Stephen King
Stephen King | |
|---|---|
 Stephen King. | |
| Born | September 21, 1947 Portland, Maine, USA |
| Pen name | Richard Bachman John Swithen |
| Occupation | Novelist Short story writer Screenwriter Columnist |
| Genre | Horror fiction Fantasy Science fiction |
| Signature | |
| File:SKingSignature.JPG | |
| Website | |
| www.stephenking.com | |
Stephen Edwin King (born September 21, 1947) is an American author best known for his bestselling horror novels. King was the 2003 recipient of The National Book Foundation's Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters.
King evinces a thorough knowledge of the horror genre, as shown in his nonfiction book Danse Macabre, which chronicles several decades of notable works in both literature and cinema. He has also written stories outside the horror genre, including the novella collection Different Seasons, The Green Mile, The Eyes of the Dragon, The Stand, Hearts in Atlantis and his magnum opus The Dark Tower series. In the past, Stephen King has written under the pen names Richard Bachman and (once) John Swithen.
he sucks
Richard Bachman
In the late 1970s-early 1980s, after becoming a popular horror writer, King published a handful of novels — Rage (1977), The Long Walk (1979), Road Work (1981), The Running Man (1982), and Thinner (1984) — under the pseudonym Richard Bachman. The idea behind this was largely an experiment to measure for himself whether or not he could replicate his own success again, and allay at least part of the notion inside his own head that popularity might all be just an accident of fate.
- "But there's another part that suggests it's all a lottery, a real-life game-show not much different from Wheel of Fortune or The New Price Is Right (two of the Bachman books, incidentally, are about game-show-type competitions). It is for some reason depressing to think it was all -- or even mostly -- an accident. So maybe you try to find out if you could do it again."[1]
The Bachman novels contained hints to the author's actual identity that were picked up on by fans, leading to King's admission of authorship in 1985. King dedicated his 1989 book The Dark Half about a pseudonym turning on a writer to "the deceased Richard Bachman", and in 1996, when the Stephen King novel Desperation was released, the companion novel The Regulators carried the Bachman byline.
In 2006, during a London UK press conference, King declared that he had discovered another Bachman novel, titled Blaze. It will be published on June 12 2007 in the UK and US. In fact, the manuscript had been held at King's alma mater, the University of Maine in Orono for many years and had been covered by numerous King experts. King completely rewrote the 1973 manuscript for its publication.
Writing style
In King's nonfiction book, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft, King discusses his writing style at great length and depth. King believes that, generally speaking, good stories cannot be called consciously and should not be plotted out beforehand, but are better served by focusing on a single "seed" of a story and letting the story grow itself from there. King often begins a story with no idea how the story will end. He mentions in the Dark Tower series that, halfway through its lengthy, nearly 30-year writing period, King received a letter from a woman with cancer who asked how the book would end, because she was unlikely to live long enough to read it. He stated that he didn't know. King believes strongly in this style, stating that his best writing comes from freewriting. In On Writing, King stated that he believed stories to exist fully formed, like fossils, and that his role as a writer was to excavate the fossil as well as he could.
He is known for his great eye for detail, for continuity, and for inside references; many stories that may seem unrelated are often linked by secondary characters, fictional towns, or off-hand references to events in previous books. Read as a whole, King's work (which is centered around his Dark Tower series) creates a remarkable history that stretches from present day all the way back to the beginning of time (with a unique cosmogony).
King's books are filled with references to American history and American culture, particularly the darker, more fearful side of these. These references are generally spun into the stories of characters, often explaining their fears. Recurrent references include crime, war (especially the Vietnam War), violence, the supernatural, and racism.
King is also known for his folksy, informal narration, often referring to his fans as "Constant Readers" or "friends and neighbors." This familiar style contrasts with the horrific content of many of his stories.
King has a very simple formula for learning to write well: "Read four hours a day and write four hours a day. If you cannot find the time for that, you can't expect to become a good writer."
King also has a simple definition for talent in writing: "If you wrote something for which someone sent you a check, if you cashed the check and it didn't bounce, and if you then paid the light bill with the money, I consider you talented."[2]
Shortly after his accident, King wrote the first draft of the book Dreamcatcher with a notebook and a Waterman fountain pen, which he called "the world's finest word processor."
King's writing style throughout his novels, alternates from future to past, characters, and setting in each chapter leaving a cliffhanger at the end. He then continues this process until the novel is finished.
Critical response
Critical responses to King's works have been mixed.
In his analysis of post-World War II horror fiction, The Modern Weird Tale (2001), critic S. T. Joshi[3] devotes a chapter to King's work. Joshi argues that King's best-known works (his supernatural novels) are his worst, being mostly bloated, illogical, maudlin and prone to deus ex machina endings. Despite these criticisms, Joshi argues that since Gerald's Game (1993), King has been tempering the worst of his writing faults, producing books that are leaner, more believable and generally better written. Joshi also stresses that, despite his flaws, King almost unfailingly writes insightfully about the pains and joys of adolescence, and has produced a few outstanding books, citing two non-supernatural novels - Rage (1977) and The Running Man (1982) - as King's best: in Joshi's estimation, both books are riveting and well-constructed, with believable characters.
In 1996, King won an O. Henry Award for his short story "The Man in the Black Suit." In 2003, when King was honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award by the National Book Awards, there was an uproar in the literary community, with literary critic Harold Bloom denouncing the choice:
He is a man who writes what used to be called penny dreadfuls. That they could believe that there is any literary value there or any aesthetic accomplishment or signs of an inventive human intelligence is simply a testimony to their own idiocy.
However, in giving the award, the Foundation said, "Stephen King’s writing is securely rooted in the great American tradition that glorifies spirit-of-place and the abiding power of narrative. He crafts stylish, mind-bending page-turners that contain profound moral truths - some beautiful, some harrowing - about our inner lives. This Award commemorates Mr. King’s well-earned place of distinction in the wide world of readers and book lovers of all ages."
Others in the writing community expressed their contempt of the slight towards King. When Richard Snyder, the former CEO of Simon & Schuster, described King's work as "non-literature", Orson Scott Card responded: "Let me assure you that King's work most definitely is literature, because it was written to be published and is read with admiration. What Snyder really means is that it is not the literature preferred by the academic-literary elite."[5]
Influences
King has called Richard Matheson "the author who influenced me most as a writer".[citation needed] Both authors casually integrate characters' thoughts into the third person narration, just one of several parallels between their writing styles. In a current edition of Matheson's The Incredible Shrinking Man, King is quoted: "A horror story if there ever was one...a great adventure story—it is certainly one of that select handful that I have given to people, envying them the experience of the first reading."
King is a fan of H.P. Lovecraft, refers to him several times in Danse Macabre, and has used several of Lovecraft's writing techniques in his own work. Lovecraft's influence shows in King's invention of bizarre, ancient deities, subtle connections among all of his tales, and the integration of fabricated newspaper clippings, trial transcripts and documents as narrative devices. King's invented trio of afflicted New England towns--Jerusalem's Lot, Castle Rock and Derry-- are reminiscent of Lovecraft's Arkham, Dunwich and Innsmouth. King's short story Crouch End is an explicit homage to, and part of, Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos story cycle. Another tribute to Lovecraft is in Kings short story 'Jerusalem's Lot', which opens King's book Night Shift. King differs markedly from Lovecraft in his focus on extensive characterization, and naturalistic dialogue, both notably absent in Lovecraft's writing. In On Writing, King is critical of Lovecraft's dialogue-writing skills, using passages from The Colour Out of Space as particularly poor examples. In From a Buick 8 King, in essence, places a squad of Pennsylvania State Troopers in a Lovecraft story. Although some characters are enamored with the unknown, all of them are threatened by madness when faced with it.
Edgar Allan Poe, one of the fathers to the contemporary literary horror genre, exerts a noticeable influence over King's writing as well. In The Shining, the phrase "And the red death held sway over all" hearkens back to Poe's "And Darkness and Decay and the Red Death held illimitable dominion over all" from "The Masque of the Red Death." The short story "Dolan's Cadillac" has a theme almost identical to Poe's "The Cask of Amontillado," including a paraphrase of Fortunato's famous plea, "For the love of God, Montresor!" In The Shining, King refers to Poe as "The Great American Hack".
King acknowledges the influence of Bram Stoker, particularly on his novel ’Salem's Lot, which was envisioned as a retelling of Dracula.[6] The short story prequel to Salem's Lot, Jerusalem's Lot, is very reminiscent of both H.P. Lovecraft's work and Stoker's Lair of the White Worm.
King has also openly declared his admiration for another, far less prolific author: Shirley Jackson. Salem's Lot opens with a quotation from Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House. Tony, an imaginary playmate from The Shining, bears a striking resemblance to another imaginary playmate with the same name from Jackson's Hangsaman. A pivotal scene in Storm of the Century is based on Jackson's The Lottery. A character in Wolves of the Calla references the Jackson book We Have Always Lived in the Castle.
King was a big fan of John D. MacDonald as he was growing up, and he dedicated the novella Sun Dog to MacDonald, saying "I miss you, old friend." For his part, MacDonald wrote an admiring preface to an early paperback version of Night Shift, and even had his famous character, Travis McGee, reading Cujo in one of the last McGee novels.
In an interview with Amazon.com, King claimed that the one book he wishes he'd written is William Golding's Lord of the Flies.
King makes references in several of his books to characters and events in J. R. R. Tolkien's The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.
Robert A. Heinlein's book The Door Into Summer is repeatedly mentioned in King's Wolves of the Calla, the fifth book of The Dark Tower.
Collaborations
King has written two novels with acclaimed horror novelist Peter Straub, The Talisman and a sequel, Black House. King has indicated that he and Straub will likely write the third and concluding book in this series, the tale of Jack Sawyer, but has set no timeline for its completion.
King also wrote the nonfiction book, Faithful with novelist and fellow Red Sox fanatic Stewart O'Nan.
The Diary of Ellen Rimbauer: My Life at Rose Red, was a paperback tie-in for the King-penned miniseries Rose Red. The book was published under anonymous authorship, and written by Ridley Pearson. This spin-off is a rare occasion of another author being granted permission to write commercial work using characters and story elements invented by King.
Influence on popular culture
Since the publication of Carrie, public awareness of King and his works has reached a high saturation rate. As the best-selling novelist in the world, and the most financially successful horror writer in history, King is an American horror icon of the highest order. King's books and characters encompass primary fears in such an iconic manner that his stories have become synonymous with certain key genre ideas. Carrie, Christine, Cujo, It, and The Shining, for example, are instantly recognizable to millions as popular shorthand for the Vengeful Nerd Wronged, the Killer car, the Evil dog, the Evil Clown, and the Haunted Hotel. Even King himself is so recognizable to the American public that in an American Express advertisement, the writer was able to satirize his spooky image in 30 seconds, and Gary Larson could portray a young Stephen King torturing his toys in a Far Side panel, without extensive explanation.
Trivia
 | This article contains a list of miscellaneous information. |
- When asked why he writes, King responds: "The answer to that is fairly simple - there was nothing else I was made to do. I was made to write stories and I love to write stories. That's why I do it. I really can't imagine doing anything else and I can't imagine not doing what I do."[7]
- King used to play guitar in the band Rock Bottom Remainders but has not joined them on stage for some years. The band's members include: Dave Barry; Ridley Pearson; Scott Turow; Amy Tan; James McBride; Mitch Albom; Roy Blount Jr.; Matt Groening; Kathi Kamen Goldmark; and Greg Iles. None of them claims to have any musical talent.
- King is a fan of the rock band AC/DC. They did the soundtrack for his 1986 film Maximum Overdrive.
- King was also a fan of The Ramones, who wrote the song Pet Sematary for the movie. In addition he wrote the liner notes for their tribute album We're a Happy Family.
- Many of his novels feature Plymouth Valiants or Dodge Darts and their derivatives (Scamp, Duster, etc.). Christine was about an earlier Chrysler car, a 1958 Plymouth Fury.
- Stephen King does not own a cell phone, a fact pointed out on the dust jacket of Cell, a horror novel where cell phones reduce millions of people into homicidal maniacs.
- King will not sign photographs. He feels that is something that should be reserved for movie stars. However, some of his fans have received autographed photos simply by asking.
- He has a mentally challenged niece who also is a paraplegic.
- King wrote an introduction to one of Neil Gaiman's many graphic novel collections, and expressed admiration for him.
- Many of the settings for King's books are in Maine (although often fictional locations).
- Many of King's books have one or more characters make a reference (almost always offhand) to being in the military or in "the war."
- King is friends with film director George Romero, to whom he partly dedicated his book Cell, and wrote a tribute about the filmmaker in Entertainment Weekly for his pop culture column, as well as an essay for the Elite DVD version of Night of the Living Dead. Romero is rumored to be directing the adaptations of King's novels The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon and From a Buick 8.
- Unlike some authors, King is untroubled by movies based on his works differing from the original work, and is often pleased with film adaptations of his work. He has contrasted his books and its film adaptations as "apples and oranges; both delicious, but very different." The exception to this is The Shining, which King criticized when it was released in 1980; and The Lawnmower Man (he sued to have his name removed from the credits). King seems to have gained greater appreciation for Kubrick's The Shining over the years. Kubrick had knocked the original novel in an interview as not "literary," having its merits exclusively in the plot. This understandably may have upset King. As a film, The Lawnmower Man bore no resemblance whatsoever to King's original short story. King's name was used solely as a faux-brand.
- King is a fan of the DC Comics superhero Batman, and wrote an introduction to the 400th issue of the Batman comic book, dated October 1986.
- King is also a fan of the American television series Lost and wrote an essay on the show for Entertainment Weekly. Speculation that King wrote the tie-in novel Bad Twin under the pseudonym Gary Troup has been discredited.
- After a private screening of the film Stand By Me (which was an adaptation of his novella The Body), King told director Rob Reiner that it was the best film adaptation of any of his works up to that point. He said it was actually better than his original novella. King was also very happy with the job Frank Darabont did with The Green Mile.
- During preproduction of The Shining, at around 3 o'clock in the morning, Stanley Kubrick called Stephen King to ask "Aren't ghost stories really just an affirmation of an afterlife?" King did not necessarily agree. During the conversation, Kubrick asked flatly, "Do you believe in God?" King thought a minute and said, "Yeah, I think so." Kubrick replied, "No, I don't think there is a God," and hung up.[8]
- Stephen King's complete works include over 200 stories.
- King has said that he thinks that Lisey's Story is his best book.[citation needed]
- King has written over 50 books, all of them are #1 bestsellers.
- King is sometimes asked in an interview where he gets his ideas for his stories and novels. Several times, including the appearance on Amazon.com's Fishbowl, the answer has been "I have the heart of a small boy......and I keep it in a jar on my desk." (This quote is most often attributed to Robert Bloch, author of _Psycho_.)
- By February 2007 King has stated that a future book will be a sequel/prequel novel of The Shawshank Redemption which will tell the story of Red before he was sentenced to Shawshank and his life with Andy after finally being released. The novel supposedly tells more about Andy and the break down of his marriage. King is hoping to start the novel after other works in his schedule are completed.
- Stephen King has gone on record stating that he is a Nine Inch Nails/Trent Reznor fan in an October of 2004 interview "I've always been a TrentRez fan--and Nails. "Hurt" says all you need to know about what life takes away. What it ALWAYS takes away in the end. A song like that is a treasure because it vocalizes what we all feel but somehow can't say. Of course the Cash video blew me away, but that song (and the Bad Company lyric) have been in my head for a couple of years now."[1]
Bibliography
- Stephen King bibliography
- Short fiction by Stephen King
- List of books to which Stephen King has written an introduction
Films and TV
Many of King's novels and short stories have been made into major motion pictures or TV movies and miniseries.[9] See List of Stephen King films.
| Year | Title | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1976 | Carrie | |
| 1979 | Salem's Lot | TV movie |
| 1980 | The Shining | |
| 1982 | Creepshow | Based on the short story The Crate and the Weeds |
| 1983 | Cujo | |
| 1983 | The Dead Zone | |
| 1983 | Christine | |
| 1984 | Children of the Corn | Based on the short story of the same name. First in a 7-part series; the last four were video-only releases.[9] |
| 1984 | Firestarter | A TV-only sequel, Firestarter 2: Rekindled, was made in 2002 |
| 1985 | Silver Bullet | Based on the novella Cycle of the Werewolf |
| 1986 | Maximum Overdrive | Based on the short story Trucks. To date, this is the only film King directed himself. |
| 1986 | Stand By Me | Based on the novella The Body |
| 1987 | The Running Man | Based on the novel written as Richard Bachman |
| 1989 | Pet Sematary | |
| 1990 | Graveyard Shift | Based on the short story Graveyard Shift |
| 1990 | It | TV miniseries |
| 1990 | Misery | |
| 1993 | The Dark Half | |
| 1993 | The Tommyknockers | TV miniseries |
| 1993 | Needful Things | |
| 1994 | The Stand | TV miniseries |
| 1994 | The Shawshank Redemption | Based on the short story Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption |
| 1995 | Dolores Claiborne | |
| 1995 | The Langoliers | TV movie based on the short story The Langoliers |
| 1996 | Thinner | Based on the novel written as Richard Bachman |
| 1997 | Trucks | TV movie based on the short story Trucks |
| 1997 | The Shining | TV miniseries |
| 1997 | The Night Flier | Based on the short story The Night Flier |
| 1998 | Apt Pupil | Based on the novella Apt Pupil |
| 1999 | The Green Mile | |
| 2001 | Hearts in Atlantis | |
| 2002 | Carrie | TV movie originally intended to be a series pilot |
| 2003 | Dreamcatcher | |
| 2004 | Secret Window | Based on the novella Secret Window, Secret Garden |
| 2004 | 'Salem's Lot | TV miniseries |
| 2004 | Riding the Bullet | Based on the short story Riding the Bullet |
| 2006 | Desperation | TV movie |
| 2006 | Nightmares and Dreamscapes | TV miniseries featuring adaptations of various short stories |
Film and TV Trivia
- Since 1977, King has granted permission to student filmmakers to make adaptations of his short stories for one dollar (see Dollar Baby).
- King is rumored to have many of the film props from the numerous movies he has written the original book for in his house, including the car used in Christine and a life-sized model of Barlow the Vampire from 'Salem's Lot.
- In the Tv Show Quantum Leap, there is an episode in which a young Stephen King gets inspired to write horror.
- King appeared in the film Pet Sematary as the minister at a funeral.
- He appeared in an episode of The Simpsons called Insane Clown Poppy along with author Amy Tan.
- King made his feature film acting debut in Creepshow, playing Jordy Verrill, a backwoods redneck who, after touching a fallen meteor in hopes of selling it, grows moss all over his body.
- Stephen King appeared in season 1 of Chapelle's Show asking whether African Americans preferred black dentists and undertakers to white ones.
- He produced, wrote, and acted in his own miniseries, called Kingdom Hospital.
- King co-wrote The X-Files season 5 episode "Chinga" with the creator of the series Chris Carter.
- King appeared in the claymation TV series Celebrity Deathmatch and fought against JK Rowling
- King was mentioned in the film Mr. Deeds when it is said that a gas station attendant made eye contact with him and that night lost 200 lb.
- Stephen King has a humorous cameo appearance as a pizza delivery man in the film "Stephen Kings Rose Red"
- In the miniseries of The Stand, King appeared twice, both as minor characters, and wrote the teleplay for it.
- In Golden Years (TV series), King had a cameo as an nasty bus driver.
See also
General information and publishers
The books
References
- ^ The Bachman Books, Stephen King (1985) p. viii
- ^ Everything You Need to Know About Writing Successfully — in Ten Minutes
- ^ Joshi, S.T, The Modern Weird Tale : A Critique of Horror Fiction, McFarland & Company, 2001, ISBN 978-0786409860
- ^ http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2003/09/24/dumbing_down_american_readers/
- ^ http://www.hatrack.com/osc/reviews/everything/2003-09-21.shtml
- ^ http://www.stephenking.com/pages/works/salems_lot/
- ^ Stephen King's official site
- ^ Eric Norden's interview of Stephen King, Playboy, June 1983
- ^ a b "Internet Movie Database: Stephen King". Retrieved 2007-04-10.
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External links
- Stephen King's Official Web Site
- Stephen & Tabitha King Foundation
- Scribner, Stephen King's trade publisher
- Cemetery Dance Publications, a publisher of Stephen King's signed Limited Editions
- The Stephen King Message Board
- WorldCat Identities page for 'King, Stephen 1947-'
- The Dark Tower Compendium website
- Lilja's Library, "A site with a huge of information"
- The ka-tet Corporation
- Stephen King at IMDb
- Stephen King at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
- Template:Nndb name
- Stephen King at the Internet Book List
- AMC poll: List of Stephen King novels made into movies
- The Stand: The Original Screenplay the version you never saw, written by Rospo Pallenberg
