Stephen King Biography Essay, Research Paper
Stephen King ’ s first novel would ne’er hold been published if non for his married woman Tabitha – she removed it from the refuse where he had thrown it. Three months subsequently when he submitted it to Doubleday publication, he received a $ 2500 progress on the book that went on to sell a modest 13,000 hardback transcripts. The book was Carrie. Reviews were assorted, but when United Artists and Brian De Palma released the movie version in 1976, it was a critical and commercial success. New American Library purchased the paper-back book rights of the book that went on to sell over two and a half million copies.Stephen King was born on September 21st, 1947 in Portland, Maine to Donald and Nellie Ruth King. His male parent left when he was three old ages old ; he went out for coffin nails and ne’er came back. But immature Stephen did non allow that halt him. By the clip he was seven old ages old, he had written his first short-story. He had besides become a fan of 50s horror films. While a adolescent, he did things like other teens ; he joined the football squad, played in a stone set, but he besides had two of his short-stories published.King attended the University of Maine at Orono and earned a Bachelor ’ s degree for English in 1970. He married Tabitha, besides a author, the same twelvemonth. After graduation, he worked as an English instructor and spent his free clip authorship and being rejected by publishing houses. Then came his interruption with Carrie and things have ne’er been the same.Today, Stephen King is the universe ’ s most successful author. He has over a hundred million transcripts of his plants in print and that figure is mounting quickly as he is translated into more linguistic communications and as he continues to let go of new books at a rate of alm
ost one per year. At one point, he had an unprecedented five books on the New York Times Best Sellers List at the same time. King is also the richest writer; according to Forbes Magazine, he earned $84 million in 1996 alone.Despite his success, Stephen King, his wife and his three children (Owen Phillip, Joseph Hillstrom and Naomi Rachel) live in the small town of Bangor, Maine, where many of his stories take place. He is a tall, bear of a man at 6?4? and 200 pounds, and occasionally wears a beard (he grows it at the end of the World Series and shaves it when spring season starts). King is a blue jeans and leather man who doesn’t suffer the pretensions of wealth and gets $200 a week from his accountant for spending money – a pittance compared to what he could afford. As relaxation, he enjoys poker, bowling and playing with friends in the band “Rock Bottom Remainders”.Hollywood has had a great relationship with Stephen King right from the beginning. It is taken for granted that almost any novel that he writes will eventually be adapted for the big screen, sometimes by King himself. While some have been critical failures, it is interesting to note that none of his movies have ever lost money. On the other side, The Shawshank Redemption (which received seven Oscar-nominations) was a critical and financial success.The undisputed king of literary and film horror, Stephen King continues to scare and horrify us with his work. Despite the nature of his profession and his unbelievable success at it, he has managed not to lose sight of who he is. This alone could be counted as a major feat, but combined with the number of books he continues to release, it marks him as a man whose story has no end in sight