Stephen King is a famous author born in 1947 in Portland, Maine, USA. When Stephen was two years old, his father, Donald Edwin King, has abandoned the family. His mother, Nellie Ruth Pillsbury, raised by herself Stephen and his older brother (adopted) David, often with great financial hardship. The family settled in mother’s hometown, Durham, Maine, but spent brief periods in Fort Wayne, Indiana and Stratford, Connecticut. King attended primary school to high school at Durham and Lisbon Falls, both in Maine.
King began writing at an early age. In the school he wrote stories based on movies recently seen at the cinema and sold them to friends and colleagues. After his teachers have been opposed to this custom, and King was forced to return the money earned.
These stories were printed with a printed mold of his brother David used to multiply his own newspaper, “Dave’s Rag”. “Dave’s Rag” was about local events and often helped King. Around the age of thirteen, King has found his aunt’s home a box of old books belonging to his father, most of horror and science fiction. He was instantly fascinated by these genres.
Between 1966 and 1971, King attended the University of Maine in Orono town, specialty English. At the university he wrote a column titled “King’s Garbage Truck” for the student newspaper “The Maine Campus“. It was here that he met Tabitha Spruce, whom he married in 1971. During this time King had several services used to pay for college, including one at an industrial laundry. The period of student life is emphasized in the second part of the novel “Hearts in Atlantis”.
After graduating and obtaining a high school teacher certificate, King taught English at Hampden Academy in Hampden, Maine. During this time he lived with his wife and children in a trailer. To make extra money writing short stories, most published in men’s magazines. As it was written in the preface to the novel Carrie, if any of the children got a cold, Tabitha told him more as a joke more seriously, “Come on, Steve, invent a monster”. All the then King began to drink too much, who has struggled with addiction for over ten years.
In the book “On Writing“, King admits that at that time was drunk all the time and he was an alcoholic for more than a decade. He admits that he was drunk at the funeral of his mother, while he did the eulogy. Later Jack Torrance said character (alcoholic father) of the novel “The Shining” was based on himself, even if not recognized this for many years.
His vices aside Stephen King managed to write some of the best horror books, so good most of them turn out as Hollywood blockbusters. Here are Kings’ top 10 books.
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