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Stephen King
The master of American
horror and science fiction.
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King started writing when
he was still a child, and as a teenager he sold a couple of short stories
to a mystery magazine. But it wasn't all blood and guts; the young Stephen
also played in a rock band and for his high school football team. After
completing his education, King briefly taught high school English. When
Carriepushed
him into the big time, King was just 27 years old. |
His brand of storytelling captured
the public imagination right away, and he proved he was no flash in the
pan with his next two books, Salem's
Lot, a modern vampire story, and The
Shining, about the Queen Mother of haunted houses.
Besides living a quiet family
life in Maine, King has resurrected his youth long enough to form a band,
The Rock Bottom Remainders, with fellow authors Dave Barry, Amy Tan, Robert
Fulghum, Matt Groening, and Ray Blount. Stephen King's latest literary
deal calls for him to be paid $35 million for 4 books, a solid financial
testament to his popularity. As his novels are quickly snapped up by producers
for feature films and TV movies, King shares the wealth: He spent $1 million
to build a baseball stadium for the teenagers of Bangor, Maine. |
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Date
of Birth: No, not October 31! (It's September 21, 1947)
Place
of Birth: Portland, Maine
Education:
University
of Maine
Humble
Beginnings: The manuscript for Carrie, his first bestseller,
was submitted to a publisher only after his wife fished it out of the garbage,
where it had been tossed by the disheartened author. He received a $2,500
advance for it.
Family
Ties: Wife, Tabitha Spruce; children Joe, Owen, and Naomi.
The
Score: 36 bestsellers (including 6 written under the pseudonym
Richard Bachman)
As
Richard Bachman: The
Regulators (1996); The
Running Man (1982);
Roadwork
(1981); The
Long Walk (1979); Rage
(1977). |
On
Writing: A Memoir of
the
Craft by Stephen King
Stephen King's On Writing really
contains two books: a fondly sardonic autobiography and a tough-love lesson
for aspiring novelists. The memoir is terrific stuff, a vivid description
of how a writer grew out of a misbehaving kid. You're right there with
the young author as he's tormented by poison ivy, gas-passing babysitters,
uptight schoolmarms, and a laundry job nastier than Jack London's. It's
a ripping yarn that casts a sharp light on his fiction.
The
Stand: The Complete and Uncut Edition by Stephen King
Stephen King's most popular book,
according to polls of his fans, is an end-of-the-world scenario: a rapidly
mutating flu virus is accidentally released from a U.S. military facility
and wipes out 99 and 44/100 percent of the world's population, thus setting
the stage for an apocalyptic confrontation between Good and Evil. |
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From
a Buick 8:
A
Novel
by
Stephen King
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The intriguing plot revolves
around the troopers of Pennsylvania State Patrol Troop D, who come into
possession of what at first appears to be a vintage automobile. Closer
inspection and experimentation conducted by the troopers reveal that this
car's doors (& trunk) sometimes open to another dimension populated
by gross-out creatures straight out of ... well, a Stephen King novel.
As the plot progresses, the veteran troopers' tales of these visits from
interdimensional nasties, and the occasional "lightquakes" put on by the
car, are passed on to the son of a fallen comrade whose fascination with
the car bordered on dangerous obsession. |
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