evil takes shape among Derry's adults and older children, especially the bullies who terrorize the members of the Losers' Club.

Not surprisingly, throughout most of King's adolescence, the written word afforded a powerful diversion. "Writing has always been it for me," King indicated in a panel discussion at the 1984 World Fantasy Convention in Ottawa, reprinted in Bare Bones. Science fiction and adventure stories comprised his first literary efforts. Having written his first story at the age of seven, King began submitting short fiction to magazines at twelve, and published his first story at eighteen. In high school, he authored a small, satiric newspaper titled "The Village Vomit"; and in college he penned a popular and eclectic series of columns called "King's Garbage Truck." He also started writing the novels he eventually published under the pseudonymous ruse of Richard Bachman—novels that focus more on elements of human alienation and brutality than supernatural horror. After graduation, King supplemented his teaching salary through various odd jobs and by submitting stories to men's magazines. Searching for a form of his own, and responding to a friend's challenge to break out of the machismo mold of his short fiction, King wrote what he described to Abe Peck in Rolling Stone College Papers as "a parable of women's consciousness." Re-trieving the discarded manuscript from the trash, though, King's wife, Tabitha, who is a writer herself, suggested that he ought to expand it. And because King completed the first draft of Carrie at the time William Peter Blatty's The Exorcist and Thomas Tryon's The Other were being published, the novel was marketed as horror fiction, and the genre had found its juggernaut. Or, as Don Herron put it in Fear Itself, "Like a mountain, King is there."

"Stephen King has made a dent in the national consciousness in a way no other horror writer has, at least during his own lifetime," stated Alan Warren in Discovering Stephen King. "He is a genuine phenomenon." A newsletter—"Castle Rock"—has been published since 1985 to keep his ever-increasing number of fans well informed; and Book-of-the-Month Club has been reissuing all of his best-sellers as the Stephen King Library collection. In his preface to Fear Itself, "On Becoming a Brand Name," King described the process as a fissional one in that a "writer produces a series of books which ricochet back and forth between hardcover and softcover at an ever increasing speed." Resorting to a pseudonym to get even more work into print accelerated the process for King; but according to Stephen P. Brown in Kingdom of Fear, although the ploy was not entirely "a vehicle for King to move his earliest work out of the trunk," it certainly triggered myriad speculations about, as well as hunts for, other possible pseudonyms he may also have used. In his essay "Why I Was Bachman" in The Bachman Books: Four Early Novels by Stephen King, King recalled that he simply considered it a good idea at the time, especially since he wanted to try to publish something without the attendant commotion that a Stephen King title would have unavoidably generated. Also, his publisher believed that he had already saturated the market. King's prodigious literary output and multimillion-dollar contracts, though, have generated critical challenges to the inherent worth of his fiction. Deducing that he has been somehow compromised by commercial success, some critics imply that he writes simply to fulfill contractual obligations. But as King told Norden, "Money really has nothing to do with it one way or the other. I love writing the things I write, and I wouldn't and 'couldn't' do anything else."

King writes daily, exempting only Christmas, the Fourth of July, and his birthday. He likes to work on two things simultaneously, beginning his day early with a two-or three-mile walk: "What I'm working on in the morning is what I'm working on," he said in a panel discussion at the 1980 World Fantasy Convention in Baltimore, reprinted in Bare Bones. He devotes his afternoon hours to rewriting. And according to his Playboy interview, while he is not particular about working conditions, he is about his output. Despite chronic headaches, occasional insomnia, and even a fear of writer's block, he produces six pages daily; "And that's like engraved in stone," he told Joyce Lynch Dewes Moore in Mystery.

Aware that "people want to be scared," as he related to Abe Peck in a Rolling Stone College Papers interview, and truly delighted to be able to accommodate them, King rejects the criticism that he preys on the fears of others. As he explained to Jack Matthews in a Detroit Free Press interview, some people simply avoid his books just as those who are afraid of speed and heights, especially in tandem, shun roller coasters. And that, he declared to Paul Janeczko in English Journal, is precisely what he believes he owes his readers—"a good ride on the roller coaster." Regarding what he finds to be an essential reassurance that underlies and impels the genre itself, King remarked in Danse Macabre that "beneath its fangs and fright wig" horror fiction is really quite conservative. Comparing horror fiction with the morality plays of the late middle ages, for instance, he believes that its primary function is "to reaffirm the virtues of the norm by showing us what awful things happen to people who venture into taboo lands." Also, there is the solace in knowing "when the lights go down in the theatre or when we open the book that the evildoers will almost certainly be punished, and measure will be returned for measure." But King admitted to Norden that despite all the discussion by writers generally about "horror's providing a socially and psychologically useful catharsis for people's fears and aggressions, the brutal fact of the matter is that we're still in the business of public executions."

"Death is a significant element in nearly all horror fiction," wrote Michael A. Morrison in Fantasy Review, "and it permeates King's novels and short stories." Noting in Danse Macabre that a universal fear with which each of us must personally struggle is "the fear of dying," King explained to Bob Spitz in a Penthouse magazine interview that "everybody goes out to horror movies, reads horror novels—and it's almost as though we're trying to preview the end." But he submitted that "if the horror story is our rehearsal for death, then its strict moralities make it also a reaffirmation of life and good will and simple imagination—just one more pipeline to the infinite." While he believes that horror is "one of the ways we walk our imagination," as he told Matthews, he does worry about the prospect of a mentally unstable reader patterning behavior after some fictional brutality. Remarking that "evil is basically stupid and unimaginative and doesn't need creative inspiration from me or anybody else," King told Norden, for in-stance, that "despite knowing all that rationally, I have to admit that it is unsettling to feel that I could be linked in any way, however tenuous, to somebody else's murder."

An example of King's ability to "pour new wine from old bottles" is his experimentation with narrative structure. In It, Carrie, and The Stand, declared Tony Magistrale in the study Landscape of Fear: Stephen King's American Gothic, King explores story forms—"stream of consciousness, interior monologues, multiple narrators, and a juggling of time sequences—in order to draw the reader into a direct and thorough involvement with the characters and events of the tale." Both The Dark Half and Misery, according to George Stade in the New York Times Book Review, are "parable[s] in chiller form of the popular writer's relation to his audience." In Gerald's Game's Jessie Burlingame has lost her husband to heart failure. He "has died after handcuffing her to the bed at their summer home," Senf explained in the Dictionary of Literary Biography, "and Jessie must face her life, including the memory that her father had sexually abused her, and her fears alone." Dolores Claiborne is the story of a woman suspected of murdering her employer, a crusty old miser named Vera Donovan. Dolores maintains her innocence, but she freely confesses that she murdered her husband thirty years previously when she caught him molesting their daughter.

"There are a series of dovetailing, but unobtrusive, connections," stated Locus contributor Edward Bryant, "linking the two novels and both Jessie and Dolores." Like It, both Gerald's Game and Dolores Claiborne are set in the town of Derry, Maine. They are also both psychological portraits of older women who have been subjected to sexual abuse. Dolores Claiborne differs from Gerald's Game, however, because it uses fewer of the traditional trappings of horror fiction, and it is related entirely from the viewpoint of the title character. Dolores Claiborne "is, essentially, a dramatic monologue," stated Kit Reed in the Washington Post Book World, "in which the speaker addresses other people in the room, answers questions and completes a narrative in actual time." "All but the last page is one long quote from Dolores Claiborne," asserted a Rapport reviewer. "King has taken horror literature out of the closet and has injected new life into familiar genres," Senf concluded. "He is not afraid to mix those genres in fresh ways to produce novels that examine contemporary American culture."

Insomnia, King's 1994 novel, continues the example set by Gerald's Game and Dolores Claiborne. It is also set in Derry, and its protagonist is an elderly man named Ralph Roberts, a retired salesman, newly widowed and suffering severely from insomnia. Ralph begins to see people in a new way: their auras become visible to him. "Ralph finds himself a man in a classic situation, a mortal in conflict with the fates—literally," declared Locus reviewer Bryant. "How much self-determination does he really possess? And how much is he acted upon?" Ralph also finds himself in conflict with his neighbor Ed Deepeneau, a conservative Christian and antiabortion activist who beats his wife and has taken up a crusade against a visiting feminist speaker. "There are some truly haunting scenes in the book about wife abuse and fanaticism, as well as touching observations about growing old, but they're quickly consumed by more predictable sensationalism," remarked Chris Bohjalian in the New York Times Book Review. "In a world teeming with timeless, omnipotent entities," declared novelist Kinky Friedman in the Washington Post Book World, "King has provided Ralph Roberts, that ancient vulnerable, white-haired widower, with the ultimate weapon, the power of the human spirit."

King delighted his readers and astounded his critics by issuing three new major novels in 1996: Desperation, The Regulators—under the pseudonym Richard Bachman—and The Green Mile, the last a Depression-era prison novel serialized in six installments. A Publishers Weekly reviewer said that "if the publishing industry named a Person of the Year, this year's winner would be Stephen King." The critic noted that, with Desperation, "King again proves himself the premier literary barometer of our cultural clime." Released on the same day from two different publishers, Desperation and The Regulators have interlocking characters and plots; each works as a kind of distorted mirror image of the other. In Desperation, which many critics agree is the better book, a group of strangers drive into Desperation, Nevada, where they encounter a malign spirit (Tak) in the body of police officer Collie Entragian. The survivors of this apocalyptic novel are few, but include David Carver, an eleven-year-old boy who talks to God, and John Edward Marinville, an alcoholic novelist. Robert Polito, writing for the New York Times, noted that "King's peculiar knack as a novelist is to strip away much of the complexity and nearly all of the art from a terrifying vision of an unknowable universe ruled by a limited, perhaps evil God and insinuate that Gnosticism into the rituals and commodities of everyday America." Polito admired King's capacity to tap into the collective unconscious of America at the end of the millennium but regretted that "the recurrent silliness shrugs off the horror and the social anger." Mark Harris, writing for Entertainment Weekly, however, remarked that King "hasn't been this intent on scaring readers—or been this successful at it—since The Stand," noting that "King has always been pop fiction's most compassionate sadist." In Desperation, King grapples with the nature of God, but Polito claimed that the "bromide" that "God is Love" can't dispel the novel's dark and cruel vision of the universe. King recorded the audio version of Desperation himself.

While The Regulators received little critical praise, King's experiment in serialization with The Green Mile captured the imagination of both readers and critics. An Entertainment Weekly reviewer called it a novel "that's as hauntingly touching as it is just plain haunted," and a New York Times contributor claimed that in spite of "the striking circumstances of its serial publication," the novel "manages to sustain the notes of visceral wonder and indelible horror that keep eluding the Tak books." Set in the Deep South in 1932, The Green Mile—a prison expression for death row—begins with the death of twin girls and the conviction of John Coffey for their murder. Block superintendent Paul Edgecombe, who narrates the story years later from his nursing home in Georgia, slowly unfolds the story of the mysterious Coffey, a man with no past and with a gift for healing.

King's next major novel, Bag of Bones, appeared in 1998. This tale of a writer struggling with both grief for his dead wife and writer's block while living in a haunted cabin met with a great deal of acclaim from critics. Also acclaimed was the following year's Hearts in Atlantis, which Tom De Haven described in Entertainment Weekly as "a novel in five stories, with players sometimes migrating from one story to the next." De Haven went on to note that "there's more heartbreak than horror in these pages, and a doomy aura that's more generational than occult." He also reported that the "last two stories are drenched in sadness, mortality, regret, and finally absolution," concluding that Hearts in Atlantis "is wonderful fiction." Similarly, Ray Olson praised the volume in Booklist as "a rich, engaging, deeply moving generational epic." The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon also saw print in 1999. This novel, short by King's standards, centers on a nine-year-old girl from a broken home who gets lost in a forest for two weeks. She has her radio with her, and survives her ordeal by listening to Boston Red Sox games and imagining conversations with her hero, Red Sox relief pitcher Tom Gordon.

While these books were making their way to readers, however, King suffered a serious health challenge. On June 19, 1999, he was struck by a van while walking alongside a road near his home, sustaining injuries to his spine, hip, ribs, and right leg. One of his broken ribs punctured a lung, and he nearly died. He began a slow progress towards recovery, cheered by countless cards and letters from his fans. During his recovery, he began experimenting with publishing his fiction electronically. In August, 2000, King self-published the first two installments of his e-book The Plant on his Web site. Pricing the installments at one dollar each, King promised to publish additional chapters if at least 75 percent of those who download the first two installments paid for them. King also published a short story, "Riding the Bullet," in March, only distributed as an e-book publication in a number of formats. This tale was eventually reprinted in the 2002 collection Everything's Eventual: 14 Dark Tales.

King had also begun work on a writer's manual before his accident, and the result, 2000's On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft, sold more copies in its first printing than any previous book about writing. In addition to King's advice on crafting fiction, however, the book includes a great deal of autobiographical material. The author chronicles his childhood, his rise to fame, his struggles with addiction, and the horrific accident that almost ended his life. "King's writing about his own alcoholism and cocaine abuse," noted John Mark Eberhart in the Kansas City Star, "is among the best and most honest prose of his career." Similarly, Jack Harville reported in the Charlotte Observer that "the closing piece describes King's accident and rehabilitation. The description is harrowing, and the rehab involves both physical and emotional recovery. It is beautifully told in a narrative style that would have gained Strunk and White's approval." Some of the novels King has published since the beginning of the twenty-first century, including Dreamcatcher and From a Buick 8, have brought strong comparisons from critics with his earlier novels; in these specific cases, It and Christine, respectively. These books, however, were followed by an announcement King made in 2002 that he is planning to retire from publishing. In an interview with Chris Nashawaty in Entertainment Weekly, King clarified, "First of all, I'd never stop writing because I don't know what I'd do between nine and one every day. But I'd stop publishing. I don't need the money." Yet Dream-catcher and From a Buick 8 have garnered praise from reviewers as well. Rene Rodriguez in the Miami Herald maintained that "Dreamcatcher marks [King's] bracing return to all-out horror, complete with trademark grisly gross-outs, a panoramic cast of deftly drawn characters and a climactic race against time, with the fate of the planet hanging in the balance." Salem Macknee in the Charlotte Observer, noting surface similarities between From a Buick 8 and Christine, assured readers that "this strange counterfeit of a Buick Roadmaster is no rerun. Stephen King has once again created an original, a monster never seen before, with its own frightful fingerprint."

King also received a great deal of praise for Everything's Eventual. Among other stories, the collection includes a few that he previously published in the New Yorker. Notable among these is "The Man in the Black Suit," which won the 1996 O. Henry Award for best short story and brought King comparisons with great nineteenth-century American fiction writer Nathaniel Hawthorne. "As a whole," concluded Rodriguez in another Miami Herald review, "Everything's Eventual makes a perfect showcase for all of King's strengths: His uncanny talent for creating vivid, fully realized characters in a few strokes, his ability to mine horror out of the mundane,… and his knack for leavening even the most preposterous contraptions with genuine, universal emotions."

Although he does not necessarily feel that he has been treated unfairly by the critics, King has described what it is like to witness the written word turned into filmed images that are less than generously received by reviewers. "Whenever I publish a book, I feel like a trapper caught by the Iroquois," he told Peck in Rolling Stone College Papers. "They're all lined up with tomahawks, and the idea is to run through with your head down, and everybody gets to take a swing…. Finally, you get out the other side and you're bleeding and bruised, and then it gets turned into a movie, and you're there in front of the same line and everybody's got their tomahawks out again." Nevertheless, in his essay "Why I Was Bachman," he readily admitted that he really has little to complain about: "I'm still married to the same woman, my kids are healthy and bright, and I'm being well paid for doing something I love." And despite the financial security and recognition, or perhaps because of its intrinsic responsibility, King strives to improve at his craft. "It's getting later and I want to get better, because you only get so many chances to do good work," he stated in a panel discussion at the 1984 World Fantasy Convention in Ottawa. "There's no justification not to at least try to do good work when you make the money."

According to Warren in Discovering Stephen King, there is absolutely nothing to suggest that success has been detrimental to King: "As a novelist, King has been remarkably consistent." Noting, for instance, that "for generations it was given that brevity was the soul of horror, that the ideal format for the tale of terror was the short story," Warren pointed out that "King was among the first to challenge that concept, writing not just successful novels of horror, but long novels." Moreover, said Warren, "his novels have gotten longer." King once quipped in the Chicago Tribune Magazine that his "philosophy has always been take a good thing and beat it 'til it don't move no more." Although some critics fault him for overwriting, Warren suggested that "the sheer scope and ambitious nature of his storytelling demands a broad canvas." Referring to this as "the very pushiness of his technique," the New York Times' Lehmann-Haupt similarly contended that "the more he exasperates us by overpreparing, the more effectively his preparations eventually pay off."

Influenced by the naturalistic novels of writers such as Theodore Dreiser and Frank Norris, King confessed to Janeczko that his personal outlook for the world's future is somewhat bleak. On the other hand, one of the things he finds most comforting in his own work is an element of optimism. "In almost all cases, I've begun with a premise that was really black," he said in a panel discussion at the 1980 World Fantasy Convention in Baltimore, reprinted in Bare Bones. "And a more pleasant resolution has forced itself upon that structure." But as Andrew M. Greeley maintained in Kingdom of Fear: "Unlike some other horror writers who lack his talents and sensitivity, Stephen King never ends his stories with any cheap or easy hope. People are badly hurt, they suffer and some of them die, but others survive the struggle and manage to grow. The powers of evil have not yet done them in." According to Notkin, though, the reassurance King brings to his own readers derives from a basic esteem for humanity itself: "For whether he is writing about vampires, about the death of 99 percent of the population, or about innocent little girls with the power to break the earth in half, King never stops emphasizing his essential liking for people."

"There's unmistakable genius in Stephen King," admitted Walter Kendrick in the Village Voice, adding that he writes "with such fierce conviction, such blind and brutal power, that no matter how hard you fight—and needless to say, I fought—he's irresistible." The less reserved critical affirmations of King's work extend from expressions of pragmatism to those of metaphor. Lehmann-Haupt, for example, a self-professed King addict, offered his evaluation of King's potential versus his accomplishments as a writer of horror fiction: "Once again, as I edged myself nervously toward the climax of one of his thrillers, I found myself considering what Stephen King could accomplish if he would only put his storytelling talents to serious use. And then I had to ask myself: if Mr. King's aim in writing … was not entirely serious by some standard that I was vaguely invoking, then why, somebody please tell me, was I holding on to his book so hard that my knuckles had begun to turn white?" Douglas E. Winter assessed King's contribution to the genre in his study Stephen King: The Art of Darkness this way: "Death, destruction, and destiny await us all at the end of the journey—in life as in horror fiction. And the writer of horror stories serves as the boatman who ferries people across that Reach known as the River Styx…. In the horror fiction of Stephen King, we can embark upon the night journey, make the descent down the dark hole, cross that narrowing Reach, and return again in safety to the surface—to the near shore of the river of death. For our boatman has a master's hand."

While King has played with the idea of giving up publishing his writings, his legion of fans continues to be delighted that the idea has not yet become a reality. In 2004, under the pseudonym of Eleanor Druse, King published The Journals of Eleanor Druse: My Investigation of the Kingdom Hospital Incident. He has also continued with his "Dark Tower" series (the illustrated novels featuring Roland the gunslinger) with the publication of The Dark Tower V: Wolves of the Calla in 2003. The book was published more than five years after the publication of the previous installment in the series, The Dark Tower IV: Wizard and Glass. King also completed the final two installments of the series in 2004, including The Dark Tower VI: The Songs of Susannah and The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower. In a surprise for fans, King introduced himself as a character in the sixth installment, which a Publishers Weekly reviewer called a "gutsy move" and commented, "that way there's no denying the ingenuity with which King paints a candid picture of himself."

In 2004, King varied a bit from his usual formula to write, in conjunction with Stewart O'Nan, a nonfiction book about one of his great loves, the Boston Red Sox. When the two authors began keeping diaries of every team-related moment in the year, Faithful: Two Diehard Boston Red Sox Fans Chronicle the Historic 2004 Season was originally expected to be the story of yet another disappointing season for fans of the seemingly cursed team. Instead the Red Sox won the World Series that season for the first time in eighty-six years.

With Cell, a 2006 novel that Booklist contributor Ray Olson considered "the most suspenseful, fastest-paced book King has ever written," the author uses cell phone signals as a source for inducing zombie-like violence in the majority of the population. A Publishers Weekly reviewer found "King's imagining … rich," and the dialogue "jaunty and witty" in this novel that borrows technique from Richard Matheson and George A. Romero, the horror legends to whom the book is dedicated. Olson concludes that with the publication of Cell, "King blasts any notion that he's exhausted or dissipated his enormous talent."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Badley, Linda, Writing Horror and the Body: The Fiction of Stephen King, Clive Barker and Anne Rice, Greenwood Press (Westport, CT), 1996.

Beahm, George W., The Stephen King Story, revised and updated edition, Andrews & McMeel (Kansas City, MO), 1992.

Beahm, George W., editor, The Stephen King Companion, Andrews & McMeel (Kansas City, MO), 1989.

Blue, Tyson, Observations from the Terminator: Thoughts on Stephen King and Other Modern Masters of Horror Fiction, Borgo Press (San Bernardino, CA), 1995.

Collings, Michael R., Stephen King As Richard Bach-man, Starmont House (Mercer Island, WA), 1985.

Collings, Michael R., The Works of Stephen King: An Annotated Bibliography and Guide, edited by Boden Clarke, Borgo Press (San Bernardino, CA), 1993.

Collings, Michael R., Scaring Us to Death: The Impact of Stephen King on Popular Culture, 2nd edition, Borgo Press (San Bernardino, CA), 1995.

Contemporary Literary Criticism, Gale (Detroit, MI), Volume 12, 1980, Volume 26, 1983, Volume 37, 1985, Volume 61, 1990.

Davis, Jonathan P., Stephen King's America, Bowling Green State University Popular Press (Bowling Green, OH), 1994.

Dictionary of Literary Biography, Volume 143: American Novelists since World War II, Third Series, Gale (Detroit, MI), 1994.

Dictionary of Literary Biography Yearbook: 1980, Gale (Detroit, MI), 1981.

Docherty, Brian, editor, American Horror Fiction: From Brockden Brown to Stephen King, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 1990.

Hoppenstand, Gary, and Ray B. Browne, editors, The Gothic World of Stephen King: Landscape of Nightmares, Bowling Green State University Popular Press (Bowling Green, OH), 1987.

Keyishian, Amy, and Marjorie Keyishian, Stephen King, Chelsea House (Philadelphia, PA), 1995.

King, Stephen, Stephen King's Danse Macabre (nonfiction), Everest House (New York, NY), 1981.

King, Stephen, The Bachman Books: Four Early Novels, New American Library (New York, NY), 1985.

Magistrale, Tony, editor, Landscape of Fear: Stephen King's American Gothic, Bowling Green State University Popular Press (Bowling Green, OH), 1988.

Magistrale, Tony, editor, A Casebook on "The Stand," Starmont House (Mercer Island, WA), 1992.

Magistrale, Tony, editor, The Dark Descent: Essays Defining Stephen King's Horrorscape, Greenwood Press (Westport, CT), 1992.

Magistrale, Tony, Stephen King: The Second Decade—"Danse Macabre" to "The Dark Half," Twayne (New York, NY), 1992.

Platt, Charles, Dream Makers: The Uncommon Men and Women Who Write Science Fiction, Berkley (New York, NY), 1983.

Russell, Sharon A., Stephen King: A Critical Companion, Greenwood Press (Westport, CT), 1996.

Saidman, Anne, Stephen King, Master of Horror, Lerner Publications (Minneapolis, MN), 1992.

Schweitzer, Darrell, editor, Discovering Stephen King, Starmont House (Mercer Island, WA), 1985.

Short Story Criticism, Volume 17, Gale (Detroit, MI), 1995.

Underwood, Tim, and Chuck Miller, editors, Fear Itself: The Horror Fiction of Stephen King, Underwood-Miller, 1982.

Underwood, Tim, and Chuck Miller, editors, Kingdom of Fear: The World of Stephen King, Underwood-Miller, 1986.

Underwood, Tim, and Chuck Miller, editors, Bare Bones: Conversations on Terror with Stephen King, McGraw-Hill (New York, NY), 1988.

Underwood, Tim, and Chuck Miller, editors, Feast of Fear: Conversations with Stephen King, Carroll & Graf (New York, NY), 1992.

Underwood, Tim, and Chuck Miller, editors, Fear Itself: The Early Works of Stephen King, foreword by King, introduction by Peter Straub, afterword by George A. Romero, Underwood-Miller, 1993.

Winter, Douglas E., Stephen King: The Art of Darkness, New American Library (New York, NY), 1984.

PERIODICALS

American Film, June, 1986, article by Darrell Ewing and Dennis Meyers.

Atlantic Monthly, September, 1986.

Book, November-December, Chris Barsanti, review of The Dark Tower V: Wolves of the Calla, p. 75.

Booklist, July, 1999, Ray Olson, review of Hearts in Atlantis, p. 1893; May 1, 2004, Ray Olson, review of The Dark Tower V: Song of Susannah, p. 1483; September 1, 2004, Ray Olson, review of The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower, p. 6; January 1, 2006, Ray Olson, review of Cell, p. 24.

Boston Globe, October 10, 1980; April 15, 1990, p. A1; May 16, 1990, p. 73; July 15, 1990, p. 71; September 11, 1990, p. 61; October 31, 1990, p. 25; November 17, 1990, p. 12; December 5, 1990, p. 73; July 16, 1991, p. 56; September 28, 1991, p. 9; November 22, 1991, p. 1; August 21, 1992, p. 21; August 30, 1992, p. 14; May 8, 1993, p. 21; May 24, 1993, p. 43; October 16, 1994, p. 14; May 13, 1995, p. 21.

Chicago Tribune, August 26, 1990, p. 3; October 29, 1990, p. 5; November 16, 1990, p. 1; November 30, 1990, p. C29; June 29, 1992, p. 3; November 18, 1992, p. 3; November 7, 1993, p. 9; October 26, 1994, p. 1; May 14, 1995, p. 5.

Chicago Tribune Magazine, October 27, 1985.

Christian Science Monitor, January 22, 1990, p. 13.

Detroit Free Press, November 12, 1982, Jack Matthes, interview with author.

Detroit News, September 26, 1979.

English Journal, January, 1979; February, 1980; January, 1983; December, 1983; December, 1984.

Entertainment Weekly, October 14, 1994, pp. 52-53; June 16, 1995, p. 54; March 22, 1996, p. 63; April 26, 1996, p. 49; May 31, 1996, p. 53; June 28, 1996, p. 98; August 2, 1996, p. 53; September 6, 1996, p. 67; October 4, 1996, p. 54; October 18, p. 75; December 27, 1996, p. 28; February 7, p. 111; April 11, 1997, p. 17; April 25, 1997, p. 52; November 28, 1997, p. 41; September 17, 1999, Tom De Haven, "King of Hearts: He May Be the Master of Horror, but Stephen King Is Also Adept at Capturing Everyday America. In Hearts in Atlantis, His Take on the 60s, including the Effects of Vietnam, Is Scarily Accurate," p.72; September 27, 2002, Chris Nashawaty, "Stephen King Quits," p. 20; June 25, 2004, Gregory Kirschling, review of The Dark Tower V: Song of Susannah, p. 172.

Esquire, November, 1984.

Fantasy Review, January, 1984, Michael A. Morrison.

Film Journal, April 12, 1982.

High Times, January, 1981; June, 1981.

Library Journal, March 1, 2004, Kristen L. Smith, review of The Dark Tower V: Wolves of the Calla, p. 126; May 15, 2004, Nancy McNicol, review of The Dark Tower V: Song of Susannah, p. 115; September 15, 2004, Nancy McNicol, review of The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower, p.49; September 15, 2005, Nancy McNicol, review of The Colorado Kid, p. 60.

Locus, September, 1992, pp. 21-22, 67; November, 1992, pp. 19, 21; February, 1994, p. 39; October, 1994, pp. 27, 29.

Los Angeles Times, April 23, 1978; December 10, 1978; August 26, 1979; September 28, 1980; May 10, 1981; September 6, 1981; May 8, 1983; November 20, 1983; November 18, 1984; August 25, 1985; March 9, 1990, p. F16; October 29, 1990, p. F9; November 18, 1990, p. F6; November 30, 1990, p. F1; July 16, 1991, p. F1; May 28, 1992, p. E7; April 16, 1995, p. 28; November 7, 1997, p. D4.

Los Angeles Times Book Review, August 29, 1982; July 15, 1990, p. 12; June 9, 1991, p. 6; April 23, 1995, p. 14.

Maclean's, August 11, 1986.

Miami Herald, March 21, 2001, Rene Rodriguez, review of Dreamcatcher; March 27, 2002, Rene Rodriguez, review of Everything's Eventual.

Midwest Quarterly, spring, 2004, Tom Hansen, "Diabolical Dreaming in Stephen King's 'The Man in the Black Suit,'" p. 290.

Mystery, March, 1981.

New Republic, February 21, 1981.

New Statesman, September 15, 1995, p. 33.

Newsweek, August 31, 1981; May 2, 1983.

New Yorker, January 15, 1979; September 30, 1996, p. 78.

New York Review of Books, October 19, 1995, p. 54.

New York Times, March 1, 1977; August 14, 1981; August 11, 1982; April 12, 1983; October 21, 1983; November 8, 1984; June 11, 1985; April 4, 1987; January 25, 1988; June 17, 1990, p. 13; October 27, 1990, p. A12; November 16, 1990, p. C38; December 2, 1990, p. 19; June 3, 1991, p. C14; July 1991, p. 25; October 2, 1991, p. C23; June 29, 1992, p. C13; November 16, 1992, p. C15; March 1993, p. D6; June 27, 1993, p. 23; September 17, 1993, p. B8; April 24, 1995, p. C12; May 12, p. D18; June 26, 1995, p. C16; November 11, 1995, p. 39; April 7, 1996, p. E2; August 5, p. D7; October 26, 1996, 15; April 25, 1997, p. D22; October 27, 1997, p. C1; November 5, p. E3; November 7, 1997, pp. A30, D10; February 6, 1998, p. B10.

New York Times Book Review, May 26, 1974; October 24, 1976; February 20, 1977; March 26, 1978; February 4, 1979; September 23, 1979; May 11, 1980; May 10, 1981; September 27, 1981; August 29, 1982; April 3, 1983; November 6, 1983; November 4, 1984; June 9, 1985; February 22, 1987; December 6, 1987; May 13, 1990, p. 3; September 2, 1990, p. 21; September 29, 1991, pp. 13-14; August 16, 1992, p. 3; December 27, 1992, p. 15; October 24, 1993, p. 22; October 30, 1994, p. 24; March 24, 1995, p. C14; July 2, 1995, p. 11; October 20, 1996, p. 16.

New York Times Magazine, May 11, 1980.

Observer (Charlotte, NC), October 4, 2000, Jack Harville, review of On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft; Salem Macknee, review of From a Buick 8.

Observer (London, England), October 1, 1995, p. 15.

Penthouse, April, 1982, Bob Spitz, interview with author.

People, March 7, 1977; December 29, 1980; January 5, 1981; May 18, 1981; January 28, 1985; fall, 1989; April 1, 1996, p. 38; October 7, 1996, p. 32; October 21, 1996, p. 16; April 28, 1997, p. 15; January 19, 1998, p. 45.

Playboy, June, 1983, interview with author.

Publishers Weekly, January 17, 1977; May 11, 1984; March 13, 1996, p. 26; April 1, 1996, p. 22; May 13, 1996, p. 26; June 24, 1996, p. 43; August 5, 1996, p. 292; August 26, 1996, p. 34; September 9, 1996, p. 27; October 7, 1996, p. 20; April 7, 1997, p. 52; July 14, 1997, p. 65; October 27, 1997, p. 21; November 10, 1997, p. 10; April 19, 2004, review of The Dark Tower VI: Song of Susannah, p. 37; August 15, 2005, Orson Scott Card, review of The Colorado Kid, p. 40; January 2, 2006, review of Cell, p. 37.

Rapport, Volume 17, number 3, p. 20.

Rolling Stone College Papers, winter, 1980; winter, 1983.

Saturday Review, September, 1981; November, 1984.

Science Fiction Chronicle, December, 1995; June, 1997, p. 43.

Star (Kansas City, MO), October 4, 2000, John Mark Eberhart, review of On Writing.

Time, August 30, 1982; July 1, 1985; October 6, 1986; December 7, 1992, p. 81; September 2, 1996, p. 60.

Tribune Books (Chicago, IL) June 8, 1980.

Village Voice, April 29, 1981; October 23, 1984; March 3, 1987.

Voice Literary Supplement, September, 1982; November, 1985.

Wall Street Journal, July 7, 1992, p. B2; October 5, 1992, p. B3; November 7, 1997, p. B8.

Washington Post, August 26, 1979; April 9, 1985; May 8, 1987; October 29, 1990, p. B8; July 16, 1991, p. B1; April 13, 1992, p. C7; May 21, 1993, p. 16; May 27, 1993, p. D9; May 14, 1995, p. G1.

Washington Post Book World, May 26, 1974; October 1, 1978; August 26, 1980; April 12, 1981; August 22, 1982; March 23, 1983; October 2, 1983; November 13, 1983; June 16, 1985; August 26, 1990, p. 9; September 29, 1991, p. 9; October 31, 1991, p. C7; July 19, 1992, p. 7; December 13, 1992, p. 5; October 10, 1993, p. 4; October 9, 1994, p. 4; March 6, 1995, p. D6.

ONLINE

Stephen King Web site, http://www.stephenking.com/ (June 28, 2002).

King, Stephen 1947–

(Richard Bachman, Eleanor Druse, Stephen Edwin King, Steve King, John Swithen)

PERSONAL:

Born September 21, 1947, in Portland, ME; son of Donald (a merchant sailor) and Nellie Ruth King; married Tabitha Jane Spruce (a novelist), January 2, 1971; children: Naomi Rachel, Joseph Hill, Owen Phillip. Education: University of Maine at Orono, B.Sc., 1970. Politics: Democrat. Hobbies and other interests: Reading (mostly fiction), jigsaw puzzles, playing the guitar ("I'm terrible and so try to bore no one but myself"), movies, bowling.

ADDRESSES:

Agent—Rand Holston, Creative Artists Agency, 9830 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hills, CA, 90212; (literary agent) Ralph Vicinanza, Created By, 1041 North Formosa Ave., Formosa Bldg., Rm. 10, West Hollywood, CA 90046.

CAREER:

Writer. Has worked as a janitor, a laborer in an industrial laundry, and in a knitting mill. Hampden Academy (high school), Hampden, ME, English teacher, 1971-73; University of Maine, Orono, writer-in-residence, 1978-79. Owner, Philtrum Press (publishing house), and WZON-AM (rock 'n' roll radio station), Bangor, ME. Has made cameo appearances in films, including Knightriders, 1981, Creepshow, 1982, Maximum Overdrive, 1986, Pet Sematary, 1989, and The Stand, 1994; has also appeared in American Express credit card television commercial. Served as judge for 1977 World Fantasy Awards in 1978. Participated in radio honor panel with George A. Romero, Peter Straub, and Ira Levin, moderated by Dick Cavett, WNET, 1980.

MEMBER:

Authors Guild, Authors League of America, Screen Artists Guild, Screen Writers of America, Writers Guild.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Carrie named to School Library Journal's Book List, 1975; World Fantasy Award nominations, 1976, for Salem's Lot, 1979, for The Stand and Night Shift, 1980, for The Dead Zone, 1981, for "The Mist," and 1983, for "The Breathing Method: A Winter's Tale," in Different Seasons; Hugo Award nomination, World Science Fiction Society, and Nebula Award nomination, Science Fiction Writers of America, both 1978, both for The Shining; Balrog Awards, second place in best novel category, for The Stand, and second place in best collection category for Night Shift, both 1979; named to the American Library Association's list of best books for young adults, 1979, for The Long Walk, and 1981, for Firestarter; World Fantasy Award, 1980, for contributions to the field, and 1982, for story "Do the Dead Sing?"; Career Alumni Award, University of Maine at Orono, 1981; Nebula Award nomination, Science Fiction Writers of America, 1981, for story "The Way Station"; special British Fantasy Award for outstanding contribution to the genre, British Fantasy Society, 1982, for Cujo; Hugo Award, World Science Fiction Convention, 1982, for Stephen King's DanseMacabre; named Best Fiction Writer of the Year, Us Magazine, 1982; Locus Award for best collection, Locus Publications, 1986, for Stephen King's Skeleton Crew; Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel, Horror Writers Association, 1988, for Misery; Bram Stoker Award for Best Collection, 1991, for Four Past Midnight; World Fantasy award for short story, 1995, for The Man in the Black Suit; Bram Stoker Award for Best Novelette, Horror Writers Association, 1996, for Lunch at the Gotham Cafe; O. Henry Award, 1996, for "The Man in the Black Suit"; Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel, 1997, for The Green Mile, and 1999, for Bag of Bones; Bram Stoker Award nomination (with Peter Straub), 2001, for Black House; Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, National Book Award, 2003; The Stand was voted one of the nation's 100 best-loved novels by the British public as part of the BBC's The Big Read, 2003; Bram Stoker Award nomination, 2004, for The Dark Tower VII; Lifetime Achievement Award, World Fantasy Awards, 2004; Quill Book Award in the sports category, for Faithful: Two Die-Hard Boston Red Sox Fans Chronicle the Historic 2004 Season, 2005; named "Grand Master" by the Mystery Writers of America, 2006.

WRITINGS:

NOVELS

Carrie: A Novel of a Girl with a Frightening Power (also see below), Doubleday (New York, NY), 1974, movie edition published as Carrie, New American Library/Times Mirror(New York, NY), 1975, published in a limited edition with introduction by Tabitha King, Plume (New York, NY), 1991.

Salem's Lot (also see below), Doubleday (New York, NY), 1975, television edition, New American Library (New York, NY), 1979, published in a limited edition with introduction by Clive Barker, Plume (New York, NY), 1991, Pocket Books (New York, NY), 1999, new edition, photographs by Jerry N. Uelsmann, Doubleday (New York, NY), 2005.

The Shining (also see below), Doubleday (New York, NY), 1977, movie edition, New American Library (New York, NY), 1980, published in a limited edition with introduction by Ken Follett, Plume (New York, NY), 1991.

The Stand (also see below), Doubleday (New York, NY), 1978, enlarged and expanded edition published as The Stand: The Complete and Uncut Edition, Doubleday (New York, NY), 1990, Gramercy Books (New York, NY), 2001.

The Dead Zone (also see below), Viking (New York, NY), 1979, movie edition published as The Dead Zone: Movie Tie-In, New American Library (New York, NY), 1980.

Firestarter (also see below), Viking (New York, NY), 1980, with afterword by King, 1981, published in a limited, aluminum-coated, asbestos-cloth edition, Phantasia Press (Huntington Woods, MI), 1980.

Cujo (also see below), Viking (New York, NY), 1981, published in limited edition, Mysterious Press (New York, NY), 1981.

Pet Sematary (also see below), Doubleday (New York, NY), 1983, reprinted, Pocket Books (New York, NY), 2001.

Christine (also see below), Viking (New York, NY), 1983, published in a limited edition, illustrated by Stephen Gervais, Donald M. Grant (Hampton Falls, NH), 1983.

(With Peter Straub) The Talisman, Viking Press/Putnam (New York, NY), 1984, published in a limited two-volume edition, Donald M. Grant (Hampton Falls, NH), 1984, Random House (New York, NY), 2001.

The Eyes of the Dragon (young adult), limited edition, illustrated by Kenneth R. Linkhauser, Philtrum Press, 1984, new edition, illustrated by David Palladini, Viking (New York, NY), 1987.

It (also see below), limited German edition published as Es, Heyne (Munich), 1986, Viking (New York, NY), 1986.

Misery (also see below), Viking (New York, NY), 1987.

The Tommyknockers (also see below), Putnam (New York, NY), 1987.

The Dark Half (also see below), Viking (New York, NY), 1989.

Needful Things (also see below), Viking (New York, NY), 1991.

Gerald's Game, Viking (New York, NY), 1992.

Dolores Claiborne (also see below), Viking (New York, NY), 1993.

Insomnia, Viking (New York, NY), 1994.

Rose Madder, Viking (New York, NY), 1995.

The Green Mile (serialized novel), Signet (New York, NY), Chapter 1, "The Two Dead Girls" (also see below), Chapter 2, "The Mouse on the Mile," Chapter 3, "Coffey's Hands," Chapter 4, "The Bad Death of Eduard Delacroix," Chapter 5, "Night Journey," Chapter 6, "Coffey on the Mile," March-August, 1996, published as The Green Mile: A Novel in Six Parts, Plume (New York, NY), 1997, Scribner (New York, NY), 2000.

Desperation, Viking (New York, NY), 1996.

(And author of foreword) The Two Dead Girls, Signet (New York, NY), 1996.

Bag of Bones, Viking (New York, NY), 1998.

Hearts in Atlantis, G.K. Hall (Thorndike, ME), 1999.

The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, Scribner (New York, NY), 1999.

Dreamcatcher, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 2001.

(With Peter Straub) Black House (sequel to The Talisman), Random House (New York, NY), 2001.

(Editor) Ridley Pearson, The Diary of Ellen Rimbauer: My Life as Rose Red, Hyperion (New York, NY), 2001.

From a Buick 8, Scribner (New York, NY), 2002.

(Under name Eleanor Druse) The Journals of Eleanor Druse: My Investigation of the Kingdom Hospital Incident, Hyperion (New York, NY), 2004.

Cell, Scribner (New York, NY), 2006.

Lisey's Story, Scribner (New York, NY), 2006.

Also author of early unpublished novels "Sword in the Darkness" (also referred to as "Babylon Here"), "The Cannibals," and "Blaze," a reworking of John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men.

"THE DARK TOWER" SERIES

The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger (also see below), Amereon (New York, NY), 1976, published as The Gunslinger, New American Library (New York, NY), 1988, published in limited edition, illustrated by Michael Whelan, Donald M. Grant (Hampton Falls, NH), 1982, 2nd limited edition, 1984, revised and expanded edition, Viking (New York, NY), 2003.

The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three (also see below), illustrated by Phil Hale, New American Library (New York, NY), 1989, Plume Book (New York, NY), 2003, Viking (New York, NY), 2003.

The Dark Tower III: The Waste Lands (also see below), illustrated by Ned Dameron, Donald M. Grant (Hampton Falls, NH), 1991.

The Dark Tower Trilogy: The Gunslinger; The Drawing of the Three; The Waste Lands (box set), New American Library (New York, NY), 1993, Penguin Group (New York, NY), 2003.

The Dark Tower IV: Wizard and Glass, Plume (New York, NY), 1997.

The Dark Tower V: Wolves of the Calla, Plume (New York, NY), 2003, premium edition, illustrated by Bernie Wrightson, Pocket Books (New York, NY), 2006.

The Dark Tower VI: The Songs of Susannah, Donald M. Grant (Hampton Falls, NH), 2004.

The Dark Tower VII, Scribner (New York, NY), 2004.

The Dark Tower, Scribner (New York, NY), 2005.

NOVELS; UNDER PSEUDONYM RICHARD BACHMAN

Rage (also see below), New American Library/Signet (New York, NY), 1977.

The Long Walk (also see below), New American Library/Signet (New York, NY), 1979.

Roadwork: A Novel of the First Energy Crisis (also see below) New American Library/Signet (New York, NY), 1981.

The Running Man (also see below), New American Library/Signet (New York, NY), 1982.

Thinner, New American Library (New York, NY), 1984.

The Regulators, Dutton (New York, NY), 1996.

SHORT FICTION

(Under name Steve King) The Star Invaders (privately printed stories), Triad/Gaslight Books (Durham, ME), 1964.

Night Shift (story collection; also see below), introduction by John D. MacDonald, Doubleday (New York, NY), 1978, published as Night Shift: Excursions into Horror, New American Library/Signet (New York, NY), 1979.

Different Seasons (novellas; contains Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption: Hope Springs Eternal [also see below]; Apt Pupil: Summer of Corruption; The Body: Fall from Innocence; and The Breathing Method: A Winter's Tale), Viking (New York, NY), 1982.

Cycle of the Werewolf (novella; also see below), illustrated by Berni Wrightson, limited portfolio edition published with "Berni Wrightson: An Appreciation," Land of Enchantment (Westland, MI), 1983, enlarged edition including King's screenplay adaptation published as Stephen King's Silver Bullet, New American Library/Signet (New York, NY), 1985.

Stephen King's Skeleton Crew (story collection), illustrated by J.K. Potter, Viking (New York, NY), 1985, limited edition, Scream Press, 1985.

My Pretty Pony, illustrated by Barbara Kruger, Knopf (New York, NY), 1989, limited edition, Library Fellows of New York's Whitney Museum of American Art, 1989.

Four Past Midnight (contains "The Langoliers," "Secret Window, Secret Garden," "The Library Policeman," and "The Sun Dog"; also see below), Viking (New York, NY), 1990.

Nightmares and Dreamscapes, Viking (New York, NY), 1993.

Lunch at the Gotham Cafe, published in Dark Love: Twenty-two All Original Tales of Lust and Obsession, edited by Nancy Collins, Edward E. Kramer, and Martin Harry Greenberg, ROC (New York, NY), 1995.

Everything's Eventual: 14 Dark Tales, Scribner (New York, NY), 2002.

Also author of short stories "Slade" (a western), "The Man in the Black Suit," 1996, and, under pseudonym John Swithen, "The Fifth Quarter." Contributor of short story "Squad D" to Harlan Ellison's The Last Dangerous Visions; contributor of short story "Autopsy Room Four" to Robert Bloch's Psychos, edited by Robert Bloch. Also contributor to anthologies and collections, including The Year's Finest Fantasy, edited by Terry Carr, Putnam (New York, NY), 1978; Shadows, edited by Charles L. Grant, Doubleday (New York, NY), Volume 1, 1978, Volume 4, 1981; New Terrors, edited by Ramsey Campbell, Pocket Books (New York, NY), 1982; World Fantasy Convention 1983, edited by Robert Weinberg, Weird Tales, 1983; The Writer's Handbook, edited by Sylvia K. Burack, Writer (Boston, MA), 1984; The Dark Descent, edited by David G. Hartwell, Doherty Associates, 1987; Prime Evil: New Stories by the Masters of Modern Horror, by Douglas E. Winter, New American Library (New York, NY), 1988; and Dark Visions, Gollancz (London, England), 1989.

SCREENPLAYS

Stephen King's Creep Show: A George A. Romero Film (based on King's stories "Father's Day," "The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill" [previously published as "Weeds"], "The Crate," and "They're Creeping Up on You"; released by Warner Bros. as Creepshow, 1982), illustrated by Berni Wrightson and Michele Wrightson, New American Library (New York, NY), 1982.

Cat's Eye (based on King's stories "Quitters, Inc.," "The Ledge," and "The General"), Metro Goldwyn-Mayer/United Artists, 1984.

Stephen King's Silver Bullet (based on and published with King's novella Cycle of the Werewolf; released by Paramount Pictures/Dino de Laurentiis's North Carolina Film Corp., 1985), illustrated by Berni Wrightson, New American Library/Signet (New York, NY), 1985.

(And director) Maximum Overdrive (based on King's stories "The Mangler," "Trucks," and "The Lawnmower Man"; released by Dino de Laurentiis's North Carolina Film Corp., 1986), New American Library (New York, NY), 1986.

Pet Sematary (based on King's novel of the same title), Laurel Production, 1989.

Stephen King's Sleepwalkers, Columbia, 1992.

(Author of introduction) Frank Darabont, The Shawshank Redemption: The Shooting Script, Newmarket Press (New York, NY), 1996.

Storm of the Century (also see below), Pocket Books (New York, NY), 1999.

(Author of introductions with William Goldman and Lawrence Kasdan) William Goldman and Lawrence Kasdan, Dreamcatcher: The Shooting Script, Newmarket Press (NewYork, NY), 2003.

Riding the Bullet, Innovation Film Group, 2004.

Secret Window, Columbia, 2004.

TELEPLAYS

Stephen King's Golden Years, CBS-TV, 1991.

(And executive producer) Stephen King's The Stand (based on King's novel The Stand), ABC-TV, 1994.

(With Chris Carter) "Chinga," The X-Files, Fox-TV, 1998.

Storm of the Century, ABC-TV, 1999.

Rose Red (also see below), ABC-TV, 2001.

Stephen King's Kingdom Hospital, ABC-TV, 2004.

Desperation, USA, c. 2004.

Also author of Battleground (based on short story of same title; optioned by Martin Poll Productions for NBC-TV), and "Sorry, Right Number," for television series Tales from the Dark Side, 1987.

OMNIBUS EDITIONS

Another Quarter Mile: Poetry, Dorrance (Philadelphia, PA), 1979.

Stephen King's Danse Macabre (nonfiction), Berkley Books (New York, NY), 1981.

Stephen King (contains The Shining, Salem's Lot, Night Shift, and Carrie), W.S. Heinemann/Octopus Books (London, England), 1981.

(And author of introduction) The Bachman Books: Four Early Novels (contains Rage, The Long Walk, Roadwork, and The Running Man), New American Library (New York, NY), 1985.

The Plant (privately published episodes of a comic horror novel in progress), Philtrum Press (Bangor, ME), Part 1, 1982, Part 2, 1983, Part 3, 1985.

Black Magic and Music: A Novelist's Perspective on Bangor (pamphlet), Bangor Historical Society (Bangor, ME), 1983.

Dolan's Cadillac, Lord John Press (Northridge, CA), 1989.

Stephen King (contains Desperation and The Regulators) Signet (New York, NY), 1997.

Stephen King's Latest (contains Dolores Claiborne, Insomnia and Rose Madder) Signet (New York, NY), 1997.

OTHER

Nightmares in the Sky: Gargoyles and Grotesques (nonfiction), photographs by F. Stop FitzGerald, Viking (New York, NY), 1988.

On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft, Scribner (New York, NY), 2000.

(With Stewart O'Nan) Faithful: Two Die-Hard Boston Red Sox Fans Chronicle the Historic 2004 Season, Scribner (New York, NY), 2004.

The Colorado Kid, Hard Case Crime (New York, NY), 2004.

Author of e-book The Plant, self-published first two chapters on his Web site (www.stephenking.com), August, 2000; also published a short story, "Riding the Bullet," as an e-book, March, 2000. Author of weekly column "King's Garbage Truck" for Maine Campus, 1969-70, and of monthly book review column for Adelina, 1980. Contributor of short fiction and poetry to numerous magazines, including Art, Castle Rock: The Stephen King Newsletter, Cavalier, Comics Review, Cosmopolitan, Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, Fantasy and Science Fiction, Gallery, Great Stories from Twilight Zone Magazine, Heavy Metal, Ladies' Home Journal, Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Maine, Maine Review, Marshroots, Marvel comics, Moth, Omni, Onan, Playboy, Redbook, Reflections, Rolling Stone, Science-Fiction Digest, Startling Mystery Stories, Terrors, Twilight Zone, Ubris, Whisper, and Yankee. Contributor of book reviews to New York Times Book Review.

Most of King's papers are housed in the special collection of the Folger Library at the University of Maine at Orono.

ADAPTATIONS:

Many of King's novels have been adapted for the screen. Carrie was produced as a motion picture in 1976 by Paul Monash for United Artists, screenplay by Lawrence D. Cohen, directed by Brian De Palma, featuring Sissy Spacek and Piper Laurie, and was also produced as a Broadway musical in 1988 by Cohen and Michael Gore, developed in England by the Royal Shakespeare Company, featuring Betty Buckley; Salem's Lot was produced as a television miniseries in 1979 by Warner Brothers, teleplay by Paul Monash, featuring David Soul and James Mason, and was adapted for the cable channel TNT in 2004, with a teleplay by Peter Filardi and direction by Mikael Salomon; The Shining was filmed in 1980 by Warner Brothers/Hawks Films, screenplay by director Stanley Kubrick and Diane Johnson, starring Jack Nicholson and Shelley Duvall, and it was filmed for television in 1997 by Warner Brothers, directed by Mick Garris, starring Rebecca De Mornay, Steven Weber, Courtland Mead, and Melvin Van Peebles; Cujo was filmed in 1983 by Warner Communications/Taft Entertainment, screenplay by Don Carlos Dunaway and Lauren Currier, featuring Dee Wallace and Danny Pintauro; The Dead Zone was filmed in 1983 by Paramount Pictures, screenplay by Jeffrey Boam, starring Christopher Walken; was adapted as a cable television series starring Anthony Michael Hall by USA Network, beginning 2002; Christine was filmed in 1983 by Columbia Pictures, screenplay by Bill Phillips; Firestarter was produced in 1984 by Frank Capra, Jr., for Universal Pictures in association with Dino de Laurentiis, screenplay by Stanley Mann, featuring David Keith and Drew Barrymore; Stand by Me (based on King's novella The Body) was filmed in 1986 by Columbia Pictures, screenplay by Raynold Gideon and Bruce A. Evans, directed by Rob Reiner; The Running Man was filmed in 1987 by Taft Entertainment/Barish Productions, screenplay by Steven E. de Souza, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger; Misery was produced in 1990 by Columbia, directed by Reiner, screenplay by William Goldman, starring James Caan and Kathy Bates; Graveyard Shift was filmed in 1990 by Paramount, directed by Ralph S. Singleton, adapted by John Esposito; Stephen King's It (based on King's novel It) was filmed as a television miniseries by ABC-TV in 1990; The Dark Half was filmed in 1993 by Orion, written and directed by George A. Romero, featuring Timothy Hutton and Amy Madigan; Needful Things was filmed in 1993 by Columbia/Castle Rock, adapted by W.D. Richter and Lawrence Cohen, directed by Fraser C. Heston, starring Max Von Sydow, Ed Harris, Bonnie Bedelia, and Amanda Plummer; The Tommyknockers was filmed as a television miniseries by ABC-TV in 1993; The Shawshank Redemption, based on King's novella Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption: Hope Springs Eternal, was filmed in 1994 by Columbia, written and directed by Frank Darabont, featuring Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman; Dolores Claiborne was filmed in 1995 by Columbia; Thinner was filmed by Paramount in 1996, directed by Dom Holland, starring Robert John Burke, Joe Mantegna, Lucinda Jenney, and Michael Constantine; Night Flier was filmed by New Amsterdam Entertainment/Stardust International/Medusa Film in 1997, directed by Mark Pavia, starring Miguel Ferrer, Julie Entwisle, Dan Monahan, and Michael H. Moss; Apt Pupil was filmed in 1998 by TriStar Pictures, directed by Bryan Singer, starring David Schwimmer, Ian McKellen, and Brad Renfro; The Green Mile was filmed in 1999 by Castle Rock, directed by Frank Darabont, who also wrote the screenplay, starring Tom Hanks; Hearts in Atlantis was filmed in 2001 by Castle Rock, directed by Scott Hicks, screenplay written by William Goldman, starring Anthony Hopkins; Dreamcatcher was released in 2003 by Warner Brothers and Castle Rock Entertainment and was directed by Lawrence Kasdan, written by William Goldman, starring Morgan Freeman. Several of King's short stories have also been adapted for the screen, including The Boogeyman, filmed by Tantalus in 1982 and 1984 in association with the New York University School of Undergraduate Film, screenplay by producer-director Jeffrey C. Schiro; The Woman in the Room, filmed in 1983 by Darkwoods, screenplay by director Frank Darabont, broadcast on public television in Los Angeles, 1985 (released with The Boogeyman on videocassette as Two Mini-Features from Stephen King's Nightshift Collection by Granite Entertainment Group, 1985); Children of the Corn, produced in 1984 by Donald P. Borchers and Terrence Kirby for New World Pictures, screenplay by George Goldsmith; The Word Processor (based on King's "The Word Processor of the Gods"), produced by Romero and Richard Rubenstein for Laurel Productions, 1984, teleplay by Michael Dowell, broadcast November 19, 1985, on Tales from the Darkside series and released on videocassette by Laurel Entertainment, 1985; Gramma, filmed by CBS-TV in 1985, teleplay by Harlan Ellison, broadcast February 14, 1986, on The Twilight Zone series; Creepshow 2 (based on "The Raft" and two unpublished stories by King, "Old Chief Wood'nhead" and "The Hitchhiker"), was filmed in 1987 by New World Pictures, screenplay by Romero; Sometimes They Come Back, filmed by CBS-TV in 1987; "The Cat from Hell" is included in a three-segment anthology film titled Tales from the Darkside—The Movie, produced by Laurel Productions, 1990; The Lawnmower Man, written by director Brett Leonard and Gimel Everett for New Line Cinema, 1992; The Mangler, filmed by New Line Cinema, 1995; and The Langoliers, filmed as a television mini-series by ABC-TV in 1995; the short fiction "Secret Window, Secret Garden" was adapted into the film Secret Window, distributed by Columbia Pictures, written and directed by David Koepp; 2004; the short story "All That You Love Will Be Carried Away" from the collection Everything's Eventual has been adapted and made into a short film by James Renner; film rights to the short story "1408" from the collection Everything's Eventual has been optioned by Dimension Films. From a Buick 8 has been optioned by Chesapeake Films. Most of King's book's have also been adapted for audio, including The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger, New American Library, 1988; The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three, New American Library, 1989; The Dark Tower III: The Waste Lands, Penguin-HighBridge Audio, 1991; Needful Things, Penguin-HighBridge Audio, 1991; The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, Simon & Schuster Audio, 1999; Blood and Smoke, Simon & Schuster Audio, 2000; Dreamcatcher, Simon & Schuster Audio, 2001; On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft, Recorded Books, 2001; The Talisman, Simon & Schuster Audio, 2001; From a Buick 8, Simon & Schuster Audio, 2002; Riding the Bullet, Simon & Schuster Audio, 2002; Black House, Books on Tape, 2003; Wolves of the Calla, Simon & Schuster Audio, 2003.

SIDELIGHTS:

"With Stephen King," mused a contributor Fear Itself: The Horror Fiction of Stephen King, "you never have to ask ‘Who's afraid of the big bad wolf?’—You are. And he knows it." Throughout a prolific array of novels, short stories, and screen work in which elements of horror, fantasy, science fiction, and humor meld, King deftly arouses fear from dormancy. The breadth and durability of his popularity alone evince his mastery as a compelling storyteller. Although the critical reception of his work has not necessarily matched its sweeping success with readers, colleagues and several critics alike discern within it a substantial and enduring literary legitimacy.

While striking a deep and responsive chord within its readers, the genre of horror is frequently trivialized by critics who tend to regard it, when at all, less seriously than mainstream fiction. In an interview with Charles Platt in Dream Makers: The Uncommon Men andWomen Who Write Science Fiction, King suspected that "most of the critics who review popular fiction have no understanding of it as a whole." Regarding the "propensity of a small but influential element of the literary establishment to ghettoize horror and fantasy and instantly relegate them beyond the pale of so-called serious literature," King told Eric Norden in a Playboy interview: "I'm sure those critics' nineteenth-century precursors would have contemptuously dismissed [Edgar Allan] Poe as the great American hack." In a panel discussion at the 1984 World Fantasy Convention in Ottawa, reprinted in Bare Bones: Conversations on Terror with Stephen King, he predicted that horror writers "might actually have a serious place in American literature in a hundred years or so."

King's ability to comprehend "the attraction of fantastic horror to the denizen of the late twentieth century," according to a contributor to Fear Itself, partially accounts for his unrivaled popularity in the genre. However, what distinguishes him is the way in which he transforms the ordinary into the horrific. A contributor to Discovering Stephen King wrote that King is "a uniquely sensitive author" within the Gothic literary tradition, which he described as "essentially a literature of nightmare, a conflict between waking life and the darkness within the human mind." Perpetuating the legacy of Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Henry James, and H.P. Lovecraft, "King is heir to the American Gothic tradition in that he has placed his horrors in contemporary settings and has depicted the struggle of an American culture to face the horrors within it," explained Crawford, and because "he has shown the nightmare of our idealistic civilization." Observing that children suspend their disbelief easily, King argued in his Danse Macabre that, ironically, they are actually "better able to deal with fantasy and terror on its own terms than their elders are." Adults are capable of distinguishing between fantasy and reality, but in the process of growing up, laments King in Danse Macabre, they develop "a good case of mental tunnel vision and a gradual ossification of the imaginative faculty"; thus, he perceives the task of the fantasy or horror writer as enabling one to become "for a little while, a child again."

The empowerment of estranged young people is a theme that recurs throughout King's fiction. His first novel, Carrie: A Novel of a Girl with a Frightening Power, is about a persecuted teenaged girl. "The novel examines female power," stated a Dictionary of Literary Biography contributor, "for Carrie gains her telekinetic abilities with her first menstruation." "It is," the contributor noted, "a compelling character study of a persecuted teenager who finally uses her powers to turn the table on her persecutors. The result is a violent explosion that destroys the mother who had taught her self-hatred and the high-school peers who had made her a scapegoat." An alienated teenaged boy is the main character in King's Christine, and Rage features Charlie Decker, a young man who tells the story of his descent into madness and murder. In The Shining and Firestarter, Danny Torrance and Charlie McGee are alienated not from their families—they have loving, if sometimes weak, parents—but through the powers they possess and by those who want to manipulate them: evil supernatural forces in The Shining, the U.S. Government in Firestarter. Children also figure prominently, although not always as victims, in Salem's Lot, The Tommyknockers, Pet Sematary, The Eyes of the Dragon, and The Talisman.

King's most explicit examination of alienation in childhood, however, comes in the novel It. The eponymous IT is a creature that feeds on children—on their bodies and on their emotions, especially fear. IT lives in the sewers of Derry, Maine, having arrived there ages ago from outer space, and emerges about every twenty-seven years in search of victims. King organizes the tale as two parallel stories, one tracing the activities of seven unprepossessing fifth-graders—‘The Losers’ Club'—who discovered and fought the horror in 1958, the other describing their return to Derry in 1985 when the cycle resumes." The surviving members of the Losers' Club return to Derry to confront IT and defeat IT once and for all. The only things that appears to hurt IT are faith, humor, and childlike courage. "It involves the guilts and innocences of childhood and the difficulty for adults of recapturing them," Christopher Lehmann-Haupt stated in the New York Times. "It questions the difference between necessity and free will. It also concerns the evil that has haunted America from time to time in the forms of crime, racial and religious bigotry, economic hardship, labor strife and industrial pollution." The evil takes shape among Derry's adults and older children, especially the bullies who terrorize the members of the Losers' Club.

Not surprisingly, throughout most of King's adolescence, the written word afforded a powerful diversion. "Writing has always been it for me," King indicated in a panel discussion at the 1984 World Fantasy Convention in Ottawa, reprinted in Bare Bones. Science fiction and adventure stories comprised his first literary efforts. Having written his first story at the age of seven, King began submitting short fiction to magazines at twelve, and published his first story at eighteen. In high school, he authored a small, satiric newspaper titled "The Village Vomit"; and in college he penned a popular and eclectic series of columns called "King's Garbage Truck." He also started writing the novels he eventually published under the pseudonymous ruse of Richard Bachman—novels that focus more on elements of human alienation and brutality than supernatural horror. After graduation, King supplemented his teaching salary through various odd jobs and by submitting stories to men's magazines. Searching for a form of his own, King responded to a friend's challenge to break out of the machismo mold of his short fiction. Because King completed the first draft of Carrie at the time William Peter Blatty's The Exorcist and Thomas Tryon's The Other were being published, the novel was marketed as horror fiction, and the genre had found its juggernaut. Or, as a contributor to Fear Itself noted: "Like a mountain, King is there."

"King has made a dent in the national consciousness in a way no other horror writer has, at least during his own lifetime," noted a contributor to Discovering Stephen King. "He is a genuine phenomenon." A newsletter—"Castle Rock"—has been published since 1985 to keep his ever-increasing number of fans well informed; and Book-of-the-Month Club has been reissuing all of his best-sellers as the Stephen King Library collection. Resorting to a pseudonym to get even more work into print accelerated the process for King; but according to a contributor to Kingdom of Fear, although the ploy was not entirely "a vehicle for King to move his earliest work out of the trunk," it certainly triggered myriad speculations about, as well as hunts for, other possible pseudonyms he may also have used. In his essay "Why I Was Bachman" in The Bachman Books: Four Early Novels by Stephen King, King recalled that he simply considered it a good idea at the time, especially since he wanted to try to publish something without the attendant commotion that a Stephen King title would have unavoidably generated. Also, his publisher believed that he had already saturated the market. King's prodigious literary output and multimillion-dollar contracts, though, have generated critical challenges to the inherent worth of his fiction. Deducing that he has been somehow compromised by commercial success, some critics imply that he writes simply to fulfill contractual obligations. But as King told Playboy's Norden, "Money really has nothing to do with it one way or the other. I love writing the things I write, and I wouldn't and ‘couldn't’ do anything else." King writes daily, exempting only Christmas, the Fourth of July, and his birthday. He likes to work on two things simultaneously, beginning his day early with a two-or three-mile walk: "What I'm working on in the morning is what I'm working on," he said in a panel discussion at the 1980 World Fantasy Convention in Baltimore, reprinted in Bare Bones. He devotes his afternoon hours to rewriting. And according to his Playboy interview, while he is not particular about working conditions, he is about his output. Despite chronic headaches, occasional insomnia, and even a fear of writer's block, he produces six pages daily.

Regarding what he finds to be an essential reassurance that underlies and impels the genre itself, King remarked in Danse Macabre that "beneath its fangs and fright wig" horror fiction is really quite conservative. Comparing horror fiction with the morality plays of the late middle ages, for instance, he believes that its primary function is "to reaffirm the virtues of the norm by showing us what awful things happen to people who venture into taboo lands." Also, there is the solace in knowing "when the lights go down in the theater or when we open the book that the evildoers will almost certainly be punished, and measure will be returned for measure." However, King admitted to Norden that despite all the discussion by writers generally about "horror's providing a socially and psychologically useful catharsis for people's fears and aggressions, the brutal fact of the matter is that we're still in the business of public executions."

"Death is a significant element in nearly all horror fiction," wrote Michael A. Morrison in Fantasy Review, "and it permeates King's novels and short stories." Remarking that "evil is basically stupid and unimaginative and doesn't need creative inspiration from me or anybody else," King told Norden, for instance, that "despite knowing all that rationally, I have to admit that it is unsettling to feel that I could be linked in any way, however tenuous, to somebody else's murder."

An example of King's ability to "pour new wine from old bottles" is his experimentation with narrative structure. In It, Carrie, and The Stand, declared Tony Magistrale in the study Landscape of Fear: Stephen King's American Gothic, King explores story forms—"stream of consciousness, interior monologues, multiple narrators, and a juggling of time sequences—in order to draw the reader into a direct and thorough involvement with the characters and events of the tale." In Gerald'sGame's Jessie Burlingame has lost her husband to heart failure. He "has died after handcuffing her to the bed at their summer home," explained a contributor to the Dictionary of Literary Biography, "and Jessie must face her life, including the memory that her father had sexually abused her, and her fears alone." Dolores Claiborne is the story of a woman suspected of murdering her employer, a crusty old miser named Vera Donovan. Dolores maintains her innocence, but she freely confesses that she murdered her husband thirty years previously when she caught him molesting their daughter.

"There are a series of dovetailing, but unobtrusive, connections," stated a Locus contributor, "linking the two novels and both Jessie and Dolores." Like It, both Gerald's Game and Dolores Claiborne are set in the town of Derry, Maine. They are also both psychological portraits of older women who have been subjected to sexual abuse. Dolores Claiborne differs from Gerald's Game, however, because it uses fewer of the traditional trappings of horror fiction, and it is related entirely from the viewpoint of the title character. Dolores Claiborne "is, essentially, a dramatic monologue," stated Kit Reed in the Washington Post Book World, "in which the speaker addresses other people in the room, answers questions and completes a narrative in actual time." "King has taken horror literature out of the closet and has injected new life into familiar genres," a contributor to the Dictionary of Literary Biography wrote. "He is not afraid to mix those genres in fresh ways to produce novels that examine contemporary American culture."

Insomnia, King's 1994 novel, continues the example set by Gerald's Game and Dolores Claiborne. It is also set in Derry, and its protagonist is an elderly man named Ralph Roberts, a retired salesman, newly widowed and suffering severely from insomnia. Ralph begins to see people in a new way: their auras become visible to him. "Ralph finds himself a man in a classic situation, a mortal in conflict with the fates—literally," declared a Locus contributor. "How much self-determination does he really possess? And how much is he acted upon?" Ralph also finds himself in conflict with his neighbor Ed Deepeneau, a conservative Christian and antiabortion activist who beats his wife and has taken up a crusade against a visiting feminist speaker. "There are some truly haunting scenes in the book about wife abuse and fanaticism, as well as touching observations about growing old, but they're quickly consumed by more predictable sensationalism," remarked Chris Bohjalian in the New York Times Book Review.

King delighted his readers and astounded his critics by issuing three new major novels in 1996: Desperation, The Regulators—under the pseudonym Richard Bachman—and The Green Mile, the last a Depression-era prison novel serialized in six installments. A Publishers Weekly contributor wrote that "if the publishing industry named a Person of the Year, this year's winner would be Stephen King." The critic noted that, with Desperation, "King again proves himself the premier literary barometer of our cultural clime." Released on the same day from two different publishers, Desperation and The Regulators have interlocking characters and plots; each works as a kind of distorted mirror image of the other. In Desperation, which many critics agree is the better book, a group of strangers drive into Desperation, Nevada, where they encounter a malign spirit (Tak) in the body of police officer Collie Entragian. The survivors of this apocalyptic novel are few, but include David Carver, an eleven-year-old boy who talks to God, and John Edward Marinville, an alcoholic novelist. Mark Harris, writing for Entertainment Weekly, remarked that King "hasn't been this intent on scaring readers—or been this successful at it—since The Stand," noting that "King has always been pop fiction's most compassionate sadist."

While The Regulators received little critical praise, King's experiment in serialization with The Green Mile captured the imagination of both readers and critics. An Entertainment Weekly reviewer called it a novel "that's as hauntingly touching as it is just plain haunted," and a New York Times contributor claimed that in spite of "the striking circumstances of its serial publication," the novel "manages to sustain the notes of visceral wonder and indelible horror that keep eluding the Tak books." Set in the Deep South in 1932, The Green Mile—a prison expression for death row—begins with the death of twin girls and the conviction of John Coffey for their murder. Block superintendent Paul Edgecombe, who narrates the story years later from his nursing home in Georgia, slowly unfolds the story of the mysterious Coffey, a man with no past and with a gift for healing.

King's next major novel, Bag of Bones, appeared in 1998. This tale of a writer struggling with both grief for his dead wife and writer's block while living in a haunted cabin met with a great deal of acclaim from critics. Also acclaimed was the following year's Hearts in Atlantis, which Tom De Haven described in Entertainment Weekly as "a novel in five stories, with players sometimes migrating from one story to the next." De Haven went on to note that "there's more heartbreak than horror in these pages, and a doomy aura that's more generational than occult." He also reported that the "last two stories are drenched in sadness, mortality, regret, and finally absolution," concluding that Hearts in Atlantis "is wonderful fiction." Similarly, Ray Olson praised the volume in Booklist as "a rich, engaging, deeply moving generational epic." The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon also saw print in 1999. This novel, short by King's standards, centers on a nine-year-old girl from a broken home who gets lost in a forest for two weeks. She has her radio with her, and survives her ordeal by listening to Boston Red Sox games and imagining conversations with her hero, Red Sox relief pitcher Tom Gordon.

While these books were making their way to readers, however, King suffered a serious health challenge. On June 19, 1999, he was struck by a van while walking alongside a road near his home, sustaining injuries to his spine, hip, ribs, and right leg. One of his broken ribs punctured a lung, and he nearly died. He began a slow progress towards recovery, cheered by countless cards and letters from his fans. During his recovery, he began experimenting with publishing his fiction electronically. In August, 2000, King self-published the first two installments of his e-book The Plant on his Web site. Pricing the installments at one dollar each, King promised to publish additional chapters if at least seventy-five percent of those who download the first two installments paid for them. King also published a short story, "Riding the Bullet," in March, only distributed as an e-book publication in a number of formats. This tale was eventually reprinted in the 2002 collection Everything's Eventual: 14 Dark Tales.

King had also begun work on a writer's manual before his accident, and the result, 2000's On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft, sold more copies in its first printing than any previous book about writing. In addition to King's advice on crafting fiction, however, the book includes a great deal of autobiographical material. The author chronicles his childhood, his rise to fame, his struggles with addiction, and the horrific accident that almost ended his life. "King's writing about his own alcoholism and cocaine abuse," noted John Mark Eberhart in the Kansas City Star, "is among the best and most honest prose of his career." Similarly, Jack Harville reported in the Charlotte Observer that "the closing piece describes King's accident and rehabilitation. The description is harrowing, and the rehab involves both physical and emotional recovery. It is beautifully told in a narrative style that would have gained Strunk and White's approval." Some of the novels King has published since the beginning of the twenty-first century, including Dreamcatcher and From a Buick 8, have brought strong comparisons from critics with his earlier novels; in these specific cases, It and Christine, respectively. These books, however, were followed by an announcement King made in 2002 that he is planning to retire from publishing. In an interview with Chris Nashawaty in Entertainment Weekly, King Clarified: "First of all, I'd never stop writing because I don't know what I'd do between nine and one every day. But I'd stop publishing. I don't need the money." Yet Dreamcatcher and From a Buick 8 have garnered praise from reviewers as well. Rene Rodriguez, writing in the Miami Herald, maintained that "Dreamcatcher marks [King's] bracing return to all-out horror, complete with trademark grisly gross-outs, a panoramic cast of deftly drawn characters and a climactic race against time, with the fate of the planet hanging in the balance." Salem Macknee in the Charlotte Observer, noting surface similarities between From a Buick 8 and Christine, assured readers that "this strange counterfeit of a Buick Roadmaster is no rerun. Stephen King has once again created an original, a monster never seen before, with its own frightful fingerprint."

King also received a great deal of praise for Everything's Eventual. Among other stories, the collection includes a few that he previously published in the New Yorker. Notable among these is "The Man in the Black Suit," which won the 1996 O. Henry Award for best short story and brought King comparisons with great nineteenth-century American fiction writer Nathaniel Hawthorne. "As a whole," concluded Rodriguez in another Miami Herald review, "Everything's Eventual makes a perfect showcase for all of King's strengths: His uncanny talent for creating vivid, fully realized characters in a few strokes, his ability to mine horror out of the mundane, … and his knack for leavening even the most preposterous contraptions with genuine, universal emotions."

Although he does not necessarily feel that he has been treated unfairly by the critics, King has described what it is like to witness the written word turned into filmed images that are less than generously received by reviewers. In his essay "Why I Was Bachman," he readily admitted that he really has little to complain about: "I'm still married to the same woman, my kids are healthy and bright, and I'm being well paid for doing something I love." And despite the financial security and recognition, or perhaps because of its intrinsic responsibility, King strives to improve at his craft. "It's getting later and I want to get better, because you only get so many chances to do good work," he stated in a panel discussion at the 1984 World Fantasy Convention in Ottawa. "There's no justification not to at least try to do good work when you make the money."

According to a contributor to Discovering Stephen King, there is absolutely nothing to suggest that success has been detrimental to King: "As a novelist, King has been remarkably consistent." Noting, for instance, that "for generations it was given that brevity was the soul of horror, that the ideal format for the tale of terror was the short story," Warren pointed out that "King was among the first to challenge that concept, writing not just successful novels of horror, but long novels." Moreover, wrote Warren, "his novels have gotten longer."

Influenced by the naturalistic novels of writers such as Theodore Dreiser and Frank Norris, King once confessed that his personal outlook for the world's future is somewhat bleak. On the other hand, one of the things he finds most comforting in his own work is an element of optimism. "In almost all cases, I've begun with a premise that was really black," he said in a panel discussion at the 1980 World Fantasy Convention in Baltimore, reprinted in Bare Bones. "And a more pleasant resolution has forced itself upon that structure." However, as a contributor to Kingdom of Fear maintained, "unlike some other horror writers who lack his talents and sensitivity, Stephen King never ends his stories with any cheap or easy hope. People are badly hurt, they suffer and some of them die, but others survive the struggle and manage to grow. The powers of evil have not yet done them in." According to a contributor to Fear Itself, though, the reassurance King brings to his own readers derives from a basic esteem for humanity itself: "For whether he is writing about vampires, about the death of 99 percent of the population, or about innocent little girls with the power to break the earth in half, King never stops emphasizing his essential liking for people."

Douglas E. Winter assessed King's contribution to the horror genre in his study Stephen King: The Art of Darkness this way: "Death, destruction, and destiny await us all at the end of the journey—in life as in horror fiction. And the writer of horror stories serves as the boatman who ferries people across that Reach known as the River Styx…. In the horror fiction of Stephen King, we can embark upon the night journey, make the descent down the dark hole, cross that narrowing Reach, and return again in safety to the surface—to the near shore of the river of death. For our boatman has a master's hand."

While King has played with the idea of giving up publishing his writings, his legion of fans continues to be delighted that the idea has not yet become a reality. In 2004, under the pseudonym of Eleanor Druse, King-published The Journals of Eleanor Druse: My Investigation of the Kingdom Hospital Incident. He has also continued with his "Dark Tower" series (the illustrated novels featuring Roland the gunslinger) with the publication of The Dark Tower V: Wolves of the Calla in 2003. The book was published more than five years after the publication of the previous installment in the series, The Dark Tower IV: Wizard and Glass. King also completed the final two installments of the series in 2004, including The Dark Tower VI: The Songs of Susannah and The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower. In a surprise for fans, King introduced himself as a character in the sixth installment, which a Publishers Weekly reviewer called a "gutsy move" and commented, that "way there's no denying the ingenuity with which King paints a candid picture of himself."

In 2004, King varied a bit from his usual formula to write, in conjunction with Stewart O'Nan, a nonfiction book about one of his great loves, the Boston Red Sox. When the two authors began keeping diaries of every team-related moment in the year, Faithful: Two Diehard Boston Red Sox Fans Chronicle the Historic 2004 Season was originally expected to be the story of yet another disappointing season for fans of the seemingly cursed team. Instead the Red Sox won the World Series that season for the first time in eighty-six years.

With Cell, a 2006 novel that Booklist contributor Ray Olson considered "the most suspenseful, fastest-paced book King has ever written," the author uses cell phone signals as a source for inducing zombie-like violence in the majority of the population. A Publishers Weekly contributor found "King's imagining … rich," and the dialogue "jaunty and witty" in this novel that borrows technique from Richard Matheson and George A. Romero, the horror legends to whom the book is dedicated. Olson noted that with the publication of Cell, "King blasts any notion that he's exhausted or dissipated his enormous talent."

King presents a good old-fashioned yarn in his book The Colorado Kid. As told by two veteran newspaper reporters to a cub reporter named Stephanie McCann, the story revolves around the discovery of a body by two high school sweethearts twenty years earlier on Moosie's beach in Moose-Lookit Island, Maine. The story reveals how the two reports eventually discovered that the man was from Colorado. "King is especially good at describing the monumental sadness of sifting through the remnants of a dead loved one's life, and depicting the secret and sometimes even nauseatingly cute code-talk of long relationships," wrote Mark Rahner in the Seattle Times. Several reviewers noted that The Colorado Kid is difficult to classify, especially in terms of King's other novels in that it contains elements of horror, mystery, and pulp fiction. Keir Graff, writing in Booklist, commented that the author "appears to be fumbling in his tackle box when, in fact, he's already slipped the hook into our cheeks." In a review in the Library Journal, Nancy McNicol commented that "this slim (by King standards) volume will speak to those who appreciate good storytelling."

In Lisey's Story, King tells the tale of Lisey Landon beginning two years after her famous novelist husband, Scott Landon, has died. Besieged by researchers and others wanting Scott's papers, Lisey decides to prepare his work for donation when she begins to receive threatening phone calls and notes, as well as a dead cat in her mailbox. In the meantime, Lisey has been hearing Scott's voice and it leads her to a netherworld called Boo'Ya Moon where Scott and his brother used to go to escape their brutal father. Although Lisey escapes to this world to learn about Scott's past and her own strength, she still does not elude the psychopath who has threatened her. "The book is also, perhaps, a parable about love and imagination that affirms love as the more salvific of the two," wrote Ray Olson in Booklist.

Once again, reviewers welcomed King's novel. Noting that the author "is surprisingly introspective and mature here," a Kirkus Reviews contributor went on to call Lisey's Story "one of King's finest works." Charles de Lint, writing in the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, commented that "sometimes even established writers can surprise us by stretching in a new direction, or telling a new kind of story while still using the favorite tools in their toolbox. That's the case here, and it's worth talking about." Some reviewers addressed specific aspects of the author's writing. For example, Jim Windolf wrote in the New York Times Book Review that the novel "has an abundance of solid descriptions … and indelible images." Windolf also commented on the magical world that King creates, noting that "it's as real as J.M. Barrie's Never-Never Land, L. Frank Baum's Oz or the Grimms' forest."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Beahm, George W., The Stephen King Story, revised and updated edition, Andrews & McMeel (Kansas City, MO), 1992.

Beahm, George W., editor, The Stephen King Companion, Andrews & McMeel (Kansas City, MO), 1989.

Blue, Tyson, Observations from the Terminator: Thoughts on Stephen King and Other Modern Masters of Horror Fiction, Borgo Press (San Bernardino, CA), 1995.

Collings, Michael R., Stephen King As Richard Bachman, Starmont House (Mercer Island, WA), 1985.

Collings, Michael R., The Works of Stephen King: An Annotated Bibliography and Guide, edited by Boden Clarke, Borgo Press (San Bernardino, CA), 1993.

Collings, Michael R., Scaring Us to Death: The Impact of Stephen King on Popular Culture, 2nd edition, Borgo Press (San Bernardino, CA), 1995.

Contemporary Literary Criticism, Thomson Gale (Detroit, MI), Volume 12, 1980, Volume 26, 1983, Volume 37, 1985, Volume 61, 1990.

Contemporary Theatre, Film, and Television, Volume 63, Thomson Gale (Detroit, MI), 2005.

Davis, Jonathan P., Stephen King's America, Bowling Green State University Popular Press (Bowling Green, OH), 1994.

Dictionary of Literary Biography, Volume 143: American Novelists since World War II, Third Series, Thomson Gale (Detroit, MI), 1994.

Dictionary of Literary Biography Yearbook: 1980, Thomson Gale (Detroit, MI), 1981.

Docherty, Brian, editor, American Horror Fiction: From Brockden Brown to Stephen King, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 1990.

Hoppenstand, Gary, and Ray B. Browne, editors, The Gothic World of Stephen King: Landscape of Nightmares, Bowling Green State University Popular Press (Bowling Green, OH), 1987.

Keyishian, Amy, and Marjorie Keyishian, Stephen King, Chelsea House (Philadelphia, PA), 1995.

King, Stephen, Stephen King's Danse Macabre (nonfiction), Everest House (New York, NY), 1981.

King, Stephen, The Bachman Books: Four Early Novels, New American Library (New York, NY), 1985.

Magistrale, Tony, editor, Landscape of Fear: Stephen King's American Gothic, Bowling Green State University Popular Press (Bowling Green, OH), 1988.

Magistrale, Tony, editor, A Casebook on "The Stand," Starmont House (Mercer Island, WA), 1992.

Magistrale, Tony, Stephen King: The Second Decade—"Danse Macabre" to "The Dark Half," Twayne (New York, NY), 1992.

Platt, Charles, Dream Makers: The Uncommon Men and Women Who Write Science Fiction, Berkley (New York, NY), 1983.

Saidman, Anne, Stephen King, Master of Horror, Lerner Publications (Minneapolis, MN), 1992.

Schweitzer, Darrell, editor, Discovering Stephen King, Starmont House (Mercer Island, WA), 1985.

Short Story Criticism, Volume 17, Thomson Gale (Detroit, MI), 1995.

Underwood, Tim, and Chuck Miller, editors, Fear Itself: The Horror Fiction of Stephen King, Underwood-Miller, 1982.

Underwood, Tim, and Chuck Miller, editors, Kingdom of Fear: The World of Stephen King, Underwood-Miller, 1986.

Underwood, Tim, and Chuck Miller, editors, Bare Bones: Conversations on Terror with Stephen King, McGraw-Hill (New York, NY), 1988.

Underwood, Tim, and Chuck Miller, editors, Feast of Fear: Conversations with Stephen King, Carroll & Graf (New York, NY), 1992.

Underwood, Tim, and Chuck Miller, editors, Fear Itself: The Early Works of Stephen King, foreword by King, introduction by Peter Straub, afterword by George A. Romero, Underwood-Miller, 1993.

Winter, Douglas E., Stephen King: The Art of Darkness, New American Library (New York, NY), 1984.

PERIODICALS

Atlantic Monthly, September 1986, review of It, p. 102; November 1, 2006, review of Lisey's Story, p. 125.

Book, November-December, Chris Barsanti, review of The Dark Tower V: Wolves of the Calla, p. 75.

Booklist, Jan 1, 1976, review of Salem's Lot, p. 613; December 1, 1978, review of The Stand, p. 601; September 1, 1979, review of The Dead Zone, p. 24; July, 1999, Ray Olson, review of Hearts in Atlantis, p. 1893; May 1, 2004, Ray Olson, review of The Dark Tower V: Song of Susannah, p. 1483; September 1, 2004, Ray Olson, review of The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower, p. 6; September 1, 2005, Keir Graff, review of The Colorado Kid, p. 6; January 1, 2006, Ray Olson, review of Cell, p. 24; June 1, 2006, Ray Olson, review of Lisey's Story, p. 6.

Books, November 19, 2006, "Stephen King Fuses Serious Writing and Horror: A Widow's Tale of Loss, Mourning and Terror," p. 8.

Chicago Tribune, August 26, 1990, review of Four past Midnight, p. 3; November 7, 1993, review of Nightmares and Dreamscapes, p. 9.

Christian Science Monitor, January 22, 1990, Thomas D'Evelyn, review of The Dark Half, p. 13.

English Journal, January 1979, review of The Shining, p. 58; January 1983, review of Cujo, p. 79; December 1983, review of Different Seasons, p. 69; December 1984, review of Pet Sematary, p. 66.

Entertainment Weekly, October 14, 1994, review of Insomnia, p. 52; June 16, 1995, review of Rose Madder, p. 54; March 22, 1996, review of The Two Dead Girls, p. 63; April 26, 1996, review of The Mouse on the Mile, p. 49; May 31, 1996, review of Coffey's Hands, p. 53; June 28, 1996, review of The Bad Death of Eduard Delacroix, p. 98; August 2, 1996, review of Night Journey, p. 53; September 6, 1996, review of Coffey on the Mile, p. 67; October 4, 1996, Mark Harris, review of Desperation, p. 54; December 27, 1996, review of The Green Mile, p. 142; September 17, 1999, Tom De Haven, "King of Hearts: He May Be the Master of Horror, but Stephen King Is Also Adept at Capturing Everyday America. In Hearts in Atlantis, His Take on the 60s, including the Effects of Vietnam, Is Scarily Accurate," p.72; September 27, 2002, Chris Nashawaty, "Stephen King Quits," p. 20; June 25, 2004, Gregory Kirschling, review of The Dark Tower V: Song of Susannah, p. 172; October 7, 2005, Gilbert Cruz, "The New King of Pulp," p. 83.

Esquire, November 1984, review of The Talisman, p. 231.

Fantasy Review, January, 1984, Michael A. Morrison, review of Pet Sematary, p. 49

Kirkus Reviews, J March 1, 1974, review of Carrie, p. 257; December 1, 1977, review of Night Shift, p. 1285; June 15, 2006, review of Lisey's Story, p. 594.

Library Journal, March 1, 2004, Kristen L. Smith, review of The Dark Tower V: Wolves of the Calla, p. 126; May 15, 2004, Nancy McNicol, review of The Dark Tower V: Song of Susannah, p. 115; September 15, 2004, Nancy McNicol, review of The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower, p.49; September 15, 2005, Nancy McNicol, review of The Colorado Kid, p. 60; July 1, 2006, Nancy McNicol, review of Lisey's Story, p. 66.

Locus, September 1992, review of Gerald's Game, p. 21; November 1992, review of Dolores Clai-borne, p. 19; February 1994, review of Dolores Claiborne, p. 58; October 1994, review of Nightmares and Dreamscapes, p. 54.

Los Angeles Times, May 8, 1983, review of Christine, p. 3; November 20, 1983, review of Pet Sematary, p. 17; November 18, 1984, review of The Talisman, p. 13; August 25, 1985, review of Skeleton Crew, p. 4.

Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, January 1, 2007, Charles De Lint, review of Lisey's Story, p. 38.

Miami Herald, March 21, 2001, Rene Rodriguez, review of Dreamcatcher; March 27, 2002, Rene Rodriguez, review of Everything's Eventual.

Midwest Quarterly, spring, 2004, Tom Hansen, "Diabolical Dreaming in Stephen King's ‘The Man in the Black Suit,’" p. 290.

New Republic, February 21, 1981, Michele Slung, review of Firestarter, p. 38.

New Statesman, September 15, 1995, Kevin Harley, review of Rose Madder, p. 33.

Newsweek, August 31, 1981, Jean Strouse, review of Cujo, p. 64; May 2, 1983, review of Christine, p. 76.

New Yorker, January 15, 1979, review of The Stand, p. 109; September 30, 1996, review of Desperation, p. 78

New York Review of Books, October 19, 1995, review of Dolores Claiborne, p. 54.

New York Times, March 1, 1977, review of The Shining, p. 35; November 28, 1977, review of Night Shift, p. 46; March 26, 1978, review of The Stand, p. 13; August 17, 1979, Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, review of The Dead Zone, p. C23; August 14, 1981, review of Cujo, p. 19; August 11, 1982, review of Different Seasons, p. 25; April 12, 1983, review of Christine, p. 27; October 21, 1983, review of Pet Sematary, p. 21; November 8, 1984, review of The Talisman, p. 25; August 21, 1986, Christopher Lehmann Haupt, review of It, p. 17; June 29, 1992, review of Gerald's Game, p. B2; November 16, 1992, review of Dolores Claiborne, p. B1; June 26, 1995, review of Rose Madder, p. B2; October 26, 1996, review of Coffey on the Mile, p. 16.

New York Times Book Review, May 26, 1974, review of Carrie, p. 17; February 20, 1977, Jack Sullivan, review of The Shining, p. 8; September 11, 1977, review of Carrie, p. 3; March 26, 1978, review of Night Shift, p. 13; February 4, 1979, review of The Stand, p. 15; May 10, 1981, review of Danse Macabre, p. 15; August 29, 1982, review of Different Seasons, p. 10; April 3, 1983, review of Christine, p. 12; November 6, 1983, review of Pet Sematary, p. 15; November 4, 1984, review of The Talisman, p. 24; June 9, 1985, review of Skeleton Crew, p. 11; February 22, 1987, review of The Eyes of the Dragon,; p. 12; May 13, 1990, review of The Stand: The Complete and Uncut Edition, p. 3; September 2, 1990, review of Four past Midnight, p. 21; September 29, 1991, review of The Waste Lands, p. 14; August 16, 1992, review of Gerald's Game, p. 3; December 27, 1992, review of Dolores Claiborne, p. 15; October 24, 1993, review of Nightmares and Dreamscapes, p. 22; October 30, 1994, review of Insomnia, p. 24; July 2, 1995, review of Rose Madder p. 11; October 20, 1996, review of The Green Mile, p. 16; November 12, 2006, Jim Windolf, "Scare Tactician," (review of Lisey's Story), p. 1.

Observer (Charlotte, NC), October 4, 2000, Jack Harville, review of On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft; Salem Macknee, review of From a Buick 8.

Penthouse, April, 1982, Bob Spitz, interview with author.

Playboy, June 1983, Eric Norden review of Christine and interview with King, p. 38.

Publishers Weekly, February 25, 1974, review of Carrie, p. 102; June 7, 1976, review of Salem's Lot, p. 73; November 14, 1977, review of The Shining, p. 64; September 25, 1978, review of The Stand, p. 127; November 12, 1979, review of The Stand, p. 56; April 1, 1996, review of The Two Dead Girls, p. 38; June 24, 1996, review of Desperation, p. 43; July 14, 1997, review of The Dark Tower IV: Wizard and Glass, p. 65 April 19, 2004, review of The Dark Tower VI: Song of Susannah, p. 37; August 15, 2005, Orson Scott Card, review of The Colorado Kid, p. 40; January 2, 2006, review of Cell, p. 37; August 28, 2006, review of Lisey's Story, p. 27.

Rapport, annual, 1992, review of The Waste Lands, p. 21; annual, 1992, review of Gerald's Game, p. 26.

Saturday Review, September 1981, Michelle Green, review of Cujo, p. 59; November 1984, review of The Talisman p. 85.

Seattle Times, October 27, 2006, Mark Rahner, review of Lisey's Story.

Star (Kansas City, MO), October 4, 2000, John Mark Eberhart, review of On Writing.

Time, August 30, 1982, Paul Gray, review of Different Seasons, p. 87; July 1, 1985, review of Skeleton Crew, p. 59; October 6, 1986, review of It,; p. 74; December 7, 1992, review of Dolores Claiborne; p. 81; September 2, 1996, review of "The Green Mile, p. 60.

Village Voice, April 29, 1981, review of Stephen King's Danse Macabre, p. 45; October 23, 1984, review of The Talisman, p. 53; March 3, 1987, review of It, p. 46.

Voice Literary Supplement, September 1982, review of Creepshow, p. 6; November 1985, review of Salem's Lot, p. 27.

Washington Post Book World, May 26, 1974, review of Carrie, p. 17; April 12, 1981, review of Stephen King's Dance Macabre, p. 4; August 22, 1982, review of Different Seasons, p. 1; November 13, 1983, review of Pet Sematary, p. 1; June 16, 1985, review of Skeleton Crew, p. 1; August 26, 1990, review of Four Past Midnight, p. 9; September 29, 1991, review of Needful Things, p. 9; July 19, 1992, review of Gerald's Game, p. 7; December 13, 1992, Kit Reed, review of Dolores Claiborne, p. 5; October 10, 1993, review of Nightmares and Dreamscapes, p. 4; October 9, 1994, review of Insominia, p. 4; October 29, 2006, "Admit It: You've Been a Horrible Snob about Stephen King," p. 1.

ONLINE

Stephen King Home Page,http://www.stephenking.com (June 30, 2007).

King, Stephen (Edwin) 1947–
(Richard Bachman, Eleanor Druse, Steve King, John Swithen)

Personal

Born September 21, 1947, in Portland, ME; son of Donald (a merchant sailor) and Nellie Ruth (Pillsbury) King; married Tabitha Jane Spruce (a novelist), January 2, 1971; children: Naomi Rachel, Joseph Hill, Owen Phillip. Education: University of Maine at Orono, B.Sc., 1970. Politics: Democrat. Hobbies and other interests: Reading (mostly fiction), jigsaw puzzles, playing the guitar ("I'm terrible and so try to bore no one but myself"), movies, bowling.

Addresses

Agent —Arthur Greene, 101 Park Ave., New York, NY 10178.

Career

Writer. Has worked as a janitor, a laborer in an industrial laundry, and in a knitting mill. Hampden Academy (high school), Hampden, ME, English teacher, 1971–73; University of Maine, Orono, writer-in-residence, 1978–79. Owner, Philtrum Press (publishing house), and WZON-AM (rock 'n' roll radio station), Bangor, ME. Has made cameo appearances in films, including Knightriders, 1981, Creepshow, 1982, Maximum Overdrive, 1986, Pet Sematary, 1989, and The Stand, 1994. Judge for 1977 World Fantasy Awards, 1978.

Member

Authors Guild, Authors League of America, Screen Artists Guild, Screen Writers of America, Writers Guild.

Awards, Honors

Carrie named to School Library Journal Book List, 1975; World Fantasy Award nominations, 1976, for 'Salem's Lot, 1979, for The Stand and Night Shift, 1980, for The Dead Zone, 1981, for "The Mist," and 1983, for "The Breathing Method: A Winter's Tale," in Different Seasons; Hugo Award nomination, World Science Fiction Society, and Nebula Award nomination, Science Fiction Writers of America, both 1978, both for The Shining; Balrog Awards, second place in best novel category, for The Stand, and second place in best collection category for Night Shift, both 1979; named to American Library Association list of best books for young adults, 1979, for The Long Walk, and 1981, for Firestarter; World Fantasy Award, 1980, for contribu-tions to the field, and 1982, for story "Do the Dead Sing?"; Career Alumni Award, University of Maine at Orono, 1981; Nebula Award nomination, 1981, for story "The Way Station"; special British Fantasy Award for outstanding contribution to the genre, British Fantasy Society, 1982, for Cujo; Hugo Award, 1982, for Stephen King's Danse Macabre; named Best Fiction Writer of the Year, Us magazine, 1982; Locus Award for best collection, 1986, for Stephen King's Skeleton Crew; Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel, Horror Writers Association, 1988, for Misery; Bram Stoker Award for Best Collection, 1991, for Four Past Midnight; World Fantasy award for short story, 1995, and O. Henry Award, 1996, all for The Man in the Black Suit; Bram Stoker Award for Best Novelette, 1996, for Lunch at the Gotham Cafe; Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel, 1997, for The Green Mile; Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel, 1999, for Bag of Bones; Bram Stoker Award nominee in novel category (with Peter Straub), 2001, for Black House; Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, National Book Award, 2003; The Stand was voted one of the nation's 100 best-loved novels by the British public as part of the BBC's The Big Read, 2003.

Writings

NOVELS

Carrie: A Novel of a Girl with a Frightening Power (also see below), Doubleday (New York, NY), 1974, movie edition published as Carrie, New American Library/Times Mirror (New York, NY), 1975, published in a limited edition with introduction by Tabitha King, Plume (New York, NY), 1991.

'Salem's Lot (also see below), Doubleday (New York, NY), 1975, television edition, New American Library (New York, NY), 1979, published in a limited edition with introduction by Clive Barker, Plume (New York, NY), 1991.

The Shining (also see below), Doubleday (New York, NY), 1977, movie edition, New American Library (New York, NY), 1980, published in a limited edition with introduction by Ken Follett, Plume (New York, NY), 1991.

The Stand (also see below), Doubleday (New York, NY), 1978, enlarged and expanded edition published as The Stand: The Complete and Uncut Edition, Doubleday (New York, NY), 1990.

The Dead Zone (also see below), Viking (New York, NY), 1979, movie edition published as The Dead Zone: Movie Tie-In, New American Library (New York, NY), 1980.

Firestarter (also see below), Viking (New York, NY), 1980, with afterword by King, 1981, published in a limited, aluminum-coated, asbestos-cloth edition, Phantasia Press (Huntington Woods, MI), 1980.

Cujo (also see below), Viking (New York, NY), 1981, published in limited edition, Mysterious Press (New York, NY), 1981.

Pet Sematary (also see below), Doubleday (New York, NY), 1983.

Christine (also see below), Viking (New York, NY), 1983, published in a limited edition, illustrated by Stephen Gervais, Donald M. Grant (Hampton Falls, NH), 1983.

(With Peter Straub) The Talisman, Viking Press/Putnam (New York, NY), 1984, published in a limited two-volume edition, Donald M. Grant (Hampton Falls, NH), 1984.

The Eyes of the Dragon (young adult), limited edition, illustrated by Kenneth R. Linkhauser, Philtrum Press, 1984, new edition, illustrated by David Palladini, Viking (New York, NY), 1987.

It (also see below), Viking (New York, NY), 1986.

Misery (also see below), Viking (New York, NY), 1987.

The Tommyknockers (also see below), Putnam (New York, NY), 1987.

The Dark Half (also see below), Viking (New York, NY), 1989.

Needful Things (also see below), Viking (New York, NY), 1991.

Gerald's Game, Viking (New York, NY), 1992.

Dolores Claiborne (also see below), Viking (New York, NY), 1993.

Insomnia, Viking (New York, NY), 1994.

Rose Madder, Viking (New York, NY), 1995.

The Green Mile (serialized novel), Signet (New York, NY), Chapter 1, "The Two Dead Girls" (also see below), Chapter 2, "The Mouse on the Mile," Chapter 3, "Coffey's Hands," Chapter 4, "The Bad Death of Eduard Delacroix," Chapter 5, "Night Journey," Chapter 6, "Coffey on the Mile," 1996, published in one volume as The Green Mile: A Novel in Six Parts, Plume (New York, NY), 1997.

Desperation, Viking (New York, NY), 1996.

(And author of foreword) The Two Dead Girls, Signet (New York, NY), 1996.

Bag of Bones, Viking (New York, NY), 1998.

Hearts in Atlantis, G. K. Hall (Thorndike, ME), 1999.

The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, Scribner (New York, NY), 1999, published as a pop-up book, illustrated by Alan Gingman, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 2004

Dreamcatcher, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 2001.

(With Peter Straub) Black House (sequel to The Talisman ), Random House (New York, NY), 2001.

(Editor) Ridley Pearson, The Diary of Ellen Rimbauer: My Life as Rose Red, Hyperion (New York, NY), 2001.

From a Buick 8, Scribner's (New York, NY), 2002.

(Under name Eleanor Druse) The Journals of Eleanor Druse: My Investigation of the Kingdom Hospital Incident, Hyperion (New York, NY), 2004.

Also author of early unpublished novels "Sword in the Darkness" (also referred to as "Babylon Here"), "The Cannibals," and "Blaze," a reworking of John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men.

"THE DARK TOWER" SERIES

The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger (also see below), Amereon Ltd. (New York, NY), 1976, published as The Gunslinger, New American Library (New York, NY), 1988, published in limited edition, illustrated by Michael Whelan, Donald M. Grant (Hampton Falls, NH), 1982, second limited edition, 1984, revised and expanded edition, Viking (New York, NY), 2003.

The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three (also see below), illustrated by Phil Hale, New American Library (New York, NY), 1989, with new introduction, Plume (New York, NY), 2003.

The Dark Tower III: The Waste Lands (also see below), illustrated by Ned Dameron, Donald M. Grant (Hampton Falls, NH), 1991.

The Dark Tower Trilogy: The Gunslinger; The Drawing of the Three; The Waste Lands (box set), New American Library (New York, NY), 1993.

The Dark Tower IV: Wizard and Glass, Plume (New York, NY), 1997.

The Dark Tower V: Wolves of the Calla, illustrated by Bernie Wrightson, Plume (New York, NY), 2003.

The Dark Tower VI: The Songs of Susannah, Donald M. Grant (Hampton Falls, NH), 2004.

The Dark Tower VII, Scribner (New York, NY), 2004.

NOVELS; UNDER PSEUDONYM RICHARD BACHMAN

Rage (also see below), New American Library/Signet (New York, NY), 1977.

The Long Walk (also see below), New American Library/Signet (New York, NY), 1979.

Roadwork: A Novel of the First Energy Crisis (also see below) New American Library/Signet (New York, NY), 1981.

The Running Man (also see below), New American Library/Signet (New York, NY), 1982.

Thinner, New American Library (New York, NY), 1984.

The Regulators, Dutton (New York, NY), 1996.

SHORT FICTION

(Under name Steve King) The Star Invaders (privately printed), Triad, Inc./Gaslight Books (Durham, ME), 1964.

Night Shift (also see below), introduction by John D. MacDonald, Doubleday (New York, NY), 1978, published as Night Shift: Excursions into Horror, New American Library/Signet (New York, NY), 1979.

Different Seasons (novellas; contains Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption: Hope Springs Eternal [also see below]; Apt Pupil: Summer of Corruption; The Body: Fall from Innocence ; and The Breathing Method: A Winter's Tale ), Viking (New York, NY), 1982.

Cycle of the Werewolf (novella; also see below), illustrated by Berni Wrightson, limited portfolio edition published with "Berni Wrightson: An Appreciation," Land of Enchantment (Westland, MI), 1983, enlarged edition including King's screenplay adaptation published as Stephen King's Silver Bullet, New American Library/Signet (New York, NY), 1985.

Stephen King's Skeleton Crew (story collection), illustrated by J. K. Potter, Viking (New York, NY), 1985.

My Pretty Pony, illustrated by Barbara Kruger, Knopf (New York, NY), 1989.

Four Past Midnight (contains "The Langoliers," "Secret Window, Secret Garden," "The Library Policeman," and "The Sun Dog"; also see below), Viking (New York, NY), 1990.

Nightmares and Dreamscapes, Viking (New York, NY), 1993.

Everything's Eventual: Fourteen Dark Tales, Scribner (New York, NY), 2002.

Also author of short stories "Slade" (a western), "The Man in the Black Suit," 1996, and, under pseudonym John Swithen, "The Fifth Quarter." Contributor of short story "Squad D" to Harlan Ellison's The Last Dangerous Visions; contributor of short story "Autopsy Room Four" to Robert Bloch's Psychos, edited by Robert Bloch. Also contributor to anthologies and collections, including The Year's Finest Fantasy, edited by Terry Carr, Putnam (New York, NY), 1978; Shadows, edited by Charles L. Grant, Doubleday (New York, NY), Volume 1, 1978, Volume 4, 1981; New Terrors, edited by Ramsey Campbell, Pocket Books (New York, NY), 1982; World Fantasy Convention 1983, edited by Robert Weinberg, Weird Tales Ltd., 1983; The Writer's Handbook, edited by Sylvia K. Burack, Writer, Inc. (Boston, MA), 1984; The Dark Descent, edited by David G. Hartwell, Doherty Associates, 1987; Prime Evil: New Stories by the Masters of Modern Horror, by Douglas E. Winter, New American Library (New York, NY), 1988; Dark Visions, Gollancz (London), 1989; and Dark Love: Twenty-two All-Original Tales of Lust and Obsession, edited by Nancy Collins, Edward E. Kramer, and Martin Harry Greenberg, ROC (New York, NY), 1995.

SCREENPLAYS

Stephen King's Creep Show: A George A. Romero Film (based on King's stories "Father's Day," "The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill" [previously published as "Weeds"], "The Crate," and "They're Creeping up on You"; released by Warner Bros. as Creepshow, 1982), illustrated by Berni Wrightson and Michele Wrightson, New American Library (New York, NY), 1982.

Cat's Eye (based on King's stories "Quitters, Inc.," "The Ledge," and "The General"), Metro Goldwyn-Mayer/United Artists, 1984.

Stephen King's Silver Bullet (based on and published with King's novella Cycle of the Werewolf ; released by Paramount Pictures/Dino de Laurentiis's North Carolina Film Corp., 1985), illustrated by Berni Wrightson, New American Library/Signet (New York, NY), 1985.

(And director) Maximum Overdrive (based on King's stories "The Mangler," "Trucks," and "The Lawnmower Man"; released by Dino de Laurentiis's North Carolina Film Corp., 1986), New American Library (New York, NY), 1986.

Pet Sematary (based on King's novel of the same title), Laurel Production, 1989.

Stephen King's Sleepwalkers, Columbia, 1992.

(Author of introduction) Frank Darabont, The Shawshank Redemption: The Shooting Script, Newmarket Press (New York, NY), 1996.

Storm of the Century (also see below), Pocket Books (New York, NY), 1999.

(Author of introductions with William Goldman and Lawrence Kasdan) William Goldman and Lawrence Kasdan, Dreamcatcher: The Shooting Script, Newmarket Press (New York, NY), 2003.

TELEPLAYS

Stephen King's Golden Years, CBS-TV, 1991.

(And executive producer) Stephen King's The Stand (based on King's novel The Stand ), ABC-TV, 1994.

(With Chris Carter) Chinga, (episode of The X-Files,) Fox-TV, 1998.

Storm of the Century, ABC-TV, 1999.

Rose Red (also see below), ABC-TV, 2001.

Stephen King's Kingdom Hospital, ABC-TV, 2004.

Desperation, USA, 2004.

Also author of Battleground (based on short story of same title; optioned by Martin Poll Productions for NBC-TV), and "Sorry, Right Number," for television series Tales from the Dark Side, 1987.

OMNIBUS EDITIONS

Another Quarter Mile: Poetry, Dorrance (Philadelphia, PA), 1979.

Stephen King (contains The Shining, 'Salem's Lot, Night Shift, and Carrie ), W. S. Heinemann/Octopus Books (London, England), 1981.

Stephen King's Danse Macabre (nonfiction), Everest House (New York, NY), 1981.

The Plant (privately published episodes of a comic horror novel in progress), Philtrum Press (Bangor, ME), Part 1, 1982, Part 2, 1983, Part 3, 1985.

Black Magic and Music: A Novelist's Perspective on Bangor (pamphlet), Bangor Historical Society (Bangor, ME), 1983.

(And author of introduction) The Bachman Books: Four Early Novels (contains Rage, The Long Walk, Roadwork, and The Running Man ), New American Library (New York, NY), 1985.

Dolan's Cadillac, Lord John Press (Northridge, CA), 1989.

Stephen King (contains Desperation and The Regulators ) Signet (New York, NY), 1997.

Stephen King's Latest (contains Dolores Claiborne, Insomnia and Rose Madder ) Signet (New York, NY), 1997.

OTHER

Nightmares in the Sky: Gargoyles and Grotesques (nonfiction), photographs by F. Stop FitzGerald, Viking (New York, NY), 1988.

On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft, Scribner (New York, NY), 2000.

(With Stewart O'Nan) Faithful: Two Diehard Boston Red Sox Fans Chronicle the Historic 2004 Season, Thorndike Press (Waterville, ME), 2005.

Author of e-book The Plant, and "Riding the Bullet," 2000. Author of weekly column "King's Garbage Truck" for Maine Campus, 1969–70, and of monthly book review column for Adelina, 1980. Contributor of short fiction and poetry to numerous magazines, including Art, Castle Rock: The Stephen King Newsletter, Cavalier, Comics Review, Cosmopolitan, Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, Fantasy and Science Fiction, Gallery, Great Stories from Twilight Zone Magazine, Heavy Metal, Ladies' Home Journal, Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Maine, Maine Review, Marshroots, Marvel comics, Moth, Omni, Onan, Playboy, Redbook, Reflections, Rolling Stone, Science-Fiction Digest, Startling Mystery Stories, Terrors, Twilight Zone, Ubris, Whisper, and Yankee. Contributor of book reviews to the New York Times Book Review.

Most of King's papers are housed in the special collection of the Folger Library at the University of Maine at Orono.

Adaptations

Carrie was adapted for film by Lawrence D. Cohen, directed by Brian De Palma, United Artist, 1976, and was also produced as a Broadway musical in 1988 by Cohen and Michael Gore, developed in England by the Royal Shakespeare Company, featuring Betty Buckley; 'Salem's Lot was produced as a television miniseries in 1979 by Warner Brothers, teleplay by Paul Monash, featuring David Soul and James Mason, and was adapted for the cable channel TNT in 2004, with a teleplay by Peter Filardi and direction by Mikael Salomon; The Shining was filmed in 1980 by Warner Brothers/Hawks Films, screenplay by director Stanley Kubrick and Diane Johnson, starring Jack Nicholson and Shelley Duvall, and was filmed for television in 1997 by Warner Bros., directed by Mick Garris, starring Rebecca De Mornay, Steven Weber, Courtland Mead, and Melvin Van Peebles; Cujo was filmed in 1983 by Warner Communications/Taft Entertainment, screenplay by Don Carlos Dunaway and Lauren Currier, featuring Dee Wallace and Danny Pintauro; The Dead Zone was filmed in 1983 by Paramount Pictures, screenplay by Jeffrey Boam, starring Christopher Walken, and was adapted as a cable television series starring Anthony Michael Hall by USA Network, beginning 2002; Christine was filmed in 1983 by Columbia Pictures, screenplay by Bill Phillips; Firestarter was produced in 1984 by Frank Capra, Jr., for Universal Pictures in association with Dino de Laurentiis, screenplay by Stanley Mann, featuring David Keith and Drew Barrymore; Stand by Me (based on King's novella The Body ) was filmed in 1986 by Columbia Pictures, screenplay by Raynold Gideon and Bruce A. Evans, directed by Rob Reiner; The Running Man was filmed in 1987 by Taft Entertainment/Barish Productions, screenplay by Steven E. de Souza, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger; Misery was produced in 1990 by Columbia, directed by Reiner, screenplay by William Goldman, starring James Caan and Kathy Bates; Graveyard Shift was filmed in 1990 by Paramount, directed by Ralph S. Singleton, adapted by John Esposito; Stephen King's It was filmed as a television mini-series by ABC-TV in 1990; The Dark Half was filmed in 1993 by Orion, written and directed by George A. Romero, featuring Timothy Hutton and Amy Madigan; Needful Things was filmed in 1993 by Columbia/Castle Rock, adapted by W. D. Richter and Lawrence Cohen, directed by Fraser C. Heston, starring Max Von Sydow, Ed Harris, Bonnie Bedelia, and Amanda Plummer; The Tommyknockers was filmed as a television mini-series by ABC-TV in 1993; The Shawshank Redemption, based on King's novella Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption: Hope Springs Eternal, was filmed in 1994 by Columbia, written and directed by Frank Darabont, featuring Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman; Dolores Claiborne was filmed in 1995 by Columbia; Thinner was filmed by Paramount in 1996, directed by Dom Holland, starring Robert John Burke, Joe Mantegna, Lucinda Jenney, and Michael Constantine; Night Flier was filmed by New Amsterdam Entertainment/Stardust International/Medusa Film in 1997, directed by Mark Pavia, starring Miguel Ferrer, Julie Entwisle, Dan Monahan, and Michael H. Moss; Apt Pupil was filmed in 1998 by TriStar Pictures, directed by Bryan Singer, starring David Schwimmer, Ian McKellen, and Brad Renfro; The Green Mile was filmed in 1999 by Castle Rock, adapted and directed by Frank Darabont, starring Tom Hanks; Hearts in Atlantis was filmed in 2001 by Castle Rock, directed by Scott Hicks, screenplay written by William Goldman, starring Anthony Hopkins; Dreamcatcher was filmed in 2003 by Warner Bros./Castle Rock Entertainment, directed by Lawrence Kasdan, written by William Goldman, starring Morgan Freeman. Several of King's short stories have also been adapted for the screen, including The Boogeyman, filmed by Tantalus in 1982 and 1984 in association with the New York University School of Undergraduate Film, screenplay by producer-director Jeffrey C. Schiro; The Woman in the Room, filmed in 1983 by Darkwoods, screenplay by director Frank Darabont, broadcast on public television in Los Angeles, 1985 (released with The Boogeyman on videocassette as Two Mini-Features from Stephen King's Nightshift Collection by Granite Entertainment Group, 1985); Children of the Corn, produced in 1984 by Donald P. Borchers and Terrence Kirby for New World Pictures, screenplay by George Goldsmith; The Word Processor (based on King's "The Word Processor of the Gods"), produced by Romero and Richard Rubenstein for Laurel Productions, 1984, teleplay by Michael Dowell, broadcast in 1985 on Tales from the Darkside series (released on videocassette by Laurel Entertainment, Inc., 1985); Gramma, filmed by CBS-TV in 1985, teleplay by Harlan Ellison, broadcast in 1986 on The Twilight Zone series; Creepshow 2 (based on "The Raft" and unpublished stories "Old Chief Wood'nhead" and "The Hitchhiker"), filmed in 1987 by New World Pictures, screenplay by Romero; Sometimes They Come Back, filmed by CBS-TV in 1987; "The Cat from Hell" included in three-segment anthology film Tales from the Darkside—The Movie, produced by Laurel Productions, 1990; The Lawnmower Man, written by director Brett Leonard and Gimel Everett for New Line Cinema, 1992; The Mangler, filmed by New Line Cinema, 1995; and The Langoliers, filmed as a television mini-series by ABC-TV, 1995; "Secret Window, Secret Garden" filmed by Columbia as Secret Window, written and directed by David Koepp, 2004; "All That You Love Will Be Carried Away" adapted as a short film by James Renner. Film rights to "1408," from Everything's Eventual, was optioned by Dimension Films.

Sidelights

Continuing the legacy of American writers Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Henry James, and H. P. Lovecraft, Stephen King is perhaps the most famous horror writer of his generation. He is known for his ability to transform the ordinary and everyday into the horrific, a talent that is exhibited in books such as Christine, about a car; Cujo, about a dog; Carrie, about a misunderstood teen; and 'Salem's Lot, about the ghostly, vacant house on the hill that exists in every town and is the stuff of neighborhood legend and childish nightmare. As Atlantic Monthly contributor Lloyd Rose wrote, "King takes ordinary emotional situations—marital stress, infidelity, peer-group-acceptance worries—and translates them into violent tales of vampires and ghosts. He writes supernatural soap operas." While some critics have dismissed King's work as genre fiction, others recognize the skill and sensitivity with which King taps our collective unconscious; his work was duly honored in 2003 when he received the National Book Award Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters.

During King's teen years growing up in Maine, writing was a powerful diversion, and science-fiction and adventure stories comprised his first literary efforts. Penning his first story at age seven, he began submitting short fiction to magazines at age twelve, and published his first story by the time he was eighteen. In high school he authored a small, satiric newspaper titled "The Village Vomit"; in college he penned a popular and eclectic series of columns under the heading "King's Garbage Truck." He also started writing the novels he eventually published under the pseudonym of Richard Bachman—novels that focus more on elements of human alienation and brutality than supernatural horror. After graduation, King supplemented his teaching salary with various odd jobs and by selling stories to men's magazines. Searching for a form of his own, and responding to a friend's challenge to break his writing out of the machismo mold and move to longer fiction, King wrote the manuscript that was eventually published as Carrie. When the novel was marketed by its publisher in the horror genre, and went on to become a best seller as well as a feature film, King's course as a novelist was firmly set.

Like the Maine settings that are characteristic of the author's work, Death figures strongly in King's novels and short fiction. Interestingly, although his novels are geared toward older readers, King's central characters are often children or adolescents, and the empowerment of estranged young people is a theme that recurs throughout his fiction. "If Stephen King's kids have one thing in common," declared Robert Cormier in the Washington Post Book World, "it's the fact that they all are losers. In a way, all children are losers, of course—how can they be winners with that terrifying adult world stacked against them?" Cormier makes a valid point: Carrie is about a persecuted teenaged girl, while an alienated teenaged boy is the main character in King's Christine. In The Shining and Firestarter, King's young characters are marked as different through the powers they possess and by those who want to manipulate them: evil supernatural forces in The Shining, and the U.S. Government in Firestarter. Children also figure prominently, although not always as victims, in 'Salem's Lot, It, The Tommyknockers, Pet Sematary, The Eyes of the Dragon, The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, and The Talisman.

Many of King's novels are considered classics within the horror genre, and have become part of modern America's cultural fabric through both King's books and the popular film adaptations that have been made from them. As critics note, despite King's extreme popularity, his more recent works reflect the same high caliber of writing and stylistic experimentation as did his early work. In Desperation, for example, a group of strangers drive into Desperation, Nevada, where they encounter a malign spirit, or Tak, in the body of police officer Collie Entragian. The survivors of this apocalyptic novel are few, but include David Carver, an eleven-year-old boy who talks to God, and John Edward Marinville, an alcoholic novelist. Robert Polito, writing for the New York Times, noted that "King's peculiar knack as a novelist is to strip away much of the complexity and nearly all of the art from a terrifying vision of an unknowable universe ruled by a limited, perhaps evil God and insinuate that Gnosticism into the rituals and commodities of everyday America." Mark Harris remarked in Entertainment Weekly that King "hasn't been this intent on scaring readers—or been this successful at it—since The Stand," a terrifying read about a viral outbreak that kills most of the population of Earth.

Set in the Deep South in 1932, The Green Mile —a prison expression for death row—begins with the death of twin girls and the conviction of John Coffey for their murder. Block superintendent Paul Edgecombe, who narrates the story years later from his nursing home in Georgia, slowly unfolds the story of the mysterious Coffey, a man with no past and with a gift for healing. An Entertainment Weekly reviewer called the book a novel "that's as hauntingly touching as it is just plain haunted." The Green Mile captured the imagination of both readers and critics, and was adapted as a popular feature film.

Bag of Bone tells of a writer struggling with both his grief for the death of his wife and writer's block while living in a haunted cabin. The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, published in 1999 and a short work by King's standards, centers on a nine-year-old girl from a broken home who gets lost in the Maine woods for two weeks. She has her radio with her, and survives her ordeal by listening to Boston Red Sox baseball games on her Walkman and imagining conversations with her hero, Red Sox relief pitcher Tom Gordon.

Called by Booklist contributor Ray Olson a "massive, postapocalyptic, chivalrized western," King's "Dark Tower" series encompasses seven illustrated novels published from 1982 and 2004 that feature Roland the gunslinger and his efforts to save multiple worlds from the Crimson King and the powers of Chaos. Roland, whose course of right action is mapped by The Beam, is accompanied by a small band of ragtag friends, all of whom encounter a host of adventures and challenges in both late twentieth-century Earth and King's alternate universe, all while moving along their intended path: to save the world from Evil by reaching the Dark Tower, the place where time and space meet. In a surprise for fans, King introduces himself as a character in the sixth installment, a move a Publishers Weekly reviewer called "gutsy." While commenting that "there's no denying the ingenuity with which King paints a candid picture of himself." Reviewing the final volume of the series, The Dark Tower, Library Journal reviewer Mary McNichol wrote that the series "resonates with the ancient fundamentals of story-telling."

King undertook his own epic journey of sorts beginning in 1999, along the road to physical recovery. Struck by a van while walking alongside a road near his home in Maine, the author sustained injuries to his spine, hip, ribs, and right leg. One of his broken ribs punctured a lung, and King nearly died. Fortunately, he overcame these injuries and began a slow progress toward recovery, cheered by countless cards and letters from his fans. Bedriden for a lengthy period, he began experimenting with e-publishing, and has gone on to self-publish several works on his Web site. Three years after the accident, in 2002, he announced his retirement from publishing in the mainstream press.

Just prior to announcing his retirement, King produced On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft, which serves as both a writer's manual and autobiography. In addition to King's advice on crafting fiction, the author chronicles his childhood, his rise to fame, his struggles with addiction, and the horrific accident that almost ended his life. "King's writing about his own alcoholism and cocaine abuse," noted John Mark Eberhart in the Kansas City Star, "is among the best and most hon-
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est prose of his career." Similarly, Jack Harville reported in the Charlotte Observer that "the closing piece describes King's accident and rehabilitation. The description is harrowing, and the rehab involves both physical and emotional recovery. It is beautifully told in a narrative style that would have gained [noted grammar gurus] Strunk and White's approval."

Prior to his retirement King wrote daily, exempting only Christmas, the Fourth of July, and his birthday. He enjoys working on two things simultaneously, beginning his day early with a two-or three-mile walk: "What I'm working on in the morning is what I'm working on," he said in a panel discussion at the 1980 World Fantasy Convention, reprinted in Bare Bones. He devoted his afternoon hours to rewriting. Despite chronic headaches, occasional insomnia, and even a fear of writer's block, he continued produced six pages daily; "And that's like engraved in stone," he told Joyce Lynch Dewes Moore in Mystery. Despite retiring, the author did not see much reduction in his writing time.

Despite the fact that his books have been marketed to adult readers, King's focus on story and psychological rather than graphic violence has made his books suitable for teen readers. As he wrote in his Danse Macabre, children are "better able to deal with fantasy and terror than their elders are." In an interview for High Times, he marveled at the resilience of a child's mind and the inexplicable, yet seemingly harmless, attraction of children to nightmare-inducing stories: "We start kids off on things like 'Hansel and Gretel,' which features child abandonment, kidnaping, attempted murder, forcible detention, cannibalism, and finally murder by cremation. And the kids love it." Adults are capable of distinguishing between fantasy and reality, but in the process of growing up, laments King in Danse Macabre, they develop "a good case of mental tunnel vision and a gradual ossification of the imaginative faculty"; thus, King explains, he sees the central the task of the fantasy or horror writer as enabling an adult reader to become, "for a little while, a child again."

Biographical and Critical Sources

BOOKS

Badley, Linda, Writing Horror and the Body: The Fiction of Stephen King, Clive Barker, and Anne Rice, Greenwood Press (Westport, CT), 1996.

Beahm, George W., The Stephen King Story, revised and updated edition, Andrews & McMeel (Kansas City, MO), 1992.

Beahm, George W., editor, The Stephen King Companion, Andrews & McMeel (Kansas City, MO), 1989.

Blue, Tyson, Observations from the Terminator: Thoughts on Stephen King and Other Modern Masters of Horror Fiction, Borgo Press (San Bernardino, CA), 1995.

Collings, Michael R., Stephen King as Richard Bachman, Starmont House (Mercer Island, WA), 1985.

Collings, Michael R., The Works of Stephen King: An Annotated Bibliography and Guide, edited by Boden Clarke, Borgo Press (San Bernardino, CA), 1993.

Collings, Michael R., Scaring Us to Death: The Impact of Stephen King on Popular Culture, second edition, Borgo Press (San Bernardino, CA), 1995.

Contemporary Literary Criticism, Gale (Detroit, MI), Volume 12, 1980, Volume 26, 1983, Volume 37, 1985, Volume 61, 1990.

Davis, Jonathan P., Stephen King's America, Bowling Green State University Popular Press (Bowling Green, OH), 1994.

Dictionary of Literary Biography, Volume 143: American Novelists since World War II, Third Series, Gale (Detroit, MI), 1994.

Dictionary of Literary Biography Yearbook: 1980, Gale (Detroit, MI), 1981.

Docherty, Brian, editor, American Horror Fiction: From Brockden Brown to Stephen King, St. Martin's (New York, NY), 1990.

Hoppenstand, Gary, and Ray B. Browne, editors, The Gothic World of Stephen King: Landscape of Nightmares, Bowling Green State University Popular Press (Bowling Green, OH), 1987.

Keyishian, Amy, and Marjorie Keyishian, Stephen King, Chelsea House (Philadelphia, PA), 1995.

King, Stephen, Stephen King's Danse Macabre (nonfiction), Everest House (New York, NY), 1981.

Magistrale, Tony, editor, Landscape of Fear: Stephen King's American Gothic, Bowling Green State University Popular Press (Bowling Green, OH), 1988.

Magistrale, Tony, editor, A Casebook on "The Stand," Starmont House (Mercer Island, WA), 1992.

Magistrale, Tony, editor, The Dark Descent: Essays Defining Stephen King's Horrorscape, Greenwood Press (Westport, CT), 1992.

Magistrale, Tony, Stephen King: The Second Decade—"Danse Macabre" to "The Dark Half," Twayne (New York, NY), 1992.

Platt, Charles, Dream Makers: The Uncommon Men and Women Who Write Science Fiction, Berkley (New York, NY), 1983.

Russell, Sharon A., Stephen King: A Critical Companion, Greenwood Press (Westport, CT), 1996.

Saidman, Anne, Stephen King, Master of Horror, Lerner Publications (Minneapolis, MN), 1992.

Schweitzer, Darrell, editor, Discovering Stephen King, Starmont House (Mercer Island, WA), 1985.

Short Story Criticism, Volume 17, Gale (Detroit, MI), 1995.

Underwood, Tim, and Chuck Miller, editors, Fear Itself: The Horror Fiction of Stephen King, Underwood-Miller, 1982.

Underwood, Tim, and Chuck Miller, editors, Kingdom of Fear: The World of Stephen King, Underwood-Miller, 1986.

Underwood, Tim, and Chuck Miller, editors, Bare Bones: Conversations on Terror with Stephen King, McGraw-Hill (New York, NY), 1988.

Underwood, Tim, and Chuck Miller, editors, Feast of Fear: Conversations with Stephen King, Carroll & Graf (New York, NY), 1992.

Underwood, Tim, and Chuck Miller, editors, Fear Itself: The Early Works of Stephen King, foreword by King, introduction by Peter Straub, afterword by George A. Romero, Underwood-Miller, 1993.

Winter, Douglas E., Stephen King: The Art of Darkness, New American Library (New York, NY), 1984.

PERIODICALS

American Film, June, 1986.

Atlantic Monthly, September, 1986.

Book, November-December, Chris Barsanti, review of Wolves of the Calla, p. 75.

Booklist, July, 1999, Ray Olson, review of Hearts in Atlantis, p. 1893; May 1, 2004, Ray Olson, review of Song of Susannah, p. 1483; September 1, 2004, Ray Olson, review of The Dark Tower, p. 6.

Boston Globe, October 10, 1980; April 15, 1990, p. A1; May 16, 1990, p. 73; July 15, 1990, p. 71; September 11, 1990, p. 61; October 31, 1990, p. 25; November 17, 1990, p. 12; December 5, 1990, p. 73; July 16, 1991, p. 56; September 28, 1991, p. 9; November 22, 1991, p. 1; August 21, 1992, p. 21; August 30, 1992, p. 14; May 8, 1993, p. 21; May 24, 1993, p. 43; October 16, 1994, p. 14; May 13, 1995, p. 21.

Chicago Tribune, August 26, 1990, p. 3; October 29, 1990, p. 5; November 16, 1990, p. 1; November 30, 1990, p. C29; June 29, 1992, p. 3; November 18, 1992, p. 3; November 7, 1993, p. 9; October 26, 1994, p. 1; May 14, 1995, p. 5.

Chicago Tribune Magazine, October 27, 1985.

Christian Science Monitor, January 22, 1990, p. 13.

Detroit Free Press, November 12, 1982, Jack Matthes, interview with King.

Detroit News, September 26, 1979.

English Journal, January, 1979; February, 1980; January, 1983; December, 1983; December, 1984.

Entertainment Weekly, October 14, 1994, pp. 52-53; June 16, 1995, p. 54; March 22, 1996, p. 63; April 26, 1996, p. 49; May 31, 1996, p. 53; June 28, 1996, p. 98; August 2, 1996, p. 53; September 6, 1996, p. 67; October 4, 1996, p. 54; October 18, 1996, p. 75; December 27, 1996, p. 28; February 7, 1997, p. 111; April 11, 1997, p. 17; April 25, 1997, p. 52; November 28, 1997, p. 41; September 17, 1999, Tom De Haven, "King of 'Hearts': He May Be the Master of Horror, but Stephen King Is Also Adept at Capturing Everyday America," p. 72; September 27, 2002, Chris Nashawaty, "Stephen King Quits," p. 20; June 25, 2004, Gregory Kirschling, review of Song of Susannah, p. 172.

Esquire, November, 1984.

Fantasy Review, January, 1984.

Film Journal, April 12, 1982.

High Times, January, 1981; June, 1981.

Library Journal, March 1, 2004, Kristen L. Smith, review of Wolves of the Calla, p. 126; May 15, 2004, Nancy McNicol review of Song of Susannah, p. 115; September 15, 2004, Nancy McNichol, review of The Dark Tower, p. 49.

Locus, September, 1992, pp. 21-22, 67; November, 1992, pp. 19, 21; February, 1994, p. 39; October, 1994, pp. 27, 29.

Los Angeles Times, April 23, 1978; December 10, 1978; August 26, 1979; September 28, 1980; May 10, 1981; September 6, 1981; May 8, 1983; November 20, 1983; November 18, 1984; August 25, 1985; March 9, 1990, p. F16; October 29, 1990, p. F9; November 18, 1990, p. F6; November 30, 1990, p. F1; July 16, 1991, p. F1; May 28, 1992, p. E7; April 16, 1995, p. 28; November 7, 1997, p. D4.

Los Angeles Times Book Review, August 29, 1982; July 15, 1990, p. 12; June 9, 1991, p. 6; April 23, 1995, p. 14.

Maclean's, August 11, 1986.

Miami Herald, March 21, 2001, Rene Rodriguez, review of Dreamcatcher; March 27, 2002, Rene Rodriguez, review of Everything's Eventual.

Midwest Quarterly, spring, 2004, Tom Hansen, "Diabolical Dreaming in Stephen King's 'The Man in the Black Suit,'" p. 290.

Mystery, March, 1981.

New Republic, February 21, 1981.

New Statesman, September 15, 1995, p. 33.

Newsweek, August 31, 1981; May 2, 1983.

New Yorker, January 15, 1979; September 30, 1996, p. 78.

New York Review of Books, October 19, 1995, p. 54.

New York Times, March 1, 1977; August 14, 1981; August 11, 1982; April 12, 1983; October 21, 1983; November 8, 1984; June 11, 1985; April 4, 1987; January 25, 1988; June 17, 1990, p. 13; October 27, 1990, p. A12; November 16, 1990, p. C38; December 2, 1990, p. 19; June 3, 1991, p. C14; July 14, 1991, p. 25; October 2, 1991, p. C23; June 29, 1992, p. C13; November 16, 1992, p. C15; March 15, 1993, p. D6; June 27, 1993, p. 23; September 17, 1993, p. B8; April 24, 1995, p. C12; May 12, 1995, p. D18; June 26, 1995, p. C16; November 11, 1995, p. 39; April 7, 1996, p. E2; August 5, 1996, p. D7; October 26, 1996, 15; April 25, 1997, p. D22; October 27, 1997, p. C1; November 5, 1997, p. E3; November 7, 1997, pp. A30, D10; February 6, 1998, p. B10.

New York Times Book Review, May 26, 1974; October 24, 1976; February 20, 1977; March 26, 1978; February 4, 1979; September 23, 1979; May 11, 1980; May 10, 1981; September 27, 1981; August 29, 1982; April 3, 1983; November 6, 1983; November 4, 1984; June 9, 1985; February 22, 1987; December 6, 1987; May 13, 1990, p. 3; September 2, 1990, p. 21; September 29, 1991, pp. 13-14; August 16, 1992, p. 3; December 27, 1992, p. 15; October 24, 1993, p. 22; October 30, 1994, p. 24; March 24, 1995, p. C14; July 2, 1995, p. 11; October 20, 1996, p. 16.

New York Times Magazine, May 11, 1980.

Observer (Charlotte, NC), October 4, 2000, Jack Harville, review of On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft; Salem Macknee, review of From a Buick 8.

Observer (London, England), October 1, 1995, p. 15.

People, March 7, 1977; December 29, 1980; January 5, 1981; May 18, 1981; January 28, 1985; fall, 1989; April 1, 1996, p. 38; October 7, 1996, p. 32; October 21, 1996, p. 16; April 28, 1997, p. 15; January 19, 1998, p. 45.

Publishers Weekly, January 17, 1977; May 11, 1984; March 13, 1996, p. 26; April 1, 1996, p. 22; May 13, 1996, p. 26; June 24, 1996, p. 43; August 5, 1996, p. 292; August 26, 1996, p. 34; September 9, 1996, p. 27; October 7, 1996, p. 20; April 7, 1997, p. 52; July 14, 1997, p. 65; October 27, 1997, p. 21; November 10, 1997, p. 10; April 19, 2004, review of Song of Susannah, p. 37; September 20, 3004, review of The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, p. 62.

Saturday Review, September, 1981; November, 1984.

School Library Journal, November, 2004, John Peters, review of The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, p. 148.

Science Fiction Chronicle, December, 1995; June, 1997, p. 43.

Star (Kansas City, MO), October 4, 2000, John Mark Eberhart, review of On Writing.

Time, August 30, 1982; July 1, 1985; October 6, 1986; December 7, 1992, p. 81; September 2, 1996, p. 60.

Tribune Books (Chicago, IL) June 8, 1980.

Village Voice, April 29, 1981; October 23, 1984; March 3, 1987.

Voice Literary Supplement, September, 1982; November, 1985.

Wall Street Journal, July 7, 1992, p. B2; October 5, 1992, p. B3; November 7, 1997, p. B8.

Washington Post, August 26, 1979; April 9, 1985; May 8, 1987; October 29, 1990, p. B8; July 16, 1991, p. B1; April 13, 1992, p. C7; May 21, 1993, p. 16; May 27, 1993, p. D9; May 14, 1995, p. G1.

Washington Post Book World, May 26, 1974; October 1, 1978; August 26, 1980; April 12, 1981; August 22, 1982; March 23, 1983; October 2, 1983; November 13, 1983; June 16, 1985; August 26, 1990, p. 9; September 29, 1991, p. 9; October 31, 1991, p. C7; July 19, 1992, p. 7; December 13, 1992, p. 5; October 10, 1993, p. 4; October 9, 1994, p. 4; March 6, 1995, p. D6.

ONLINE

Stephen King Web site, http://www.stephenking.com (June 23, 2005).

KING, Stephen 1947–

(Richard Bachman, Steve King, Steven King, John Swithen)

PERSONAL

Full name, Stephen Edwin King; born September 21, 1947, in Portland, ME; son of Donald Edwin (a merchant sailor) and Nellie Ruth (maiden name, Pillsbury) King; married Tabitha Jane Spruce (a writer), January 2, 1971; children: Naomi Rachel, Joseph Hill (some sources cite Joseph Hillstrom), Owen Phillip. Education: University of Maine at Orono, B.S., English, 1970. Politics: Democrat. Avocational Interests: Reading (mostly fiction), playing the guitar, bowling, movies, jigsaw puzzles, the Boston Red Sox.

Addresses:

Office—P.O. Box 1186, Bangor, ME 04001. Agent—Rand Holston, Creative Artists Agency, 9830 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hills, 90212; (literary agent) Ralph Vicinanza, Created By, 1041 North Formosa Ave., Formosa Building, Room 10, West Hollywood, CA 90046.

Career:

Writer, actor, producer, and director. Hampden Academy, Hampden, ME, high school English teacher, 1971–73; University of Maine at Orono, writer in residence, 1978–79; Philtrum Press, Bangor, ME, owner; WZON–AM Radio, Bangor, owner; also owner of other radio stations; creative consultant for films. Appeared in television commercials. World Fantasy awards, judge, c. 1977; Maine Film Commission, founding member; also a philanthropist. Also worked as a janitor, mill worker, and laundry worker.

Member:

Authors Guild, Authors League of America, Screen Writers of America, Writers Guild of America, Screen Actors Guild.

Awards, Honors:

Carrie: A Novel of a Girl with a Frightening Power cited in the School Library Journal Book List, 1975; World Fantasy Award nomination, 1976, for Salem's Lot; Hugo Award nomination, World Science Fiction Society, and Nebula Award nomination, Science Fiction Writers of America, both 1978, for The Shining; World Fantasy Award nomination, 1979, for The Stand and Night Shift; The Long Walk named one of the best books for young adults, American Library Association, 1979; Balrog Award nomination, best novel, 1979, for The Stand; Balrog Award nomination, best collection, 1979, for Night Shift; World Fantasy Award, 1980, for contributions to the field; World Fantasy Award nomination, 1980, for The Dead Zone; World Fantasy Award nomination, 1981, for "The Mist"; Firestarter named one of the best books for young adults, American Library Association, 1981; Nebula Award nomination, 1981, for "The Way Station"; British Fantasy Award, British Fantasy Society, 1981; Career Alumni Award, University of Maine at Orono, 1981; World Fantasy Award, 1982, for the story "Do the Dead Sing?"; special British Fantasy Award, 1982, for Cujo; Hugo Award, 1982, for Stephen King's "Danse Macabre"; named fiction writer of the year, Us magazine, 1982; World Fantasy Award nomination, 1983, for The Breathing Method: A Winter's Tale; Locus Award for best collection, Locus Publications, 1986, for Stephen King's "Skeleton Crew"; Bram Stoker Award, Horror Writers Association, best novel, 1988, for Misery; International Fantasy Film Award nomination, Fantasporto, best film, 1988, for Maximum Overdrive; Bram Stoker Award, best collection, 1991, for Four Past Midnight; Best Screenplay Award, Fantafestival, 1992, for Sleepwalkers; Emmy Award nomination (with others), outstanding miniseries, 1994, for The Stand; USC Scripter Award (with Frank Darabont), University of Southern California, 1995, for The Shawshank Redemption; World Fantasy Award, short story category, 1995, and O. Henry Award, best short story, 1996, both for "The Man in the Black Suit"; Bram Stoker Award, best novelette, 1996, for "Lunch at the Gotham Cafe"; Bram Stoker Award, best novel, 1997, for The Green Mile: A Novel in Six Parts; Emmy Award nomination (with others), outstanding miniseries, 1997, for The Shining; Bram Stoker Award, best novel, 1999, for Bag of Bones; USC Scripter Award nomination (with Darabont), 2000, for The Green Mile; Bram Stoker Award nomination (with Peter Straub), best novel, 2001, for Black House; National Book Award, National Book Foundation, distinguished contribution to American letters, 2003.

CREDITS

Film Appearances:

(As Steven King) Hoagie man, Knightriders (also known as George A. Romero's "Knightriders"), United Film Distribution, 1981.

Jordy Verrill, "The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill," Creepshow (also known as Cuentos de ultratumba), Warner Bros., 1982.

(Uncredited) Man at Cashpoint, Maximum Overdrive, De Laurentiis Entertainment Group, 1986.

Himself, David Cronenberg: Long Live the New Flesh, 1986.

Truck driver, "The Hitchhiker," Creepshow 2, New World, 1987.

Priest, Pet Sematary (also known as Pet Cemetery), Paramount, 1989.

Cemetery caretaker, Sleepwalkers (also known as Sleep-stalkers and Stephen King's "Sleepwalkers"), Columbia, 1992.

Dr. Bangor, Thinner (also known as Stephen King's "Thinner"), Paramount, 1996.

Himself, Monkeybone (live action and animated), Twentieth Century–Fox, 2001.

Film Work:

Director, Maximum Overdrive, De Laurentiis Entertainment Group, 1986.

Executive producer, Riding the Bullet (also known as Stephen King's "Riding the Bullet"), Innovation Film Group, 2004.

Television Appearances; Series:

Himself, This Is Horror (also known as This Is Horror: From the Archives of Stephen King's World of Horror), beginning c. 1989.

Johnny B. Good, Kingdom Hospital (also known as Stephen King's "Kingdom Hospital"), ABC, 2004.

Television Appearances; Miniseries:

Bus driver, Golden Years (also known as Stephen King's "Golden Years"), CBS, 1991.

Teddy Weizak, The Stand (also known as Stephen King's "The Stand"), ABC, 1994.

Voice, Baseball (also known as The History of Baseball), PBS, 1994.

Tom Holby, The Langoliers (also known as Stephen King's "The Langoliers"), ABC, 1995.

Gage Creed, The Shining (also known as Stephen King's "The Shining"), ABC, 1997.

(Uncredited) Lawyer in advertisement, Storm of the Century (also known as Stephen King's "Storm of the Century"), ABC, 1999.

(Uncredited) Pizza delivery man, Rose Red (also known as Stephen King's "Rose Red"), ABC, 2002.

Television Appearances; Specials:

The X–Files Movie Special, Fox, 1998.

Himself, Stephen King: Master of Macabre, The Learning Channel, 1999.

The Miracle of "The Green Mile," 1999.

Stephen King: Shining in the Dark, BBC, 1999.

Member of crowd, 2004 World Series, 2004.

Himself, The 100 Scariest Movie Moments, Bravo, 2004.

Television Appearances; Episodic:

"Fear in the Dark," A & E Stage, Arts and Entertainment, 1991.

Steppers, "Blood Is Thicker Than Mud," The Fresh Prince of Bel–Air, NBC, 1993.

Guest, The Late Show with David Letterman, CBS, 1996.

Guest, "The Fear of Flying," Dennis Miller Live, HBO, 1998.

Guest, Late Night with Conan O'Brien, NBC, 1999.

Voice, "Insane Clown Poppy," The Simpsons (animated), Fox, 2000.

Voice of Brian, "Mary Christmas," Frasier, NBC, 2000.

"Stephen King—Fear, Fame, and Fortune," Biography, Arts and Entertainment, 2000.

Guest, Chappelle's Show, Comedy Central, 2003.

Guest, Today (also known as NBC News Today and The Today Show), NBC, 2003.

Guest, NewsNight with Aaron Brown (also known as The Aaron Brown Show), Cable News Network, 2003, 2004.

Guest, The Daily Show (also known as The Daily Show with Jon Stewart), Comedy Central, 2004.

Television Executive Producer; Series:

Kingdom Hospital (also known as Stephen King's "Kingdom Hospital"), ABC, 2004.

Television Executive Producer; Miniseries:

(And creator) Golden Years (also known as Stephen King's "Golden Years"), CBS, 1991.

The Stand (also known as Stephen King's "The Stand"), ABC, 1994.

The Shining (also known as Stephen King's "The Shining"), ABC, 1997.

Storm of the Century (also known as Stephen King's "Storm of the Century"), ABC, 1999.

Rose Red (also known as Stephen King's "Rose Red"), ABC, 2002.

Desperation (also known as Stephen King's "Desperation"), ABC, 2005.

Television Executive Producer; Movies:

The Diary of Ellen Rimbauer, ABC, 2003.

Radio Appearances; Episodic:

Lost Highway Radio Show, syndicated, 2003.

Appeared in other radio productions.

RECORDINGS

Taped Readings:

"The Mist," ZBS Foundation, 1984.

The Author Talks: Stephen King, Recorded Books, 1987.

The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger, New American Library, 1988.

The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three, New American Library, 1989.

"The Langoliers," One Past Midnight, Penguin–HighBridge Audio, 1990.

The Dark Tower III: The Waste Lands, Penguin–HighBridge Audio, 1991.

"The Library Policeman," Three Past Midnight, Penguin–HighBridge Audio, 1991.

Needful Things, Penguin–HighBridge Audio, 1991.

"Secret Window, Secret Garden," Two Past Midnight, Penguin–HighBridge Audio, 1991.

"The Sun Dog," Four Past Midnight, Penguin–HighBridge Audio, 1991.

The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, Simon & Schuster Audio, 1999.

Blood and Smoke, Simon & Schuster Audio, 2000.

Dreamcatcher, Simon & Schuster Audio, 2001.

LT's Theory of Pets (short story), Simon & Schuster Audio, 2001.

On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft, Recorded Books, 2001.

(With Peter Straub) The Talisman, Simon & Schuster Audio, 2001.

From a Buick 8: A Novel, Simon & Schuster Audio, 2002.

Riding the Bullet, Simon & Schuster Audio, 2002.

Black House, Books on Tape, 2003.

Wolves of the Calla, Simon & Schuster Audio, 2003.

Reader of introduction, Salem's Lot, Simon & Schuster Audio, 2004.

The Stephen King Collection (short stories), Books on Tape, 2005.

Other King works have been released as audio recordings.

Videos:

The Cider House Rules: The Making of an American Classic, Miramax, 1999.

Walking the Mile (also known as Walking the Mile: The Making of "The Green Mile"), Warner Home Video, 2000.

Walking the Tracks: The Summer of "Stand by Me," Columbia/TriStar Home Video, 2002.

Hope Springs Eternal: A Look Back at "The Shawshank Redemption," Warner Home Video, 2004.

WRITINGS

Screenplays:

Creepshow (also known as Cuentos de ultratumba; based on King's short stories "The Crate," "Father's Day," "The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill," and "They're Creeping Up on You"), Warner Bros., 1982, published as Stephen King's "Creep Show: A George A. Romero Film," illustrated by Berni Wrightson and Michele Wrightson, New American Library, 1982.

Cat's Eye (also known as Stephen King's "Cat's Eye"; based on King's short stories "The General," "The Ledge," and "Quitters"), Metro–Goldwyn–Mayer/United Artists, 1984.

Silver Bullet (also known as Stephen King's "Silver Bullet"; based on King's novella Cycle of the Were-wolf), Paramount, 1985, published with illustrations by Berni Wrightson, New American Library, 1985.

Maximum Overdrive (based on King's short stories "The Lawnmower Man," "The Mangler," and "Trucks"), De Laurentiis Entertainment Group, 1986, published by New American Library, 1986.

Pet Sematary (also known as Pet Cemetery; based on King's novel), Paramount, 1989.

Sleepwalkers (also known as Sleepstalkers and Stephen King's "Sleepwalkers"), Columbia, 1992.

Riding the Bullet (also known as Stephen King's "Riding the Bullet"; based on his novella), Innovation Film Group, 2004.

Secret Window (based on his short story "Secret Window, Secret Garden"), Columbia, 2004.

Author of the screenplay The Shotgunners.

Teleplays; Series:

Kingdom Hospital (also known as Stephen King's "Kingdom Hospital"; based on the Danish mini-series Riget), ABC, 2004.

Teleplays; Miniseries:

Golden Years (also known as Stephen King's "Golden Years"; based on King's book), CBS, 1991.

(With Lawrence D. Cohen) The Tommyknockers (also known as Stephen King's "The Tommyknockers"; based on King's novel), ABC, 1993.

(And song "Baby Can U Dig Your Man") The Stand (also known as Stephen King's "The Stand"; based on King's book), ABC, 1994.

The Shining (also known as Stephen King's "The Shining"; based on his novel), NBC, 1997.

Storm of the Century (also known as Stephen King's "Storm of the Century"), ABC, 1999, published by Pocket Books, 1999.

Rose Red (also known as Stephen King's "Rose Red"), ABC, 2002.

(With Mick Garris) Desperation (also known as Stephen King's "Desperation"; based on his novel), ABC, 2005.

Teleplays; Episodic:

"Sorry, Right Number," Tales from the Darkside, syndicated, 1987.

(With Chris Carter) "Chinga," The X–Files, Fox, 1998.

Novels:

Carrie: A Novel of a Girl with a Frightening Power, Doubleday, 1974, movie edition by Lawrence D. Cohen published as Carrie, New American Library/Times Mirror, 1975, limited edition with introduction by Tabitha King, Plume, 1991.

Salem's Lot, Doubleday, 1975, television edition, New American Library, 1979, limited edition with introduction by Clive Barker, Plume, 1991.

The Shining (Literary Guild selection), Doubleday, 1977, movie edition by Stanley Kubrick and Diane Johnson, New American Library, 1980, limited edition with introduction by Ken Follett, Plume, 1991.

The Stand, Doubleday, 1978, revised edition published as The Stand: The Complete and Uncut Edition, illustrated by Berni Wrightson, Doubleday, 1990.

The Dead Zone (Literary Guild selection), Viking, 1979, movie edition published as The Dead Zone: Movie Tie–In, New American Library, 1980.

Firestarter (Literary Guild selection), Viking, 1980.

Cujo, Viking, 1981.

Creepshow (graphic novel), New American Library, 1982.

The Plant, Philtrum Press, Part I, 1982, Part II, 1983, Part III, 1985.

Pet Sematary (Literary Guild selection), Doubleday, 1983.

Christine (Literary Guild selection), Viking, 1983, also published in a limited edition illustrated by Stephen Gervais, Donald M. Grant, 1983.

(With Peter Straub) The Talisman, Viking Press/Putnam, 1984, also published in a limited two–volume edition, Donald M. Grant, 1984.

The Eyes of the Dragon (young adult), illustrated by Kenneth R. Linkhauser, Philtrum Press, 1984, new edition, illustrated by David Palladini, Viking, 1987.

It (Book–of–the–Month Club selection), Viking, 1986.

Misery (Book–of–the–Month Club selection), Viking, 1987.

The Tommyknockers (Book–of–the–Month Club selection), Putnam, 1987.

The Dark Half (Book–of–the–Month Club selection), Viking, 1989.

Dolan's Cadillac, Lord John Press, 1989.

Needful Things, Viking, 1991.

Gerald's Game, Viking, 1992.

Dolores Claiborne, Viking, 1993.

Insomnia, Viking, 1994.

Rose Madder, Viking, 1995.

Desperation, Viking, 1996.

The Green Mile (serialized novel), Signet, Chapter 1, "The Two Dead Girls," Chapter 2, "The Mouse on the Mile," Chapter 3, "Coffey's Hands," Chapter 4, "The Bad Death of Eduard Delacroix," Chapter 5, "Night Journey," Chapter 6, "Coffey on the Mile," March–August, 1996, published as The Green Mile: A Novel in Six Parts (contains all six chapters of The Green Mile), Plume, 1997.

Bag of Bones, Viking, 1998.

The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, Scribner, 1999.

Hearts in Atlantis, Scribner, 1999.

Riding the Bullet (e–book), Scribner, 2000.

(With Straub) Black House (sequel to The Talisman), Random House, 2001.

Dreamcatcher, Scribner, 2001.

From a Buick 8, Scribner, 2002.

The Colorado Kid, Hard Case Crime Series, Winterfall, 2005.

Author of early unpublished novels, including The Aftermath, The Cannibals, Sword in the Darkness (also known as Babylon Here), and Blaze (based on John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men).

Novels; "The Dark Tower" Series:

The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger, Amereon, Ltd., 1976, published as The Gunslinger, New American Library, 1988, limited edition with illustrations by Michael Whelan, Donald M. Grant, 1982, revised edition, Plume, 2003.

The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three, illustrated by Phil Hale, New American Library, 1989.

The Dark Tower III: The Waste Lands, illustrated by Ned Dameron, Donald M. Grant, 1991.

The Dark Tower Trilogy: The Gunslinger; The Drawing of the Three; The Waste Lands (box set), New American Library, 1993.

The Dark Tower IV: Wizard and Glass, Plume, 1997.

The Dark Tower V: Wolves of the Calla, illustrated by Berni Wrightson, 2003.

The Dark Tower VI: Song of Susannah, illustrated by Darrel Anderson, Scribner, 2004.

The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower, illustrated by Whelan, Scribner, 2004.

Novels; As the Pseudonym Richard Bachman:

Rage, Signet, 1977.

The Long Walk, Signet, 1979.

Roadwork: A Novel of the First Energy Crisis, Signet, 1981.

The Running Man, Signet, 1982.

The Bachman Books: Four Early Novels (contains Rage, The Long Walk, Roadwork: A Novel of the First Energy Crisis, and The Running Man), with introduction "Why I Was Richard Bachman," New American Library, 1985.

Thinner, New American Library, 1985.

The Regulators, Dutton, 1996.

Short Fiction:

(As Steve King) The Star Invaders (story collection), Gaslight Books, 1964.

Night Shift (story collection; includes "Graveyard Shift" and "Trucks"), introduction by John D. Mac-Donald, Doubleday, 1978, published as Night Shift: Excursions into Horror, Signet, 1979.

Different Seasons (novellas; Book–of–the–Month selection; contains Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption: Hope Springs Eternal; Apt Pupil: Summer of Corruption; The Body: Fall from Innocence; and The Breathing Method: A Winter's Tale), Viking, 1982.

Cycle of the Werewolf (novella), illustrated by Berni Wrightson, limited portfolio edition published with "Berni Wrightson: An Appreciation," Land of Enchantment, 1983, enlarged edition including his screenplay adaptation for the film Silver Bullet published as Stephen King's "Silver Bullet," Signet, 1985.

Stephen King's "Skeleton Crew" (story collection), illustrated by J. K. Potter, Viking, 1985.

My Pretty Pony, illustrated by Barbara Kruger, Knopf, 1989.

Four Past Midnight (collection; contains "The Langoliers," "The Library Policeman," "Secret Window, Secret Garden," and "The Sun Dog"), Viking, 1990.

Nightmares and Dreamscapes (story collection), Viking, 1993.

Six Stories, Philtrum Press, 1997.

Blood and Smoke (audiobook collection), Simon & Schuster Audio, 2000.

Everything's Eventual: 14 Dark Tales (includes the novella "Riding the Bullet"), Scribner, 2002.

Author of other short stories, including "The Glass Floor," "I Was a Teenage Grave Robber," "The Man in the Black Suit," "Slade," a western, "Sometimes They Come Back for More," "The Things They Left Behind," and (as John Swithen) "The Fifth Quarter."

Omnibus Editions:

Stephen King (contains Carrie, Night Shift, Salem's Lot, and The Shining), Octopus Books, 1981.

Stephen King (contains Desperation and The Regulators), Signet, 1997.

Stephen King's Latest (contains Dolores Claiborne, Insomnia, and Rose Madder), Signet, 1997.

Nonfiction:

Stephen King's "Danse Macabre" (criticism), Everest House, 1981.

A Novelist's Perspective on Bangor, Bangor Historical Society, 1983.

Nightmares in the Sky: Gargoyles and Grotesques, photographs by f–Stop Fitzgerald, Viking, 1988.

On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft, Scribner, 2001.

(With Stewart O'Nan) Faithful, Scribner, 2004.

Writings; Other:

Another Quarter Mile: Poetry, Dorrance, 1979.

(Author of introduction) Joe Bob Briggs, Joe Bob Goes to the Drive–In, Delacorte Press, 1987.

(And author of foreword) Fear Itself: The Early Works of Stephen King, edited by Tim Underwood and Chuck Miller, introduction by Peter Straub, after-word by George Romero, Underwood Miller, 1993.

Secret Windows: Essays and Fiction on the Craft of Writing (fiction and nonfiction), 2000.

The Diary of Ellen Rimbauer: My Life as Rose Red, Hyperion, 2001.

Creator of "Stephen King's Year of Fear 1986 Calendar" (color illustrations from novels and drawings from King's short stories published in horror magazines with accompanying text), New American Library, 1985. Contributor to numerous books, including The Year's Finest Fantasy, edited by Terry Carr, Putnam, 1978; The Dark Descent, edited by David G. Hartwell, Doherty Associates, 1987; The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: Original Stories by Eminent Mystery Writers, edited by Martin Harry Greenberg and Carol–Lynn Roessel Waugh, Carroll & Graf, 1987; I Shudder at Your Touch: Twenty–Two Tales of Sex and Horror, edited by Michele Slung, New American Library, 1991; and Transgressions, edited by Ed McBain, Forge, 2005. Author of "King's Garbage Truck," a newspaper column, Maine Campus, 1969–70; author of monthly book review column, Adelina, 1980; author of the column "The Pop of King," Entertainment Weekly, 2003. Contributor of short stories, poetry, and reviews to periodicals, including Art, Castle Rock: The Stephen King Newsletter, Cavalier, Comics Review, Ellery Queen's Mystery, Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Playboy, Rolling Stone, Startling Mystery Stories, and Yankee. Author of a short monologue for a promotional CD single by the band the Blue Oyster Cult. King's writings have been published in several languages.

ADAPTATIONS

Several screenplays have been based on King's writings. These include Carrie, adapted by Lawrence D. Cohen and released by United Artists in 1976, was based on the novel Carrie: A Novel of a Girl with a Frightening Power. The Shining (also known as Stanley Kubrick's "The Shining"), adapted by Kubrick and Diane Johnson and released by Warner Bros. in 1980, Christine (also known as John Carpenter's "Christine"), adapted by Bill Phillips and released by Columbia in 1983, Cujo, adapted by Don Carlos Dunaway and Lauren Currier and released by Warner Bros. in 1983, and The Dead Zone, adapted by Jeffrey Boam and released by Paramount in 1983, were all based on King's novels. The 1983 film Disciples of the Corn was based on a story by King. The Woman in the Room (also known as Stephen King's "Night Shift Collection" and Stephen King's "Nightshift Collection Volume One: The Woman in the Room"), adapted by Frank Darabont and released by Darkwoods in 1983, then broadcast on public television in Los Angeles, 1985, was based on King's short story of the same title. Children of the Corn (also known as Stephen King's "Children of the Corn"), adapted by George Goldsmith and released by New World in 1984, was based on King's short story of the same title. Firestarter, adapted by Stanley Mann and released by Universal in 1984, was based on King's novel. The Boogeyman (also known as Stephen King's "Nightshift Collection Volume Two: The Boogeyman," Stephen King's "The Boogeyman," and Wer Hat Angst Vorm Schwarzen Mann), adapted by Jeffrey C. Schiro and released by Tantalus in 1984 (some sources cite in 1982), was based on King's short story of the same title. Stand by Me, adapted by Raynold Gideon and Bruce A. Evans and released by Columbia in 1986, was based on King's novella The Body: Fall from Innocence. Creepshow 2, adapted by George A. Romero and released by New World in 1987, was based on King's short stories "The Hitchhiker," "Old Chief Wood'nhead," and "The Raft." The 1987 film The Last Rung on the Ladder was based on a short story by King. A Return to Salem's Lot, adapted by Cohen and James Dixon and released by Warner Bros. in 1987, and The Running Man, adapted by Steven E. de Souza and released by TriStar in 1987, were based on King's novels. Graveyard Shift (also known as Stephen King's "Graveyard Shift"), adapted by John Esposito and released by Paramount in 1990, was based on King's short story of the same title. Misery, adapted by William Goldman and released by Columbia in 1990, was based on King's novel. A segment of the film Tales from the Darkside: The Movie, adapted by Romero and released by Paramount in 1990, was based on the short story "The Cat from Hell." The Lawnmower Man, adapted by Brett Leonard and Gimel Everett and released by New Line Cinema in 1992, and Children of the Corn II: The Final Sacrifice (also known as Children of the Corn: Deadly Harvest), adapted by A. L. Katz and Gilbert Adler and released by Miramax/Dimension Films in 1993, were both based on short stories by King. The Dark Half, adapted by Romero and released by Orion in 1993, and Needful Things, adapted by Cohen and W. D. Richter and released by Columbia/Castle Rock in 1993, were based on King's novels. Children of the Corn III (also known as Children of the Corn III: Urban Harvest), adapted by Dode B. Levenson and released by Dimension Films in 1994, was based on King's short story. The Shawshank Redemption, adapted by Darabont and released by Columbia in 1994, was based on King's novella Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption: Hope Springs Eternal. Dolores Claiborne, adapted by Tony Gilroy and released by Columbia in 1995, was based on King's novel. The Mangler, adapted by Tobe Hooper, Stephen Brooks, and Peter Welbeck and released by New Line Cinema in 1995, and Children of the Corn: The Gathering (also known as Deadly Harvest), adapted by Stephen Berger and Greg Spence and released by Dimension Home Video in 1996, were both based on short stories by King. Thinner (also known as Stephen King's "Thinner"), adapted by Michael McDowell and released by Paramount in 1996, was based on King's novel. Sometimes They Come Back … again (also known as Sometimes They Come Back 2), released in 1996, was based on characters created by King. Night Flier (also known as Stephen King's "The Night Flier"), adapted by Jack O'Donnell and Mark Pavia and released by Amsterdam Entertainment/Stardust Entertainment/Medusa Film in 1997, was based on King's short story of the same title. Ghosts (also known as Michael Jackson's "Ghosts"), adapted by Stan Winston, Mick Garris, and Michael Jackson and released by M.J.J. Productions/Heliopolis in 1997, was based on King's writings. Apt Pupil (also known as L'eleve doue and Un eleve doue—Ete de corruption), adapted by Brandon Boyce and released by TriStar in 1998, was based on King's novella Apt Pupil: Summer of Corruption. Children of the Corn V: Fields of Terror (also known as Children of the Corn V), released by Dimension Films in 1998, was based on King's short story. Sometimes They Come Back … for More (also known as Frozen and Ice Station Erebus), released by Trimark Pictures in 1998, and The Rage: Carrie 2 (also known as Carrie 2 and Carrie 2, Say You're Sorry), released by United Artists in 1999, were based on characters created by King. Children of the Corn 666: Isaac's Return (also known as Children of the Corn 666), released by Buena Vista Home Video in 1999, was based on King's short story. The film The Green Mile (also known as Stephen King's "The Green Mile") was adapted by Darabont from King's serialized novel, Warner Bros., 1999. The short film Paranoid (also known as Stephen King's "Paranoid"), released by Adakin Productions in 2000, was based on King's poetry. Children of the Corn: Revelation, released by Dimension Films in 2001, was based on King's short story. Hearts in Atlantis, adapted by Goldman and released by Warner Bros. in 2001, was based on King's novel. The Mangler 2 (also known as The Mangler 2: Graduation Day), released by Artisan Entertainment in 2001, was based on characters created by King. The 2001 short film Strawberry Spring was based on a story by King. The Dead Zone, released by Lions Gate Films in 2002, was based on King's novel. The 2002 short film Night Surf, was based on a story by King. Dream-catcher (also known as L'attrapeir de reves), adapted by Goldman and released by Warner Bros. in 2003, was based on King's novel. The short films Autopsy Room Four, released by Haven Films in 2003, and Rainy Season, released by Wauters from the Moon Productions in 2003, were based on short stories by King. The short films All That You Love Will Be Carried Away, released by Big D Productions in 2004, and The Man in the Black Suit, released by Mauler Films/New York University in 2004, were based on short stories by King. The Talisman, released in 2005, was based on a novel by King and Peter Straub. Other King novels have formed the basis of films, including Bag of Bones, adapted by David Veloz and released by Metro–Goldwyn–Mayer in 2005, and The Girl Who LovedTom Gordon, released in 2005, and an animated production based on the novel The Eyes of the Dragon. Television miniseries based on King's writings include Salem's Lot (also known as Blood Thirst, Salem's Lot: The Miniseries, and Salem's Lot: The Movie) adapted by Paul Monash and broadcast by CBS in 1979, which was based on King's novel. "It" (also known as "Stephen King's 'It"'), adapted by Lawrence D. Cohen and Tommy Lee Wallace and broadcast on ABC Novel for Television, ABC, 1990, is based on King's novel. Firestarter 2: Rekindled (also known as Firestarter: Rekindled), broadcast by Sci–Fi Channel in 2002, was based on King's novel Firestarter. Salem's Lot (also known as Stephen King's "Salem's Lot"), adapted by Peter Filardi and broadcast by TNT in 2004, was based on King's novel. Television movies based on King's writings include Sometimes They Come Back (also known as Stephen King's "Sometimes They Come Back"), broadcast by CBS in 1991, which was based on King's short story of the same title. The Langoliers (also known as Stephen King's "The Langoliers"), adapted by Tom Holland and broadcast by ABC in 1995, was based on King's novella. Quicksilver Highway, adapted by Garris and Clive Barker and broadcast by Fox in 1997, was based on King's short story"Chattery Teeth." The movie Trucks, broadcast by USA Network in 1997, was also based on a short story by King. Carrie, broadcast by NBC in 2002, was based on King's novel. The Diary of Ellen Rimbauer, broadcast by ABC in 2003, was based on characters created by King. Other television adaptations of King's work include "The Word Processor of the Gods," an episode of Tales from the Darkside, released in syndication in 1985, then as a video by Laurel Entertainment, 1985, was adapted by Michael Dowell from the short story "The Word Processor." "Gramma," an episode of The Twilight Zone broadcast by CBS in 1986, was adapted by Harlan Ellison from King's short story of the same title. "The Moving Finger," an episode of the series Monsters, broadcast in syndication in 1991, was based on a story by King. "The Revelations of 'Becka Paulson," an episode of The Outer Limits (also known as The New Outer Limits), broadcast by Showtime and in syndication in 1997, was based on a short story by King. The series The Dead Zone (also known as Stephen King's "Dead Zone"), broadcast by USA Network beginning 2002, was based on King's novel. Stage productions based on King's writings include the musical Carrie, adapted by Lawrence D. Cohen and Michael Gore, developed by Royal Shakespeare Company, London, and produced at Virginia Theatre, New York City, 1988. The film version of the novel Misery was adapted for the stage by Simon Moore, produced at American Stage Festival, Nashua, NH, 2002, and in subsequent regional productions. The video collection Two Mini–Features from Stephen King's "Nightshift Collection," released by Granite Entertainment Group in 1985 contains The Boogeyman and The Woman in the Room.

OTHER SOURCES

Books:

Badley, Linda, Writing Horror and the Body: The Fiction of Stephen King, Clive Barker, and Anne Rice, Greenwood Press, 1996.

Beahm, George W., editor, The Stephen King Companion, Andrews & McMeel, 1989.

Beahm, George W., The Stephen King Story, revised edition, Andrews & McMeel, 1992.

Blue, Tyson, Observations from the Terminator: Thoughts on Stephen King and Other Modern Masters of Horror Fiction, Borgo Press, 1995.

Collings, Michael R., Stephen King as Richard Bachman, Starmont House, 1985.

Collings, Michael R., Films of Stephen King, illustrated by Stephen Fabian, Borgo Press, 1986.

Collings, Michael R., The Works of Stephen King: An Annotated Bibliography and Guide, edited by Boden Clarke, Borgo Press, 1993.

Collings, Michael R., Scaring Us to Death: The Impact of Stephen King on Popular Culture, second edition, Borgo Press, 1995.

Contemporary Authors New Revision Series, Volume 52, Gale, 1996.

Contemporary Literary Criticism, Gale, Volume 12, 1980, Volume 26, 1983, Volume 37, 1985, Volume 61, 1990.

Contemporary Novelists, seventh edition, St. James Press, 2001.

Davis, Jonathan P., Stephen King's America, Bowling Green State University Popular Press, 1994.

Dictionary of Literary Biography, Volume 143: American Novelists since World War II, Third Series, Gale, 1994.

Dictionary of Literary Biography Yearbook: 1980, Gale, 1981.

Doherty, Brian, editor, American Horror Fiction: From Brockden Brown to Stephen King, St. Martin's, 1990.

Hoppenstand, Gary, and Ray B. Browne, editors, The Gothic World of Stephen King: Landscape of Nightmares, Bowling Green State University Popular Press, 1987.

Keyishian, Amy, and Marjorie Keyishian, Stephen King, Chelsea House, 1995.

Lloyd, Ann, The Films of Stephen King, St. Martin's, 1994.

Magistrale, Tony, editor, Landscape of Fear: Stephen King's American Gothic, Bowling Green State University Popular Press, 1988.

Magistrale, Tony, editor, A Casebook on "The Stand," Starmont House, 1992.

Magistrale, Tony, editor, The Dark Descent: Essays Defining Stephen King's Horrorscape, Greenwood Press, 1992.

Magistrale, Tony, Stephen King: The Second Decade—"Danse Macabre" to "The Dark Half," Twayne, 1992.

Russell, Sharon A., Stephen King: A Critical Companion, Greenwood Press, 1996.

Saidman, Anne, Stephen King, Master of Horror, Lerner Publications, 1992.

Schweitzer, Darrell, editor, Discovering Stephen King, Starmont House, 1985.

Short Story Criticism, Volume 17, Gale, 1995.

Underwood, Tim, and Chuck Miller, editors, Fear Itself: The Horror Fiction of Stephen King, Underwood Miller, 1982.

Underwood, Tim, and Chuck Miller, editors, Kingdom of Fear: The World of Stephen King, Underwood Miller, 1986.

Underwood, Tim, and Chuck Miller, editors, Bare Bones: Conversations on Terror with Stephen King, McGraw–Hill, 1988.

Underwood, Tim, and Chuck Miller, editors, Feast of Fear: Conversations with Stephen King, McGraw–Hill, 1989.

Underwood, Tim, and Chuck Miller, editors, Fear Itself: The Early Works of Stephen King, Underwood Miller, 1993.

Winter, Douglas E., Stephen King: The Art of Darkness, New American Library, 1984.

Periodicals:

Entertainment Weekly, February 23, 1996, pp. 60–62; October 18, 1996, p. 75; December 15, 1996, p. 21; December 27, 1996, pp. 28–29; November 21, 1997, p. 41; September 25, 1998, p. 97; November 1, 1999, p. 86; December 10, 1999, pp. 38–40; September 27, 2002, p. 20.

Newsweek, June 28, 1999, p. 64.

People Weekly, April 1, 1996, p. 38; October 7, 1996, p. 32; October 21, 1996, p. 37; July 5, 1999, p. 166; January 24, 2000, p. 125.

Publishers Weekly, November 20, 1995, p. 15; April 1, 1996, p. 22; May 13, 1996, p. 26; August 5, 1996, pp. 292–94; August 26, 1996, p. 34; September 9, 1996, p. 27; October 7, 1996, p. 20; November 10, 1997, p. 10.

Time, September 2, 1996, pp. 60–61.

TV Guide, February 13, 1999, pp. 24–27.

U.S. News & World Report, September 23, 1996, p. 31.

Electronic:

Stephen King Official Page, http://www.stephenking.com, May 15, 2005.

KING, Stephen (Edwin)

Also writes as Richard Bachman. Nationality: American. Born: Portland, Maine, 21 September 1947. Education: University of Maine at Orono, B.Sc. 1970. Family: Married Tabitha Jane Spruce in 1971; two sons, one daughter. Career: Worked as a janitor, a laborer in an industrial laundry, and in a knitting mill; English teacher, Hampden Academy (high school), Hampden, Maine, 1971-73; University of Maine, Orono, writer-in-residence, 1978-79; owner, Philtrum Press (publishing house), and WZON-AM (rock 'n' roll radio station), Bangor, Maine; actor in films, television, and commercials, 1981—; reviewer, New York Times Book Review. Awards: Balrog Awards, second place in best novel category and second place in best story collection category, 1979; American Library Association's list of best books for young adults, 1979, 1981; World Fantasy Award, 1980, 1982; Career Alumni Award (University of Maine at Orono), 1981; special British Fantasy Award (British Fantasy Society), 1982; Hugo Award (World Science Fiction Convention), 1982; Best Fiction Writer of the Year (Us Magazine), 1982; Locus Award for best collection (Locus Publications), 1986; World Fantasy award for short story, 1995; Tommy Award, 2000. Agent: Arthur Greene, 101 Park Avenue, New York, New York 10178, U.S.A.

Publications

Novels

Carrie: A Novel of a Girl with a Frightening Power. New York, Doubleday, 1974; with an introduction by Tabitha King, New York, Plume, 1991.

Salem's Lot. New York, Doubleday, 1975; with an introduction byClive Barker, New York, Plume, 1991.

The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger. Amereon Ltd., 1976; published asThe Gunslinger, illustrated by Michael Whelan. New York, New American Library, 1988.

The Shining. New York, Doubleday, 1977; with an introduction byKen Follett, New York, Plume, 1991.

Rage (as Richard Bachman). New York, New American Library/Signet, 1977.

The Stand. New York, Doubleday, 1978; enlarged and expanded edition published as The Stand: The Complete and Uncut Edition. New York, Doubleday, 1990.

The Long Walk (as Richard Bachman). New York, New AmericanLibrary/Signet, 1979.

The Dead Zone. New York, Viking, 1979; movie edition published asThe Dead Zone: Movie Tie-In. New York, New American Library, 1980; The Dead Zone, introduction by Anne Rivers Siddons, New York, Plume, 1994.

Firestarter. New York, Viking, 1980.

Cujo. New York, Viking, 1981.

Roadwork: A Novel of the First Energy Crisis (as Richard Bachman). New York, New American Library/Signet, 1981.

The Running Man (as Richard Bachman). New York, New AmericanLibrary/Signet, 1982.

Different Seasons. (novellas; contains Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption: Hope Springs Eternal, Apt Pupil: Summer of Corruption, The Body: Fall from Innocence, and The Breathing Method: A Winter's Tale ). New York, Viking, 1982.

Pet Sematary. New York, Doubleday, 1983.

Christine. New York, Viking, 1983.

Cycle of the Werewolf (novella), illustrated by Berni Wrightson. Westland, Michigan, 1983.

The Talisman (with Peter Straub). New York, Viking Press/Putnam, 1984.

The Eyes of the Dragon (young adult), illustrated by Kenneth R. Linkhauser, Philtrum Press, 1984; illustrated by David Palladini, New York, Viking, 1987.

Thinner (as Richard Bachman). New York, New American Library, 1984.

It. New York, Viking, 1986.

Misery. New York, Viking, 1987.

The Tommyknockers. New York, Putnam, 1987.

The Dark Half. New York, Viking, 1989.

The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three, illustrated by PhilHale. New York, New American Library, 1989.

Needful Things. New York, Viking, 1991.

The Dark Tower III: The Waste Lands, illustrated by Ned Dameron. New York, New American Library, 1991.

Gerald's Game. New York, Viking, 1992.

Dolores Claiborne. New York, Viking, 1993.

Insomnia. New York, Viking, 1994.

Rose Madder. New York, Viking, 1995.

The Green Mile (serialized in six chapters). New York, Signet, 1996; published as The Green Mile: A Novel in Six Parts. New York, Plume, 1997.

Desperation. New York, Viking, 1996.

The Regulators (as Richard Bachman). New York, Dutton, 1996.

The Two Dead Girls (with a foreword by the author), New York, Signet, 1996.

The Bachman Books: Four Early Novels (all previously published, with a new introduction by the author). New York, Plume, 1996.

The Dark Tower IV: Wizard and Glass. New York, Plume, 1997; published as Wizard and Glass, illustrated by Dave McKean. Hampton Falls, New Hampshire, D. H. Grant, 1997.

Bag of Bones. New York, Scribner, 1998.

The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon. New York, Scribner, 1999.

Hearts in Atlantis. New York, Scribner, 1999.

Riding the Bullet (e-book novella). New York, Scribner, 2000.

Short Stories

The Star Invaders. Durham, Maine, Gaslight Books, 1964.

Night Shift New York, Doubleday, 1978; published as Night Shift: Excursions into Horror. New York, New American Library/Signet, 1979.

Stephen King's Skeleton Crew, illustrated by J. K. Potter. New York, Viking, 1985.

Dark Visions. London, Gollancz, 1989.

My Pretty Pony (with Barbara Kruger). New York, Knopf, 1989.

Four Past Midnight. New York, Viking, 1990.

Nightmares & Dreamscapes. New York, Viking, 1993.

Plays

Screenplays:

Creepshow. Warner Brothers, 1982; published as Stephen King's Creep Show: A George A. Romero Film, illustrated by Berni Wrightson and Michele Wrightson, New York, New American Library, 1982.; Cat's Eye, Metro Goldwyn-Mayer/United Artists, 1984; Silver Bullet, Paramount Pictures/Dino de Laurentiis's North Carolina Film Corp., 1985, illustrated by Berni Wrightson, New York, New American Library/Signet, 1985; Maximum Over-drive (and director), Dino de Laurentiis's North Carolina Film Corp., 1986, New York, New American Library, 1986; Pet Sematary, Paramount Pictures, 1989; Stephen King's Sleepwalkers. Columbia, 1992.

Television Plays:

Battleground, Martin Poll Productions/NBC-TV), 1987; Tales from the Dark Side (teleplay of episode, "Sorry, Right Number"), 1987; Stephen King's Golden Years, CBS-TV, 1991; Stephen King's The Stand (also executive producer), ABC-TV, 1994; The X-Files (teleplay of episode, "Chinga," with Chris Carter), Fox-TV, 1998; Storm of the Century, ABC-TV, 1999, New York, Pocket Books, 1999.

Poetry

Another Quarter Mile: Poetry. Dorrance, 1979.

Other

Stephen King's Danse Macabre (nonfiction). Everest House, 1981.

The Plant (privately published episodes of a comic horror novel in progress). Bangor, Maine, Philtrum Press, 1982.

Black Magic and Music: A Novelist's Perspective on Bangor (pamphlet). Bangor, Maine, Bangor Historical Society, 1983.

The Mist (sound recording). Fort Edward, New York, ZBS Foundation, 1984.

Nightmares in the Sky: Gargoyles and Grotesques, photographs by F. Stop FitzGerald. New York, Viking, 1988.

Dolan's Cadillac. Northridge, California, Lord John Press, 1989.

On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft. New York, Scribner, 2000.

Contributor, The Year's Finest Fantasy, edited by Terry Carr. NewYork, Putnam, 1978.

Contributor, Shadows, Volume 1, edited by Charles L. Grant. New York, Doubleday, 1978.

Contributor, Shadows, Volume 4, edited by Charles L. Grant. New York, Doubleday, 1981.

Contributor, New Terrors, edited by Ramsey Campbell. New York, Pocket Books, 1982.

Contributor, World Fantasy Convention 1983, edited by Robert Weinberg. Weird Tales Ltd., 1983.

Contributor, The Writer's Handbook, edited by Sylvia K. Burack, Boston, Writer, Inc., 1984.

Contributor, The Dark Descent, edited by David G. Hartwell. Doherty Associates, 1987.

Contributor, Prime Evil: New Stories by the Masters of Modern Horror, edited by Douglas E. Winter. New York, New American Library, 1988.

Contributor, The Complete Masters of Darkness, edited by Dennis Etchison. Novato, California, Underwood-Miller, 1990.

Contributor, Shock Rock, edited by Jeff Gelb. New York, Pocket Books, 1992.

Contributor, Death Walks Tonight: Horrifying Stories, edited by Anthony Horowitz. New York, Puffin, 1996.

Contributor, Twists of the Tale: Cat Horror Stories, edited by Ellen Datlow. New York, Dell, 1996.

Contributor, Screamplays, edited by Richard Chizmar. New York, Ballantine, 1997.

Contributor, The Best of the Best: 18 New Stories by America's Leading Authors, edited by Elaine Koster and Joseph Pittman. New York, Signet, 1998.

Foreword, Tales from the Nightside: Dark Fantasy by Charles L. Grant. Sauk City, Wisconsin, Arkham House, 1981.

Foreword, Scars and Other Distinguishing Marks by Richard Christian Matheson. Los Angeles, Scream/Press, 1987.

Foreword, Archie Americana Series: Best of the Forties, created by John L. Goldwater. Mamaroneck, New York, Archie Comic Publications, 1991.

Foreword, Fear Itself: The Early Works of Stephen King, edited by Tim Underwood and Chuck Miller. San Francisco, Underwood-Miller, 1993.

Introduction, The Arbor House Treasury of Horror and the Supernatural, edited by Bill Pronzini, Barry M. Malzberg, and Martin H. Greenberg. New York, Arbor House, 1981.

Introduction, Grande Illusions: A Learn-by-Example Guide to the Art and Technique of Special Make-up Effects from the Films of Tom Savini by Tom Savini. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Imagine, 1983.

Introduction, The Blackboard Jungle by Evan Hunter. New York, Arbor House, 1984.

Introduction, Fear Itself: The Horror Fiction of Stephen King, edited by Tim Underwood and Chuck Miller. New York, New American Library, 1984.

Introduction, Joe Bob Goes to the Drive-In by Joe Bob Briggs. New York, Delacorte Press, 1987.

Introduction, Classic Tales of Horror and the Supernatural, edited by Bill Pronzini, Barry N. Malzberg, and Martin H. Greenberg. New York, Quill, 1991.

Introduction, Graven Images: The Best of Horror, Fantasy, and Science Fiction Film Art from the Collection of Ronald V. Borst, edited by Ronald V. Borst and Margaret A. Borst. New York, Grove Press, 1992.

Introduction, The Fugitive Recaptured: The 30th Anniversary Companion to a Television Classic by Ed Robertson. Los Angeles, Pomegranate Press, 1993.

Introduction, Heading Home: Growing Up in Baseball, photographs by Harry Connolly. New York, Rizzoli, 1995.

Introduction, Horripilations: The Art of J. K. Potter, text by Nigel Suckling. Woodstock, New York, Overlook Press, 1995.

Introduction, The Shawshank Redemption: The Shooting Script by Frank Darabont. New York, Newmarket Press, 1996.

Introduction, Saturday Night at Moody's Diner: Even More Stories by Tim Sample. Camden, Maine, Down East Books, 1996.

Introduction, The Green Mile: The Screenplay by Frank Darabont. New York, Scribner Paperback Fiction, 1999.

Manuscript Collection:

Folger Library, University of Maine at Orono.

Critical Studies:

Fear Itself: The Horror Fiction of Stephen King, edited by Tim Underwood and Chuck Miller, San Francisco, Underwood-Miller, 1982, new edition, with introduction by King and afterword by George Romero, New York, New American Library, 1984; Stephen King by Douglas E. Winter, Mercer Island, Washington, Starmont House, 1982; Dream Makers: The Uncommon Men and Women Who Write Science Fiction by Charles Platt, New York, Berkley, 1983; Stephen King: The Art of Darkness by Douglas E. Winter, New York, New American Library, 1984; Stephen King as Richard Bachman by Michael R. Collings, Mercer Island, Washington, Starmont House, 1985; The Many Facets of Stephen King by Michael R. Collings, Mercer Island, Washington, Starmont House, 1985; The Shorter Works of Stephen King by Michael R. Collings and David Engebretson, Mercer Island, Washington, Starmont House, 1985; Discovering Stephen King, edited by Darrell Schweitzer, Mercer Island, Washington, Starmont House, 1985; The Annotated Guide to Stephen King: A Primary and Secondary Bibliography of the Works of America's Premier Horror Writer by Michael R. Collings, Mercer Island, Washington, Starmont House, 1986; The Films of Stephen King by Michael R. Collings, Mercer Island, Washington, Starmont House, 1986; Kingdom of Fear: The World of Stephen King, edited by Tim Underwood and Chuck Miller, San Francisco, Underwood-Miller, 1986; The Stephen King Phenomenon by Michael R. Collings, Mercer Island, Washington, Starmont House, 1987; Stephen King Goes to Hollywood: A Lavishly Illustrated Guide to All the Films Based on Stephen King's Fiction by Jeff Conner, New York, New American Library, 1987; The Gothic World of Stephen King: Landscape of Nightmares, edited by Gary Hoppenstand and Ray B. Browne, Bowling Green, Ohio, Bowling Green State University Popular Press, 1987; The Author Talks by Stephen King (sound recording), Charlotte Hall, Maryland, Recorded Books, 1987; Reign of Fear: Fiction and Film of Stephen King, edited by Don Herron, Los Angeles, Underwood-Miller, 1988; Landscape of Fear: Stephen King's American Gothic by Tony Magistrale, Bowling Green, Ohio, Bowling Green State University Popular Press, 1988; Stephen King: The First Decade, Carrie to Pet Sematary by Joseph Reino, Boston, Twayne, 1988; Bare Bones: Conversations on Terror with Stephen King, edited by Tim Underwood and Chuck Miller, New York, McGraw-Hill, Warner Books, 1988; The Stephen King Companion, edited by George W. Beahm, Kansas City, Missouri, Andrews & McMeel, 1989; The Moral Voyages of Stephen King by Anthony Magistrale, Mercer Island, Washington, Starmont House, 1989; American Horror Fiction: From Brockden Brown to Stephen King, edited by Brian Docherty, New York, St. Martin's Press, 1990; The Shape Under the Sheet: The Compete Stephen King Encyclopedia, Ann Arbor, Michigan, Popular Culture, 1991; The Stephen King Story by George W. Beahm, Kansas City, Missouri, Andrews & McMeel, 1991, revised and updated edition, 1992; The Dark Descent: Essays Defining Stephen King's Horrorscape, edited by Tony Magistrale, Westport, Connecticut, Greenwood Press, 1992; A Casebook on "The Stand", edited by Tony Magistrale, Mercer Island, Washington, Starmont House, 1992; Stephen King: The Second Decade—"Danse Macabre" to "The Dark Half" by Tony Magistrale, New York, Twayne, 1992; Stephen King, Master of Horror by Anne Saidman, Minneapolis, Minnesota, Lerner Publications, 1992; Feast of Fear: Conversations with Stephen King, edited by Tim Underwood and Chuck Miller, New York, Carroll & Graf, 1992; The Works of Stephen King: An Annotated Bibliography and Guide by Michael R. Collings and edited by Boden Clarke, San Bernardino, California, Borgo Press, 1993; The Films of Stephen King by Ann Lloyd, New York, St. Martin's Press, 1993; Fear Itself: The Early Works of Stephen King, edited by Tim Underwood and Chuck Miller (foreword by King, introduction by Peter Straub, afterword by George A. Romero), San Francisco, Underwood-Miller, 1993; Stephen King's America by Jonathan P. Davis, Bowling Green, Ohio, Bowling Green State University Popular Press, 1994; More Things That Are Dreamt Of: Masterpieces of Supernatural Horror, from Mary Shelley to Stephen King, in Literature and Film by James Ursini and Alain Silver, New York, Limelight Editions, 1994; Observations from the Terminator: Thoughts on Stephen King and Other Modern Masters of Horror Fiction by Tyson Blue, San Bernardino, California, Borgo Press, 1995; Susie Bright's Sexwise: America's Favorite X-Rated Intellectual Does Dan Quayle, Catherine MacKinnon, Stephen King, Camille Paglia, Nicholson Baker, Madonna, the Black Panthers, and the GOP— by Susie Bright, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Cleis Press, 1995; Scaring Us to Death: The Impact of Stephen King on Popular Culture by Michael R. Collings, San Bernardino, California, Borgo Press, 1995; Stephen King by Amy Keyishian and Marjorie Keyishian, New York, Chelsea House, 1995; Writing Horror and the Body: The Fiction of Stephen King, Clive Barker and Anne Rice. by Linda Badley, Westport, Connecticut, Greenwood Press, 1996; The Work of Stephen King: An Annotated Bibliography and Guide by Michael R. Collings and edited by Boden Clarke, San Bernardino, California, Borgo Press, 1996; Maps of Heaven, Maps of Hell: Religious Terror as Memory from the Puritans to Stephen King by Edward J. Ingebretsen, Armonk, New York, M. E. Sharpe, 1996; Stephen King: A Critical Companion by Sharon A. Russell. Westport, Connecticut, Greenwood Press, 1996; Reading Stephen King: Issues of Censorship, Student Choice, and Popular Literature, edited by Brenda Miller Power, Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, and Kelly Chandler, Urbana, Illinois, National Council of Teachers of English, 1997; Fangoria Masters of the Dark, edited by Anthony Timpone, New York, HarperPrism, 1997; Stephen King: America's Best-Loved Boogeyman by George Beahm, Kansas City, Missouri, Andrews & McMeel, 1998; Stephen King from A to Z: An Encyclopedia of His Life and Work by George Beahm, Kansas City, Missouri, Andrews & McMeel, 1998; Stephen King, edited and with an introduction by Harold Bloom, Philadelphia, Chelsea House, 1998; Treks Not Taken: What If Stephen King, Anne Rice, Kurt Vonnegut, and Other Literary Greats Had Written Episodes of Star Trek, The Next Generation?, New York, HarperPerennial, 1998; Imagining the Worst: Stephen King and the Representation ofWomen, edited by Kathleen Margaret Lant and Theresa Thompson, Westport, Connecticut, Greenwood Press, 1998; The Lost Work of Stephen King: A Guide to Unpublished Manuscripts, Story Fragments, Alternative Versions, and Oddities, Secaucus, New Jersey, Birch Lane Press, 1998; Stephen King Country: The Illustrated Guide to the Sites and Sights That Inspired the Modern Master of Horror by George Beahm, Philadelphia, Running Press, 1999; Stephen King by John F. Wukovits, San Diego, Lucent Books, 1999; On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King, New York, Scribner, 2000; American Horror Writers by Bob Madison, Berkeley Heights, New Jersey, Enslow Publishers, 2000; Stephen King: King of Thrillers and Horror by Suzan Wilson, Berkeley Heights, New Jersey, Enslow Publishers, 2000.

Stephen King is a prolific, best-selling, internationally famous author who is known primarily as a writer of horror fiction but who has also worked extensively in other genres, particularly fantasy. In his horror stories, King draws on a range of classic motifs, such as vampirism and evil spirits, and masterfully employs a variety of techniques drawn from popular fiction, for example in the way he creates narrative suspense by skilful concealment and timely revelation. But he is not only interested in sensational effects; his novels also provide him with canvases—usually large ones—on which he can explore communities, especially those of small New England towns, and evoke the workings of the human mind, particularly when it is subject to terror and fear.

King's first novel, Carrie, was a powerful debut that introduced a number of his key themes. Carrie, bullied by her fanatically religious mother and shunned by her schoolfriends, finds the psychokinetic power she possessed as an infant reviving with her first period. Humiliated at the high school prom night, she takes a terrible revenge, unleashing her psychic wrath to set the town ablaze and bring about many deaths. Carrie combines King's skills as a horror writer with his insights into the feelings of the vulnerable and the abused, and the combination of these two elements recurs in many subsequent novels, giving them a human interest that deepens their horrific aspects. But Carrie is an uncharacteristically short novel; its success allowed King to work on a larger scale with his next book, Salem's Lot. This novel deals with a vampire takeover of a small New England town, and a significant element of its strength comes from the way in which King carefully, almost affectionately, builds up his portrayal of the life of the community. Most of King's later books are long, and while he has been criticized for this, it does enable him to enrich the complexity of his characterization and narrative. Salem's Lot is also significant in that the key protagonist is a writer—and writers, though rather less successful ones than King himself, will feature in a number of his later novels. Indeed his third book, The Shining, is a powerful story of an unsuccessful author spending the winter as a caretaker with his wife and child in an isolated, haunted hotel; he is prone to drunkenness and violence in a way that terrifies his precognitive son, through whose mind some of the most disturbing scenes of the novel are evoked.

A batch of novels followed that moved away from horror and employed more of a mixture of popular genres. The Stand shows the human beings who have survived the ravages of an escaped germ warfare virus setting out to rebuild civilization. Starting as science fiction, it develops into a powerful fantasy that dramatizes the contest between good and evil. The Dead Zone focuses on a young man with precognitive and telepathic powers who determines to kill a politician whom he foresees will begin a nuclear war if he becomes President. Firestarter echoes Carrie in that its protagonist, a little girl called Charlie, has the power to set off fires and is hunted by a mysterious government agency that wants to use her for malign ends, while Cujo features a monstrously transformed St. Bernard dog that menaces a small New England town.

In 1982 King brought out four suspense novellas under the title Different Seasons, the best-known of which is The Shawshank Redemption, where a prisoner unjustly convicted of his wife's murder spends years digging his way out of his cell. 1982 also saw the first novel of the still unfinished "Dark Tower" series, The Gunslinger. Subsequent novels in the series are The Drawing of the Three, The Waste Lands, and Wizard and Glass, and there are perhaps three more novels to come. The series takes its title and some of its symbolism from Robert Browning's complex, sinister Victorian poem "Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came" (1855). Its central character, Roland of Gilead, a gunslinger in a strange, bleak fantasy future with some echoes of our own civilization, is engaged on a quest for the Dark Tower, where he hopes to arrest and possibly to reverse the accelerating destruction of Mid-World. King himself regards this series as a very important work that encompasses the elements of all the other fictional worlds that he has created.

King's horror fiction continued in the 1980s with Pet Sematary, in which pets and people buried in an old Indian burial ground return to life in distorted, savage form, and in which a doctor's attempt to resurrect his dead son has horrific consequences. Christine is about a possessed car, a 1958 Plymouth Fury, that takes over its owners. King collaborated with Peter Straub on the novel The Talisman, which follows a twelve-year old boy on a quest for the Talisman that will save his dying mother, but the styles and narrative techniques of the two writers did not quite gel. In 1986 King returned to his own work with It, which deals once more with a New England town under threat, this time by an evil spirit that lives in its storm-drains and sewers and that a band of children finally destroy. This was followed by the highly praised Misery, in which a writer, badly injured in a car crash, is brought back to life by a woman who insists that he write another book about her favorite character, whom he has previously killed off. A longer, more diffuse novel, The Tommyknockers concerns the finding of a spaceship that sends out vibrations that change the behavior of the citizens of a small town in destructive ways. The Dark Half, like Misery, features a writer who is unable to dispose of a character he has created; Thad Beaumont has written a number of best-selling thrillers under the pseudonym of George Stark, and endowed Stark with a sinister character. But when he tries to kill Stark off, Stark, the "dark half" of his imagination, enters his actual life and starts to murder his friends.

King's books in the 1990s included Four Past Midnight, a collection of novels, of which the most chilling is The Library Policeman, in which a monster that takes the shape of a librarian needs to regenerate itself by feeding off the fears of children and incarnating itself in adult bodies. In Needful Things, a devilish shopkeeper creates conflict among the townsfolk of Castle Rock by offering to gratify their most private desires. Gerald's Game is a tormented, claustrophobic novel in which a wife left handcuffed to a bed in a bondage game, after her husband has died of a heart attack, has to relive an experience of being abused by her father in order to survive. In Dolores Claiborne, a companion housekeeper tells the story of her troubled relationship with an almost insane crippled widow whom she looked after, while Rose Madder follows the trail of a woman who flees from a murderous husband, enters a picture to discover her own powers of resistance, and later persuades her husband to get into the picture, where he effectively murders himself—a remarkable combination of thriller and fantasy elements. Desperation, like The Stand, dramatizes the battle between good and evil, this time in a desolate Nevada town. The protagonist of Bag of Bones is again an author, suffering from writer's block after his wife's death, who returns to their lakeside retreat and starts to uncover dark secrets, while The Green Mile focuses on a strange prisoner awaiting execution for two brutal murders. Hearts in Atlantis comprises five interlinked stories that run from 1960 to 1999 and explore the continuing impact of the 1960s and the Vietnam War. King's greatest achievement of the 1990s, however, is Insomnia, with its harrowing descriptions of an acute form of sleeplessness that produces the power of transcendent vision in an elderly man who, in a town riven by battles over abortion, has to restore the balance between the "Purpose," which ends human lives at the appropriate time, and the "Random," which can cut the thread of life at whim.

King was struck by a car and seriously injured in June 1999, and for a time it seemed that he might be unable to go on writing. However, he has recently enjoyed success with the publication, in electronic form, of the novella Riding the Bullet. Many of his books have been filmed, though the results have rarely met with his approval. His huge output and immense popularity have proved barriers to sustained critical consideration of his work in the past, but now that literary and cultural criticism has broadened its scope to take in popular writing, there is a growing volume of analysis of King as a cultural phenomenon and of the structural and stylistic qualities of his fiction. While the standard of his work is variable, and he can sometimes fall back on the stock devices and images of the horror or fantasy writer, his writing at its best demonstrates a vivid style and a capacity for imaginative penetration into dark and disturbing areas of human psychology that place him in a tradition of American novelists that includes Charles Brockden Brown, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Edgar Allan Poe.

—Nicolas Tredell