11/22/63
On 11/22/63 (2011), Stephen King ventured into a new genre: speculative science fiction. Long known as the master of horror, 11/22/63 tells the story of a high school English teacher named Jake Epping who travels back in time to stop the...
Biography of Stephen King
Stephen King was born in 1947 in Portland, Maine. After his father left, King grew up with his mother and brother. The family moved around and then returned to Maine when King was eleven years old. King graduated from high school in 1966 and went on to get his B.A. in English from the University of Maine at Orono in 1970.
Initially, King supported himself as a high school English teacher; he wrote and published short stories on the side. His first novel, Carrie, was published in 1974 by Doubleday & Co. The success of this novel enabled him to quit his teaching job and dedicate himself to writing full-time. Over the course of his career, King has published over 50 books: novels, collections of short stories, and some nonfiction. King is one of the most prominent authors of horror, suspense, and supernatural fiction of the 20th and 21st centuries. He’s sold an estimated 350 million books worldwide and his name has become synonymous with the genre of horror fiction.
King is the recipient of the 2003 National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters and the 2014 National Medal of Arts. In 2000, he published the book On Writing which explores the craft of writing and his own writing career. Many of King’s books and stories have been adapted for film and TV and made their way into popular culture. Some notable adaptations include Carrie, It, The Shining, Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile, and Stand By Me.
Stephen King is married to Tabitha King, who is also a novelist. The couple have three children and four grandchildren. The Kings split their time between Florida and Maine.
Study Guides on Works by Stephen King
Carrie
Published in 1973, Stephen King's Carrie is an epistolary horror novel that takes the form of collected newspaper clippings, letters and diary entries to tell the tale of how bullied misfit Carrie White uses her telekinetic powers to avenge her...
The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon
The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon is a Stephen King novel published in 1999. King novels can—generally speaking—be divided into two elemental types. Some feature large ensemble casts of characters that eschew any obviously singular perspective or...
The Green Mile
Stephen King's The Green Mile was originally published in six monthly installments in 1996. It tells the story of a death-row supervisor named Paul Edgecombe, who one day encounters a prisoner with extraordinary powers named John Coffey....
Holly
Stephen King is one of the most prolific authors of all time. His second novel of 2023, simply titled Holly, follows the eponymous private investigator named Holly Gibney, who has appeared in several of King's novels. Holly sees Gibney as she sets...
It
It is a horror novel, written by Stephen King, and published in 1986 by Viking Press (now Penguin Random House.) The book tells the story of a mythical creature that takes on the form of one’s worst fears, most typically a clown figure known only...
The Long Walk
Talent versus luck: this was a question that plagued Stephen King after his initial success as an author. How much of his success was due to talent, and how much due to the cult following he had amassed, and the fact that people bought his books...
Misery
Over his long and illustrious career, Stephen King has written countless classic horror novels. One of those classic novels is Misery, which was published by Viking in 1987. At the center of the novel is the relationship between novelist Paul...
The Mist
The Mist is a novella penned by the godfather of horror writing, Stephen King. It tells the story of a mist that suddenly envelops the small town of Bridgton in Maine; the mist is not a natural phenomenon but an evil one, and it hides monsters...
Mr. Harrigan's Phone
Mr. Harrigan's Phone is a short story by American horror writer Stephen King. It first appeared in a collection of King's previously unpublished work titled If It Bleeds. The collection was published on April 28th, 2020.
King considers the works...
On Writing
It is often said that Stephen King's On Writing is arguably one of the most important books that explores the craft of writing. Over the course of this 291 page book, King writes about his career as a best-selling, award-winning writer and how he...
The Shining (1977 Novel)
Over the course of his illustrious career, Stephen King has written more than a dozen bonafide classic novels. In fact, prior to the release of The Shining (his third book), he published two classics in the form of Carrie and 'Salem's Lot. The...
Under the Dome
Under The Dome is a science fiction novel by Stephen King. The story is set in and around a small town in Maine and is an intricate, complex story with multiple characters that tell how the town's inhabitants deal with being cut off from the...
