And at some point, a lot of interviewers just turn into Dr. In conversation with Terry Gross, King says "I've been queried a lot about how I got interested in this stuff. In Danse Macabre, King offered it as an explanation of what happened in his youth to make him write horror, a question he resented and about which he admits he used to "confabulate." Moreover, in Danse Macabre he describes it as a textbook case of repressed memory, something common in fiction, including King's fiction, but not real life. King makes no mention of at all it in his memoir On Writing (2000) or in any subsequent interviews. Only later did the family learn of the friend's death. Though he has no memory of the event, his family told him that after leaving home to play with the boy, King returned speechless and seemingly in shock.
Īccording to his non-fiction book Danse Macabre, as a child, King apparently witnessed one of his friends being struck and killed by a train. King's parents returned to Maine towards the end of World War II, living in a modest house in Scarborough. They lived with Donald's family in Chicago before moving to Croton-on-Hudson, New York. His parents were married in Scarborough, Maine, on July 23, 1939. King's mother was Nellie Ruth King (née Pillsbury). His father, Donald Edwin King, a traveling vacuum salesman after returning from World War II, was born in Indiana with the surname Pollock, changing it to King as an adult.
King was born in Portland, Maine, on September 21, 1947. Joyce Carol Oates called King "a brilliantly rooted, psychologically 'realistic' writer, for whom the American scene has been a continuous source of inspiration, and American popular culture a vast cornucopia of possibilities." Early life and education He has also won awards for his overall contribution to literature, including the 2003 Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, the 2007 Grand Master Award from the Mystery Writers of America and the 2014 National Medal of Arts. Several of King's works have won the Bram Stoker and August Derleth Awards. He has also written nonfiction, notably On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft. He has published under the pseudonym Richard Bachman and has co-written works with other authors, notably his friend Peter Straub and sons Joe Hill and Owen King. Among the films adapted from King's novels are Carrie, Christine, The Shining, The Dead Zone, Misery, Dolores Claiborne, The Green Mile and It. The novellas provided the basis for the films Stand by Me, The Shawshank Redemption and Apt Pupil. Different Seasons, a collection of four novellas, was his first major departure from the horror genre. His debut, Carrie, was published in 1974, and was followed by 'Salem's Lot, The Shining, The Stand and The Dead Zone.
He has also written approximately 200 short stories, most of which have been published in book collections. Called the " King of Horror", his books have sold more than 350 million copies as of 2006, and many have been adapted into films, television series, miniseries, and comic books. Stephen Edwin King (born September 21, 1947) is an American author of horror, supernatural fiction, suspense, crime, science-fiction, and fantasy novels.