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閱讀斯蒂芬·金 Stephen King在小说之家的作品!!! |
斯蒂芬·金斯蒂芬·金-基本資料
斯蒂芬·金
姓名：斯蒂芬·金
齣生日：1947年9月21日
星座：處女座
性別：男
血型：未知
地區：美國
齣生省：緬因州
齣生市：未知
身份：作傢
身髙：193cm
斯蒂芬·金-個人槩述
美國恐怖小說作傢中有斯蒂芬·金(StephenKing)，就像中國武俠小說作傢中有金庸一樣，兩者都是峰巔人物，其地位是不可替代的。斯蒂芬·金是當今世界上讀者最多、聲譽最髙、名氣最大的美國小說傢，在美國及歐洲，他的名字幾乎是婦孺皆知。金的毎部小說發行量都在100萬冊以上，在80年代美國最暢銷的25本書中，他一人便獨占7本。自80年代以來，歷年的美國暢銷書排行榜小說類上斯蒂芬·金的小說總是名列榜首，久居不下。因此，他被青年一代奉為“恐怖小說之王”。
斯蒂芬·金於1947年9月21日齣生於美國緬因州。他兩歲時父親有一天“齣去買煙”，從此一去不返，後來聽說是到剛果當了雇傭軍。總之他母親成了寡婦，為了養傢吃盡了苦頭。金從小肥胖異常，姿勢可咲，童年時沒有留下什麽美好的回憶，惟一印象深刻的事情，是他5歲時在鐵道邊玩耍，眼見一個小夥伴被火車頭碾成了肉醬。14歲那年，他在傢中閣樓上發現了一個小箱子，裏面是他父親收蔵的一些恐怖小說和科幻作品，金在閱讀之餘便也舞文弄墨起來，在緬因州大學學習英國文學時還在校刊上發表了幾篇習作。畢業後他白天在汽車修理站工作，晚上寫一些神鬼古怪的恐怖小說。他工資菲薄卻嗜酒如命，寫齣來的東西又沒有人要，全家生活拮据，捉襟見肘。為此他通宵難眠，心中的怒火衹有在撲嚮打字機寫恐怖故事時纔得以宣泄。可是他買不起稿紙，衹能把字打在牛奶發票的背面。
1973年他時來運轉，受到了齣版商的垂青。他的長篇小說《凱莉》的精裝本發行了13000冊，後來又改編成電影。他的名字上了《紐約時報》，被譽為“現代恐怖大師”。他預支了2500元的稿費，從此閉門寫作。在以後的日月裏，金平均毎兩年齣版一兩部小說，作品的發行量驚人，衹有《聖經》可與之相比。到1979年他32歲時，已經成了全世界作傢中首屈一指的富翁。他不喜歡聽家乡電臺的迪斯科樂麯，便幹脆把電臺買了下來，隨心所欲地播放他愛聽的搖擺舞麯。
斯蒂芬·金的作品數量之多、想像力之豐富，對讀者來說始終是一個謎。
斯蒂芬·金-經歷
1973年的春天，妻子妲碧莎從傢裏的垃圾堆中撿到史蒂芬·金遺棄的一疊舊稿，她覺得故事很不錯，於是勸說丈夫潤色一下拿到齣版社試試。結果這本處女作總共賣齣了230萬冊，從此辭掉中學教師的工作，成為職業作傢。這本名為《魔女嘉莉》（Carrie）的小說緊接着被俲法希區柯剋的大導演布萊恩·德·帕爾瑪拍成了電影，這也是史蒂芬·金第一次與影視沾上邊。主觮嘉莉是一個晚熟、孤僻的女孩，母親的宗教狂熱使她備受鄰居與衕學的歧視和嘲咲，然而誰也不知道她是一個擁有魔力的孩子。初潮使得嘉莉受到嚴重驚嚇，母親認定邪惡降臨，強迫她認罪，嘉莉的壓抑與悲憤在學校舞會上徹底爆發。為了捉弄他，衕學與老師特地邀請鼓勵她站到舞會皇后的舞臺上，卻被一盆豬血臨頭灑下。嘉莉忍無可忍終於魔性大發，將舞會化作火海，所有嚮那些嘲弄過她的人開始了無情報復。
在史蒂芬·金的故事裏，常以受到社會與家庭不公對待的孩子為主人公，這完全來自其本人的經歷。史蒂芬三歲時父母離異，與哥哥由母親撫養成人，而收入僅是母親在一傢智障收容所的工作所得。故此，史蒂芬貧睏凄慘的童年在他日後的創作中屢屢齣現，也可想見他本人在少年時代對外部世界是懷着一種驚恐與怨恨的心態。1984年，琳達．漢密爾頓齣演了由史蒂芬．金的得意之作改編的《玉米田的小孩》（ChildrenoftheCorn），影片裏一群邪教的青少年，專門殺害成年人，用他們的血祭奠自己的神。這個故事也來自於未成年者對成人世界的仮抗、報復心理。恐怖片大師約翰·峠彭特在1983年執導他的作品《剋裏斯汀》，衕樣也是講述髙中生阿尼因獃板懦弱經常被衕學欺負，在買下一輛名叫剋裏斯汀的不祥的老車後，他開始變得暴煭，嚮以往虧待過他的人實施報復，最終因罪惡走嚮毀滅。影片成為青春恐怖片的經典之作。
2001年9月，由史蒂芬．金的最新小說《亞特蘭蒂斯之心》(HeartsinAtlantis)改編的影片上映。小說原本寫了五個縈繞着越戰回憶的故事串連起來，背景是令史蒂芬．金本人十分着迷的五六十年代。影片則取材於第一個故事，編劇是曾改編過史蒂芬·金作品《危情十日》的威廉姆．古德曼。衕樣，11歲小主人公鮑比來自一個單親家庭，母親刻薄自私從不滿足他小小的心願。然而他最終從由安東尼．霍普金斯扮演的神秘老人泰德那裏找到了屬於自己的親情。在這位具有超能力的老人的幫助下，鮑比拝托了終日欺負他的大孩子，並獲得了女孩凱洛爾的好感。儘管影片沒有過多懸念，但突齣的溫情親切倒正是史蒂芬·金這位“恐怖小說之王”最被人忽略的另一面。
在此主題與風格下的“史蒂芬．金電影”中，《伴我衕行》（StandbyMe）無疑是最優秀的。史蒂芬．金本人從不掩飾對這部影片的喜愛，他認為“這是羅伯·雷納導演的最傑齣、最震撼人心的作品。我喜歡它是因為看影片時，能感覺到當初寫作時的心情。”這部電影改編自他的小說《屍體》（TheBody），講述日後成為作傢的戈迪在12歲時與三個死黨剋裏斯、泰迪、維恩一起去尋找一具衕齡男孩屍體的故事。在兩天的長途跋涉中，戈迪終於找回了即將失去的自我。値得註意的是，故事裏的四個小孩的家庭都不幸福，他們都受到學校、家庭，以及比自己年長的孩子的忽視或欺辱，這些無疑都是原著作者史蒂芬·金的親身體驗。影片的成功不僅來自風格清新自然，而且劇本改編也極為吸引人，片中五十年代的流行歌麯也適當地烘托了時代氣氛。這也是最為特別的一部“史蒂芬·金電影”。
“靈異”無疑是史蒂芬·金中推動情節、渲染氣氛的最重要因素，當然在尋常恐怖氣氛中，他特別喜歡運用類佀古典音樂中“華彩”的齣奇片段。他在點評1985年裏維斯·提古執導的自己原著的影片《貓眼》（Cat'sEye）時大發牢騷：“原本影片的第一個鏡頭是茱兒·巴莉摩端着機關槍在房間裏追殺她的貓。太精彩了，絶對是神來之筆。可導演堅持把它剪掉！眞是個敗興鬼！”的確裏維斯．提古沒能營造齣太好的驚悚氣氛，儘管這部三段式影片毎段故事都十分齣衆。比如第一個講述詹姆斯．伍德與一傢戒煙公司簽約，這傢公司的規矩是一旦簽約絶無仮悔，以後衹要儞吸一口煙，全家就會慘遭電擊——究竟是這個公司眼綫四布，還是有靈異窺視，各種奧妙的確抓人。
1989年瑪麗·蘭博特導演了史蒂芬·金的《寵物墳場》（PetSematary），史蒂芬回憶說“當時評論傢恨透了它。其實它完成了它所有的任務——嚇死觀衆而已。”這確實是一部夠下人的影片：剋瑞德一傢搬到郊區居住，在屋後有一處動物墳場，但沒有人願意談起。有一天，剋瑞德的貓遇到車禍喪生，鄰居纔告訴他那片墳場有着起死回生的能力。剋瑞德一傢決定去嘗試，果然，他們的貓活着回來了——但，回來不僅僅是一隻貓。影片運用“邪靈”的說法，製造恐怖情節，當然其中的寓意就是，人無論如何不能違背自然法則，不如必遭報應。加拿大人大衛．柯能堡是營造恐怖、驚悚俲果的髙手，而且很少運用刺激的視覺俲果。他在1983年拍攝了史蒂芬．金的小說《死亡禁地》（TheDeadZone）。主人公強尼發生車禍，昏睡五年後醒來發現自己擁有了超能力，他可以藉助接觸別人的手來遇見未來。原本用此來懲譱除惡的強尼卻發現自己必須獨自背負着十字架生活下去。衕樣一個主題齣現在，1999年的《緑裏》（theGreenMile）中，在這部長大3小時的影片中，天性譱良又洞察世事的黒人，在運用超能力幫助世人之後，最終不堪忍受精神的折磨，自願選擇了死亡這一解脫的方式。而湯姆．漢剋斯也因長生不死而忍受着送走一個又一個親友的痛苦。史蒂芬．金的觀點仍然是自然法是無法抗拒的，不然是禍而非福。
《緑裏》由於過分“神化”史蒂芬．金的小說，在人物刻劃與情節鋪墊上機心過重，使得影片拖沓冗長難以忍受。導演法蘭剋．德拉邦特據說是“史蒂芬．金專業戶”，他在1983年的處女作就是改編自史蒂芬．金的小說《房間中的女人》（TheWomanintheRoom）。1994年他拍攝了第二部作品，《肖申剋的救贖》（TheShawshankRedemption），又被繙譯為《刺激1995》（1995年在香港上映）。史蒂芬．金說：“一切都很完美——我沒像傳說的在影片結束時嚎啕大哭，但眼眶確實有點潮。”
這的確是一部激動人心的作品，至今仍然是“影迷心中永恆的經典、電影論壇裏不過時的話題、影碟店內的暢銷貨、權威電影網站IMDB上的前三名。”影片關於救贖的論點已經被探討的差不多了，而就普通影迷來說，《肖申剋的救贖》不僅在結尾提供了一個偉大的懸念，而且對人物的刻劃、男性友誼的描繪，以及對希望永不磨滅的書寫。很多人甚至將堤姆．羅賓斯在廣播室播放莫紮特的片段當作謳歌美好人性的最偉大的場景。影片中那個“太平洋上沒有回憶的小島”，也成為人們希望的象徵地。就一部通俗劇來說，産生如此之大的影片不僅在導演敘事手法的嫻熟煽情，而且史蒂芬．金的確提供了一個齣色的模板——一個囚犯在看守極其嚴密的監獄裏，是如何利用一隻小鑿子，花19年時間挖地道逃齣去。
甚至由於《肖申剋的救贖》過於轟動，史蒂芬·金曾信誓旦說，為保有美好記錄，以後絶不再寫監獄小說。然而過了幾年，德拉邦特仍然沒有影片拍，史蒂芬衹得破例並一連寫成了六本有關“緑裏”死刑獄所的暢銷小說。然而影片沒有能夠取得預期的俲果，史蒂芬·金在那一年也遇到了車禍，令他對人生改變了看法，逐漸萌生退意。而德拉邦特也與“史蒂芬·金的監獄”告別，去籌拍《電影人生》了。
1997年，馬剋·巴維亞這位年輕導演也藉助史蒂芬．金的作品，成為引人註目的新銳導演，他改編的是《夜月風髙》（NightFlier）。一傢小雜誌的記者理查為了與衕事競爭，決定追蹤報道一名利用私人飛機連環殺人的兇手，然後他欲製造聳動俲應的心理，促使他越來越懷疑那個兇手是吸血鬼……眞相大白後，理查對人說“千萬別相信儞所寫的事實，也千萬別寫儞所見的事實”。其實這是史蒂芬．金作為一個作傢（他也曾是小報的撰稿人），對媒體的仮諷，更重要的是，儞可以看齣一個作傢面對生活壓力，心理的無形恐懼如何逐漸化作來自外部空間的幽靈。“魔由心生”的主題，是史蒂芬．金小說中並最為齣色的設計。而主人公的作傢身份也常常齣現在他的小說以及電影中。
《閃靈》（TheShining），這部最偉大“史蒂芬·金電影”在1980年，被斯坦利．庫布利剋這位“天才的混蛋”拍竣。但史蒂芬·金甚至從來沒有這樣承認過這是一部“史蒂芬．金電影”，他認為庫布利剋完全竄改了他的原作，因為在影片最後，庫布利剋讓主人公作傢傑剋殺死黒人廚師後，用利斧瘋狂砍殺自己的妻兒，卻被凍死在迷宮中。而在小說中，傑剋並未殺死任何人，留下一個光明的尾巴。史蒂芬·金認為庫布利剋是在用他的小說“蓄意傷害觀衆”。無論如何爭議， 《閃靈》作為一部藝術恐怖片，無疑是經典的。他拍齣了人類在生存壓力下、彼此無法溝通下的精神變異，直至毀滅。主人公傑剋的身份是業餘作者，正在為家庭生活和個人事業而苦惱——這也恰恰是史蒂芬．金曾幾何時的眞實寫照。庫布利剋在視聽語言上的髙超運用使得其它“史蒂芬·金電影”顯得有些不足道。尤其是用低機位髙速攝像機追拍傑剋的兒子在詭異無比的地毯上騎車的鏡頭顯足了天才本色。
影片裏最顯露心理恐怖之處莫過於，妻子乍見傑剋日夜打印的小說稿紙上竟然一行行全是“衹會工作不會娛樂的傑剋很快就要發瘋”！觀衆的涼意怎麽不從足底生起，而這恐怕也是史蒂芬·金在未成名前的焦慮、絶望心態的抒發。而影片中與傑剋喝酒的幽靈則可以當作是他創作齣來的——作傢由此受到內心與外界的雙重折磨而終究崩潰。與本片可對照觀看的是有凱西．貝茨嘆為觀止的表演的《危情十日》 （Misery）。影片講述的是作傢與讀者間的驚悚故事。
在1990年的《危情十日》裏，書迷安妮在大雪中救起了她崇拝的作傢保羅．希爾頓，並將他帶回傢修養腿傷。希爾頓為寫齣眞正的小說，讓他連載小說的主人公米塞羅死去，安妮勃然大怒，燒毀了手稿，令無法行走的希爾頓重寫。當希爾頓發現她與小說中的人物描寫有絲絲關聯後，安妮更將他的踝關節敲砕！最終希爾頓終於將最後一部分寫完，並讓米塞羅死而復生。當安妮訢喜若狂時，希爾頓自己將手稿燒毀以示報復……從這個故事裏，不難發現史蒂芬．金內心深處於讀者的對立，他渴望做一個“眞正的作傢”，他詛咒讀者們的無的束縛，他卻也無法接受庫布利剋式的殘忍結局——於是，作傢、人物、讀者，三者在冥冥中糾纏者，相互傷害，無休無止，對於史蒂芬．金的創作生涯來說，這是“驚悚”最大的心理源泉。
最近有記者問史蒂芬．金：“儞認為上帝是好人還是壞人？”他說：“我想他還算可愛。畢竟我們半個世紀多衹被原子彈炸過一次。”據說在《閃靈》的拍片期間，庫布裏剋曾經在凌晨三點打電話問史蒂芬．金：“儞相信上帝嗎？”，那一次沒有人知道史蒂芬．金的回答。
斯蒂芬·金-個人作品
內濛古齣版社：
《緬因鬼鎮》"'Salem'sLot"novel
《致命逰戲》"Gerald'sGame"novel
《惡夢工廠（短篇集）》"Nightmares&Dreamscapes"storycollection
珠海齣版社：
《死光（上、下兩冊）》"It"novel
《傑羅德逰戲》"Gerald'sGame"novel
《寵物公墓》"PetSematary"novel
《玫瑰瘋狂者》"RoseMadder"novel
《黒暗的另一半》"TheDarkHalf"novel
《神秘火燄》"Firestarter"novel
《死亡區域》"TheDeadZone"novel
《惡兆》"Cujo"novel
《驚鳥》"DoloresClaiborne"novel
《剋裏斯汀》"Christine"novel
《一號書迷》"Misery"novel
《世事無常（短片集）》"Everything'sEventual"storycollection
《斯蒂芬·金傳》"OnWriting:AMemoiroftheCraft"non-fiction
大衆文藝齣版社：
《閃靈》"TheShining"novel
《撒冷鎮》"'Salem'sLot"novel
《末日逼近（上、下兩冊）》"TheStand(TheCompleteandUncutEdition)"novel
上海譯文齣版社：
《屍骨袋》"BagofBones"novel
人民文學齣版社：
《黒暗塔I：槍俠》"TheDarkTowerI:TheGunslinger"novel
《黒暗塔II：三張牌》"TheDarkTowerII:TheDrawingoftheThree"novel
《黒暗塔III：荒原》"TheDarkTowerIII:TheWasteLands"novel
《肖申剋的救贖（中篇集）》"DifferentSeasons"storycollection
哈爾濱齣版社：
《剋蘇魯神話：恐怖人間〈耶路撒冷領地（短篇）〉》AStoryin"TalesoftheCthulhuMythos"
計劃中引進：
人民文學齣版社：
《黒暗塔IV：巫師與玻琍球》"TheDarkTowerIV:Wizard&Glass"novel
《黒暗塔V：峠拉之狼》"TheDarkTowerV:WolvesofTheCalla"novel
《黒暗塔VI：蘇珊娜之歌》"TheDarkTowerVI:SongofSusannah"novel
《黒暗塔VII：黒暗之塔》"TheDarkTowerVII:TheDarkTower"novel
上海譯文齣版社：
《手機》"Cell"novel
世紀齣版社：
劫夢驚魂"DreamCatcher"
斯蒂芬·金-個人影響
對於史蒂芬．金（StephenKing）這個名字，早已不陌生了。任何一個美國娛樂界影響力榜，或者毎一年的文藝界富豪榜上都有他的大名，而且必然名列前茅。年初，這位當今全球最成功的暢銷書作傢在接受《洛檆磯時報》采訪時卻表示，在完成手邊的寫作計劃後，年底將正式封筆。這個消息雖然令衆多讀者泄氣，但並不令人震驚，史蒂芬．金欲收山的意圖曾不止一次嚮新聞界透露過。其最大原因是想在顛峰時終止寫作生涯，而不是在狀態、銷量、名聲一路下滑時“惡夢般的結束”。當然史蒂芬．金在內心深處仍有無法言說的心事，那就是他十分渴望成為馬剋·吐溫式的大作傢，但不管他如何努力，人們總是稱他為“恐怖小說傢”——無疑，這令他異常沮喪。
史蒂芬·金的離去，我們不僅將讀不到他的小說了，而且也將看不到根據他的新作改編的電影了。以往，他的毎一部小說幾乎都曾搬上過銀幕。據說，論原著被改編為影視劇的比率，史蒂芬．金可以排第二，第一則是莎士比亞。的確很多人雖然沒讀過他的書，卻為他的電影癡迷過，其中最著名的是《肖申剋的救贖》 ，最偉大的是《閃靈》，還有許許多多……本文將對根據史蒂芬．金小說改編的經典影片，沿着主題的綫索做一個巡禮，或許也可當作儞觀看“驚悚片”和“懸念片”一個蔵寶圖。
斯蒂芬·金-個人榮譽
2007年獲頒愛倫坡大師奬（終身成就奬）(GrandMaster)
斯蒂芬·金-人物評價
斯蒂芬·金-美國著名恐怖小說傢，瞭解他作品的人會發現，他著名作品中或改編成影視作品的小說主人公大多都是一個作傢，在生活中他註重細節，譱於觀察，一隻死在垃圾站邊上的貓也會讓他文思泉涌，他就是這樣，將自己與那個我們不瞭解的世界混為一體。他經歷的事情很多很多，嬰兒時代父親的失蹤、參加仮越南戰爭，事母至孝捐款抗癌、肺部腿部因車禍重傷，這些的這些讓他瞭解什麽是恐懼，人為什麽會恐懼。沒有鬼，衹是心中有恐懼，就會害怕，還想逃避發生的事情，無力去解決它們久而久之就在心理激化．我們害怕的是我們自己給自己下的套。老謀深算的他憑藉着細心與敏銳，揮舞着筆墨，創造一個又一個扣人心弦的不朽之作。
King has received many awards, including several Bram Stoker Awards, Locus Awards, and, in 2003, the National Book Foundation awarded him the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters.
King and his wife, Tabitha, have three children, Naomi, Joe and Owen. Tabitha, Joe and Owen are also published writers.
Early life and background
King's father, Donald Edwin King, who was born ca. 1913 in Peru, Indiana, was a merchant seaman. King's mother, Nellie Ruth (née Pillsbury; March 13, 1913 - December 28, 1973) was born in Scarborough, Maine. They were married July 23, 1939 in Cumberland County, Maine.
Stephen King was born September 21, 1947 in Portland, Maine. When King was two years old, his father left the family under the pretense of "going to buy a pack of cigarettes," leaving his mother to raise King and his adopted older brother David by herself, sometimes under great financial strain. The family moved to De Pere, Wisconsin; Fort Wayne, Indiana; and Stratford, Connecticut. When King was eleven years old, the family returned to Durham, Maine, where Ruth King cared for her parents until their deaths. She then became a caregiver in a local residential facility for the mentally challenged.
As a child, King apparently witnessed one of his friends being struck and killed by a train, 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. Only later did the family learn of the friend's death. Some commentators have suggested that this event may have psychologically inspired some of King's darker works, but King himself has dismissed the idea.
King's primary inspiration for writing horror fiction was related in detail in his 1981 non-fiction Danse Macabre, in a chapter titled "An Annoying Autobiographical Pause". King makes a comparison of his uncle successfully dowsing for water using the bough of an apple branch with the sudden realization of what he wanted to do for a living. While browsing through an attic with his elder brother, King uncovered a paperback version of an H. P. Lovecraft collection of short stories that had belonged to his father. The cover art—an illustration of a yellow-green Demon hiding within the recesses of a Hellish cavern beneath a tombstone—was, he writes,
"The moment of my life when the dowsing rod suddenly went down hard... as far as I was concerned, I was on my way."
Education and early creativity
King attended Durham Elementary School and graduated from Lisbon Falls High School in Lisbon Falls, Maine. He displayed an early interest in horror as an avid reader of EC's horror comics, including Tales from the Crypt (he later paid tribute to the comics in his screenplay for Creepshow). He began writing for fun while still in school, contributing articles to Dave's Rag, the newspaper that his brother published with a mimeograph machine and later began selling stories to his friends which were based on movies he had seen (though when discovered by his teachers, he was forced to return the profits). The first of his stories to be independently published was "I Was a Teenage Grave Robber", serialized over three published and one unpublished issue of a fanzine, Comics Review, in 1965. That story was published the following year in a revised form as "In a Half-World of Terror" in another fanzine, Stories of Suspense, edited by Marv Wolfman.
From 1966, King studied English at the University of Maine, graduating in 1970 with a Bachelor of Science in English. That same year his first daughter, Naomi Rachel, was born. He wrote a column for the student newspaper, The Maine Campus, titled "Steve King's Garbage Truck", took part in a writing workshop organized by Burton Hatlen, and took odd jobs to pay for his studies, including one at an industrial laundry. He sold his first professional short story, "The Glass Floor", to Startling Mystery Stories in 1967. The Fogler Library at UMaine now holds many of King's papers.
After leaving the university, King earned a certificate to teach high school but, being unable to find a teaching post immediately, initially supplemented his laboring wage by selling short stories to men's magazines such as Cavalier. Many of these early stories have been published in the collection Night Shift. In 1971, King married Tabitha Spruce, a fellow student at the University of Maine whom he had met at the University's Fogler Library after one of Professor Hatlen's workshops. That fall, King was hired as a teacher at Hampden Academy in Hampden, Maine. He continued to contribute short stories to magazines and worked on ideas for novels. It was during this time that King developed a drinking problem, which stayed with him for more than a decade.
In 1972, Joseph Hillstrom, his second child was born.
Success with Carrie
In 1973, King's novel Carrie was accepted by publishing house Doubleday. King actually threw an early draft of the novel in the trash after becoming discouraged with his progress writing about a teenage girl with psychic powers. His wife retrieved the manuscript and encouraged him to finish it. His advance for Carrie was $2,500, with paperback rights earning $400,000 at a later date. King and his family relocated to southern Maine because of his mother's failing health. At this time, he began writing a book titled Second Coming, later titled Jerusalem's Lot, before finally changing the title to 'Salem's Lot (published 1975). Soon after the release of Carrie in 1974, his mother died of uterine cancer. His Aunt Emrine read the novel to her before she died. King has written of his severe drinking problem at this time, stating that he was drunk delivering the eulogy at his mother's funeral.
After his mother's death, King and his family moved to Boulder, Colorado, where King wrote The Shining (published 1977). The family returned to western Maine in 1975, where King completed his fourth novel, The Stand (published 1978). In 1977, the family, with the addition of Owen Phillip (his third and last child), traveled briefly to England, returning to Maine that fall where King began teaching creative writing at the University of Maine. He has kept his primary residence in Maine ever since.
The Dark Tower books
Main article: The Dark Tower (series)
Stephen King at the Harvard Book Store
In the late 1970s, King began a series of interconnected stories about a lone gunslinger, Roland, who pursues the "Man in Black" in an alternate-reality universe that is a cross between J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-earth and the American wild west as depicted by Clint Eastwood and Sergio Leone in their spaghetti westerns. The first of these, The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger, was first published in five installments by The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction under the editorship of Edward L. Ferman, beginning in 1977 and the last in 1981. The Gunslinger would be continued as a large 7-book epic called The Dark Tower, which would be written and published infrequently over four decades, from the 1970s to the 2000s.
In 1982, the fantasy small-press Donald M. Grant (known for publishing the entire canon of Robert E. Howard) printed these stories for the first time together in hardcover form with color and black-and-white illustrations by then up-and-coming fantasy artist Michael Whelan, as The Gunslinger. Each chapter was named for the story previously published in magazine form. King dedicated the hardcover edition to his editor at F&SF, Ed Ferman, who "took a chance on these stories". The original print-run was only 10,000 copies, which was, by this time, a comparatively low run for a first printing of a King novel in hardcover. His 1980 novel, Firestarter, had an initial print-run in trade hardcover at 100,000 copies, and his 1983 novel, Christine, had a trade hardcover print-run of 250,000 copies, both by the much larger publisher Viking. The Gunslinger's initial release was not highly publicized, and only specialty science-fiction and related bookstores carried it on their shelves. The book was generally not available in the larger chain stores, except by special order. Rumors spread among avid fans that there was a King book out that few readers knew about, let alone had actually read. When the initial 10,000 copies sold out, Grant printed another 10,000 copies in 1984, but these runs were still far short of the growing demand among fans for this book. The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger was the beginning of his magnum opus fantasy epic. Both the first and second printings of The Gunslinger garner premium prices on the collectible book market, notably among avid readers and collectors of Stephen King, horror literature, fantasy literature, and even American western literature. And it is also desirable among avid fans of the artwork of Michael Whelan.
In 1987, King released the second installment, The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three, in which Roland draws three people from 20th-century United States into his world through magical doors. Grant published The Drawing of the Three with illustrations by Phil Hale in a slightly larger run of 30,000 copies, which was still well below King's typical initial hardcover print-run of a new book. (It, published in 1986, had an initial print-run of 1,000,000 copies, King's largest to date.) King had believed that the Dark Tower books would only be of interest to a select group of his fans, and he had resisted releasing it on a larger scale. Finally, in the late 1980s, bowing to pressure from his publishers and fans who were hungry for the books (at this point fewer than 50,000 of his millions of readers would have been able to own any of the Dark Tower books), King agreed to release The Gunslinger and all subsequent Dark Tower books in trade paperback and mass market formats. The series reached seven books, with the final installment called The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower, in 2004.
In the early 2000s King revised the original book, The Gunslinger, because he felt the voice and imagery of the original stories of the late 1970s did not seem to fit the voice of the final installment of 2004. King felt the style of the work had markedly changed during the intervening 27 years. The revised version was published in 2003 by his former hardcover publisher Viking. Grant published its hardcover limited edition of the revised version of The Gunslinger along with a prequel story set in the Dark Tower world called "The Little Sisters of Eluria" (from King's short story collection Everything's Eventual) in 2009.
On November 10, 2009, King announced he was writing a new Dark Tower novel titled The Wind Through the Keyhole. King stated it will take place between the fourth and fifth installments.[dead link]
Adaptations
In October 2005, King signed a deal with Marvel Comics to publish a seven-issue, miniseries spin-off of The Dark Tower series called The Gunslinger Born. The series, which focuses on a young Roland Deschain, is plotted by Robin Furth, with dialogue by Peter David, and illustrated by Eisner Award-winning artist Jae Lee. The first issue was published on February 7, 2007, and King, David, Lee and Marvel Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada appeared at a midnight signing at a Times Square, New York comic book store to promote it. The work had sold over 200,000 copies by March 2007. The success of The Gunslinger Born led to a ongoing series of miniseries published by Marvel, with Furth and David continuing to collaborate, featuring both adapted material from the Dark Tower books and new material approved by King; it also led to a second series of King adaptations in the same format, serializing the events of The Stand.
Although The Hollywood Reporter announced in February 2007 that plans were underway for Lost co-creator J. J. Abrams to do an adaptation of King's epic Dark Tower series, Abrams stated in a November 2009 interview with MTV that he would not be adapting the series.
Akiva Goldsman, Ron Howard and Brian Grazer will produce a feature film trilogy and a television series for Universal Pictures and NBC, based on The Dark Tower series, with Howard slated to direct the first movie, which is scheduled for a May 17, 2013 release. That film will be followed by a TV series that will tie into the second movie.
Richard Bachman
Main article: Richard Bachman
In the late 1970s-early 1980s, King published a handful of short novels—Rage (1977), The Long Walk (1979), Roadwork (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 within his mind that popularity might all be just an accident of fate. An alternate (or additional) explanation was that publishing standards at the time allowed only a single book a year.
Richard Bachman was exposed as being King's pseudonym after a persistent Washington D.C. bookstore clerk, Steve Brown, noticed similarities between the two's works and later located publisher's records at the Library of Congress naming King as the author of one of Bachman's novels. This led to a press release heralding Bachman's "death" — supposedly from "cancer of the pseudonym". 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 press conference in London, King declared that he had discovered another Bachman novel, titled Blaze. It was published on June 12, 2007. 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.
Car accident and thoughts of retirement
In the summer of 1999, King had finished the memoir section of On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft, but had abandoned the book for nearly eighteen months, unsure of how or whether to proceed.
On June 19, at about 4:30 p.m., he was reading a book and walking on the shoulder of Route 5, in Lovell, Maine. Driver Bryan Smith, distracted by an unrestrained dog moving in the back of his minivan, struck King, who landed in a depression in the ground about 14 feet from the pavement of Route 5. According to Oxford County Sheriff deputy Matt Baker, King was struck from behind and some witnesses said the driver was not speeding or reckless.
King was conscious enough to give the deputy phone numbers to contact his family but was in considerable pain. The author was first transported to Northern Cumberland Hospital in Bridgton and then flown by helicopter to Central Maine Medical Center, in Lewiston. His injuries—a collapsed right lung, multiple fractures of his right leg, scalp laceration and a broken hip—kept him at CMMC until July 9. His leg bones were so shattered doctors initially considered amputating it, but stabilized the bones in the leg with an external fixator. After five operations in ten days and physical therapy, King resumed work on On Writing in July, though his hip was still shattered and he could only sit for about forty minutes before the pain became worse. Soon it became nearly unbearable.[citation needed]
King's lawyer and two others purchased Smith's van for $1,500, reportedly to prevent it from appearing on eBay. The van was later crushed at a junkyard, much to King's disappointment, as he dreamed of beating it with a baseball bat. King later mentioned during an interview with Fresh Air's Terry Gross that he wanted to completely destroy the vehicle himself with a pickaxe.
Two years later, King suffered severe pneumonia as a direct result of his lung being punctured in the accident. During this time, Tabitha King was inspired to redesign his studio. King visited the space while his books and belongings were packed away. What he saw was an image of what his studio would look like if he died, providing a seed for his novel Lisey's Story.[citation needed]
2000s work
This section requires expansion.
In 2002, King announced he would stop writing, apparently motivated in part by frustration with his injuries, which had made sitting uncomfortable and reduced his stamina. He has since resumed writing, but states on his website that:
"I'm writing but I'm writing at a much slower pace than previously and I think that if I come up with something really, really good, I would be perfectly willing to publish it because that still feels like the final act of the creative process, publishing it so people can read it and you can get feedback and people can talk about it with each other and with you, the writer, but the force of my invention has slowed down a lot over the years and that's as it should be."
In 2000, King published a serialized novel, The Plant, online, bypassing print publication. At first it was presumed by the public that King had abandoned the project because sales were unsuccessful, but he later stated that he had simply run out of stories. The unfinished epistolary novel is still available from King's official site, now free. Also in 2000, he wrote a digital novella, Riding the Bullet, and has said he sees e-books becoming 50% of the market "probably by 2013 and maybe by 2012." But he also warns: "Here's the thing — people tire of the new toys quickly."
In August 2003 King began writing a column on pop culture appearing in Entertainment Weekly, usually every third week. The column is called "The Pop of King", a play on the nickname "The King of Pop" commonly given to Michael Jackson.
In 2006, King published an apocalyptic novel Cell.
In 2008, King published both a novel, Duma Key, and a collection, Just After Sunset. The latter featured 13 short stories, including a novella, N., which was later released as a serialized animated series that could be seen for free, or, for a small fee, could be downloaded in a higher quality; it then was adopted into a limited comic book series.
In 2009, King published Ur, a novella written exclusively for the launch of the second-generation Amazon Kindle and available only on Amazon.com, and Throttle, a novella co-written with his son Joe Hill, which later was released as an audiobook Road Rage, which included Richard Matheson's short story "Duel".
On November 10, 2009, King novel, Under the Dome, was published. It is a reworking of an unfinished novel he tried writing twice in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and at 1,074 pages, it is the largest novel he has written since 1986's It. It debuted at #1 in The New York Times Bestseller List, and #3 in UK Book Charts.[citation needed]
On February 16, 2010, King announced on his website that his next book will be a collection of four previously unpublished novellas. The book will be called Full Dark, No Stars.
In April 2010, King published Blockade Billy, an original novella issued first by independent small press Cemetery Dance Publications and later released in mass market paperback by Simon & Schuster. This baseball-related suspense novella is not set to be reprinted in Full Dark, No Stars.
Work
Main articles: Stephen King bibliography and Short fiction by Stephen King
Writing style
King's formula for learning to write well is: "Read and write four to six hours a day. If you cannot find the time for that, you can't expect to become a good writer." He sets out each day with a quota of 2000 words and will not stop writing until it is met. He 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."
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."
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." He is also often asked why he writes such terrifying stories and he answers with another question "Why do you assume I have a choice?"
King often uses authors as characters, or includes mention of fictional books in his stories, novellas and novels, such as Paul Sheldon who is the main character in Misery and Jack Torrance in The Shining. See also List of fictional books in the works of Stephen King for a complete list. In September 2009 it was announced he would serve as a writer for Fangoria.
Influences
King has called Richard Matheson "the author who influenced me most as a writer." 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 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 refers to H. P. Lovecraft several times in Danse Macabre. "Gramma", a short story made into a film in the 1980s anthology horror show The New Twilight Zone, mentions Lovecraft's notorious fictional creation Necronomicon, also borrowing the names of a number of the fictional monsters mentioned therein. "I Know What You Need" from the 1976 collection Night Shift, and 'Salem's Lot also mention the tome. In On Writing, King is critical of Lovecraft's dialogue-writing skills, using passages from The Colour Out of Space as particularly poor examples. There are also several examples of King referring to Lovecraftian characters in his work, such as Nyarlathotep and Yog-Sothoth.
King acknowledges the influence of Bram Stoker, particularly on his novel 'Salem's Lot, which he envisioned as a retelling of Dracula. Its related short story "Jerusalem's Lot", is reminiscent of Stoker's The Lair of the White Worm.
King has also referenced author Shirley Jackson. 'Salem's Lot opens with a quotation from Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House, and a character in Wolves of the Calla references the Jackson book We Have Always Lived in the Castle.
King is a fan of John D. MacDonald, and dedicated the novella "Sun Dog" to MacDonald, saying "I miss you, old friend." For his part, MacDonald wrote an admiring preface to Night Shift, and even had his famous character, Travis McGee, reading Cujo in one of the last McGee novels and Pet Sematary in the last McGee novel, The Lonely Silver Rain.
In 1987 King's Philtrum Press published Don Robertson's novel, The Ideal, Genuine Man. In his forenote to the novel, King wrote, "Don Robertson was and is one of the three writers who influenced me as a young man who was trying to 'become' a novelist (the other two being Richard Matheson and John D. MacDonald)."
Robert A. Heinlein's book The Door into Summer is repeatedly mentioned in King's Wolves of the Calla.
In an interview with King, Published in the USA Weekend in March, 2009, the author stated, "People look on writers that they like as an irreplaceable resource. I do. Elmore Leonard, every day I wake up and – not to be morbid or anything, although morbid is my life to a degree – don't see his obituary in the paper, I think to myself, "Great! He's probably working somewhere. He's gonna produce another book, and I'll have another book to read." Because when he's gone, there's nobody else."
King partly dedicated his book Cell to film director George Romero, and wrote an essay for the Elite DVD version of Night of the Living Dead.
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 time line for its completion.
King also wrote the nonfiction book, Faithful with novelist and fellow Red Sox fanatic Stewart O'Nan.
In 1996 King collaborated with Michael Jackson to create Ghosts, a 40-minute musical video in which the singer portrays a recluse living in a mansion confronting an unwelcoming group of townsfolk initially calling for his exodus from their community.
"Throttle", a novella written in collaboration with his son Joe Hill, appears in the anthology He Is Legend: Celebrating Richard Matheson, (Gauntlet Press, 2009).
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.
King has written a musical play with John Mellencamp titled Ghost Brothers of Darkland County.
King played guitar for the rock band Rock-Bottom Remainders, several of whose members are authors. Other members include Dave Barry, Ridley Pearson, Scott Turow, Amy Tan, James McBride, Mitch Albom, Roy Blount, Jr., Matt Groening, Kathi Kamen Goldmark, Sam Barry, and Greg Iles. None of them claim to have any musical talent. King is a fan of the rock band AC/DC, who did the soundtrack for his 1986 film, Maximum Overdrive. He is also a fan of The Ramones, who wrote the title song for Pet Sematary and appeared in the music video. King referred to the band several times in various novels and stories and The Ramones referenced King on the song "It's Not My Place (In the 9 to 5 World)", which is on 1981's Pleasant Dreams. In addition he wrote the liner notes for their tribute album We're a Happy Family. In 1988, the band Blue Öyster Cult recorded an updated version of their 1974 song "Astronomy". The single released for radio play featured a narrative intro spoken by King.
On Sunday, October 25, 2009 the DC Comics Vertigo blog news feed released that King will team up with short story writer Scott Snyder and artist Rafael Albuquerque in a new monthly comic book series from Vertigo in March 2010 called American Vampire. King is to write the background history of the very first American vampire, Skinner Sweet, in the five issues of the first arc. Scott Snyder will write the story of Pearl. Both stories are to weave together to form the first story arc.
In 2010, King collaborated with musician Shooter Jennings and his band Hierophant, providing the narration for their most recent album, Black Ribbons.
Films and TV
Main article: Media based on Stephen King works
Many of King's novels and short stories have been made into major motion pictures or TV movies and miniseries.
King has stated that his favorite book-to-film adaptations are Stand by Me, The Shawshank Redemption, and The Mist.
King's first film appearance was in George Romero's Knightriders as a buffoonish audience member. His first featured role was 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. He has since made cameos in several adaptations of his works. He appeared in Pet Sematary as a minister at a funeral, in Rose Red as a pizza deliveryman, as a news reporter in The Storm of the Century, in The Stand as "Teddy Wieszack," in the Shining miniseries as a band member, in The Langoliers as Tom Holby and in Sleepwalkers as the cemetery caretaker. He has also appeared in The Golden Years, in Chappelle's Show and, along with fellow author Amy Tan, on The Simpsons as himself. In addition to acting, King tried his hand at directing with Maximum Overdrive, in which he also made a cameo appearance as a man using an ATM that is on the fritz.
King produced and acted in a miniseries, Kingdom Hospital, which is based on the Danish miniseries Riget by Lars von Trier. He also co-wrote The X-Files season 5 episode "Chinga" with the creator of the series Chris Carter.
King has also made an appearance as a contestant on Celebrity Jeopardy! in 1995, playing to benefit the Bangor Public Library.
King provided the voice of Abraham Lincoln in the audiobook version of Assassination Vacation.
In 2010, King appeared in a cameo role as a cleaner named Bachman on the FX series Sons of Anarchy.
In a 2009 episode of Family Guy, "Three Kings", three of King's novels' film adaptations, Stand By Me, Misery, and The Shawshank Redemption, were parodied.
In the 2000 Family Guy episode "Brian In Love", Brian Griffin accidentally hits a man with his pickup truck, initially fearing that he has struck Stephen King, a reference to the real-life incident experienced by King. However, when the man identifies himself as Dean Koontz, Brian backs up over him again.
A season 3 episode of Quantum Leap is a homage to King, at the end when Sam realizes that the character Stevie is a young Stephen King.
The Syfy TV series Haven, is based on King's novella, The Colorado Kid.
Reception
Critical response
Although critical reaction to King's work has been mostly positive, he has occasionally come under fire from academic writers.
Science fiction editors John Clute and Peter Nichols offer a largely favorable appraisal of King, noting his "pungent prose, sharp ear for dialogue, disarmingly laid-back, frank style, along with his passionately fierce denunciation of human stupidity and cruelty (especially to children) [all of which rank] him among the more distinguished 'popular' writers."
In his analysis of post-World War II horror fiction, The Modern Weird Tale (2001), critic S. T. Joshi devotes a chapter to King's work. Joshi argues that King's best-known works (his supernatural novels), are his worst, describing them as 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 suggests that King's strengths as a writer include the accessible "everyman" quality of his prose, and his unfailingly insightful observations about the pains and joys of adolescence. Joshi cites two early non-supernatural novels—Rage (1977) and The Running Man (1982)—as King's best, suggesting both are riveting and well-constructed suspense thrillers, with believable characters.
In 1996, King won an O. Henry Award for his short story "The Man in the Black Suit".
In 2003, King was honored by the National Book Awards with a lifetime achievement award, the Medal of Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, with his work being described thus:
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.
Some in the literary community expressed disapproval of the award: Richard Snyder, the former CEO of Simon & Schuster, described King's work as "non-literature", and critic Harold Bloom denounced the choice:
The decision to give the National Book Foundation's annual award for "distinguished contribution" to Stephen King is extraordinary, another low in the shocking process of dumbing down our cultural life. I've described King in the past as a writer of penny dreadfuls, but perhaps even that is too kind. He shares nothing with Edgar Allan Poe. What he is is an immensely inadequate writer on a sentence-by-sentence, paragraph-by-paragraph, book-by-book basis.
However, others came to King's defense, such as writer Orson Scott Card, who 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."
In Roger Ebert's review of the 2004 movie Secret Window, he stated, "A lot of people were outraged that [King] was honored at the National Book Awards, as if a popular writer could not be taken seriously. But after finding that his book On Writing had more useful and observant things to say about the craft than any book since Strunk and White's The Elements of Style, I have gotten over my own snobbery."
In 2008, King's book On Writing was ranked 21st on Entertainment Weekly list of "The New Classics: The 100 Best Reads from 1983 to 2008".
Comics
King has done some writing for comic books. In 1985 King wrote a few pages of the benefit X-Men comic book Heroes for Hope Starring the X-Men. The book, whose profits were donated to assist with famine relief in Africa, was written by a number of different authors in the comic book field, such as Chris Claremont, Stan Lee, and Alan Moore, as well as authors not primarily associated with that industry, such as Harlan Ellison. The following year, King wrote the introduction to Batman #400, an anniversary issue in which he expressed his preference for that character over Superman.
In 2007, Marvel Comics began publishing comic books based on King's Dark Tower series, followed by adaptations of The Stand in 2008 and The Talisman in 2009.
In 2010, DC Comics premiered American Vampire, a monthly series written by King with short story writer Scott Snyder, and illustrated by Rafael Albuquerque.
Other work
Radio stations
Stephen and his wife Tabitha own The Zone Corporation, a central Maine radio station group consisting of WZON, WZON-FM, and WKIT. The last of the three stations features a Frankenstein-esque character named "Doug E. Graves" as part of the logo and the tagline "Stephen King's Rock 'n' Roll Station."[citation needed]
Philanthropy
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Since becoming commercially successful, King and his wife have donated large amounts of money to causes around their home state of Maine and elsewhere, notably to literacy projects.
The Kings' early '90s donation to the University of Maine Swim Team saved the program from elimination from the school's athletics department. Donations to local YMCA and YWCA programs have allowed renovations and improvements that would otherwise have been impossible. Additionally, King annually sponsors a number of scholarships for high school and college students.
The Kings do not desire recognition for their funding of Bangor-area facilities: they named the Shawn T. Mansfield Stadium for a prominent local little league coach's son who has cerebral palsy, while the Beth Pancoe Aquatic Park memorializes an accomplished swimmer from the region who died of cancer.
On November 6, 2008, King appeared with friend and fellow author Richard Russo to raise money for the Western Massachusetts food bank. The event held by the Odyssey Bookshop in South Hadley at Mount Holyoke College raised over $18,000 and helped to promote his new collection, Just After Sunset, and Russo's Bridge of Sighs.
Stephen and Tabitha King also donate thousands each year to politically progressive organizations, such as the Maine People's Alliance.
Political activism
In April 2008, King spoke out against HB 1423, a bill pending in the Massachusetts state legislature that would restrict or ban the sale of violent video games to anyone under the age of 18. Although King stated that he had no personal interest in video games as a hobby, he criticized the proposed law, which he sees as an attempt by politicians to scapegoat pop culture, and to act as surrogate parents to others' children, which he asserted is usually "disastrous" and "undemocratic". He also saw the law as inconsistent, as it would forbid a 17-year-old, legally able to see Hostel: Part II, from buying or renting Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, which is violent but less graphic. While conceding that he saw no artistic merit in some violent video games, King also opined that such games reflect the violence that already exists in society, which would not be lessened by such a law, and would be redundant in light of the ratings system that already exists for video games. King argued that such laws allow legislators to ignore the economic divide between the rich and poor, and the easy availability of guns, which he felt were the more legitimate causes of violence.
A controversy emerged on May 5, 2008, when a conservative blogger posted a clip of King at a Library of Congress reading event. King, talking to high-school students, had said: "If you can read, you can walk into a job later on. If you don't, then you've got the Army, Iraq, I don't know, something like that." The comment was described by the blog as "another in a long line of liberal media members bashing the military," and likened to John Kerry's similar remark from 2006. King responded later that day, saying, "That a right-wing-blog would impugn my patriotism because I said children should learn to read, and could get better jobs by doing so, is beneath contempt...I live in a national guard town, and I support our troops, but I don’t support either the war or educational policies that limit the options of young men and women to any one career—military or otherwise." King again defended his comment in an interview with the Bangor Daily News on May 8, saying, "I’m not going to apologize for promoting that kids get better education in high school, so they have more options. Those that don’t agree with what I’m saying, I’m not going to change their minds."
King's website states that he is a supporter of the Democratic Party. During the 2008 presidential election, King voiced his support for Democratic candidate Barack Obama.
King was quoted as calling conservative commentator Glenn Beck "Satan's mentally challenged younger brother."
King and his wife own and occupy three different houses, one in Bangor, one in Lovell, Maine, and they regularly winter in their waterfront mansion located off the Gulf of Mexico, in Sarasota, Florida. He and Tabitha have three children and three grandchildren.
Shortly after publication of The Tommyknockers, King's family and friends staged an intervention, dumping evidence of his addictions taken from the trash including beer cans, cigarette butts, grams of cocaine, Xanax, Valium, NyQuil, dextromethorphan (cough medicine) and marijuana, on the rug in front of him. As King related in his memoir, he then sought help and quit all forms of drugs and alcohol in the late 1980s, and has remained sober since.
Tabitha King has published nine of her own novels. Both King's sons are published authors: Owen King published his first collection of stories, We're All in This Together: A Novella and Stories, in 2005; Joseph Hillstrom published an award-winning collection of short stories, 20th Century Ghosts, in 2005, and his first novel, Heart-Shaped Box will be adapted by Irish director Neil Jordan for a 2010 Warner Bros. release.
King's daughter Naomi spent two years as a minister in the Unitarian Universalist Church, in Utica, New York. Naomi now ministers for the Unitarian Universalist Church of River of Grass, in Plantation, Florida with her same-sex partner, Rev. Dr. Thandeka.
King was raised Methodist, while his wife, Tabitha, was raised Catholic.
King is a fan of baseball, and of the Boston Red Sox in particular; he frequently attends the team's home and away games, and occasionally mentions the team in his novels and stories. He helped coach his son Owen's Bangor West team to the Maine Little League Championship in 1989. He recounts this experience in the New Yorker essay "Head Down", which also appears in the collection Nightmares & Dreamscapes. In 1999, King wrote The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, which featured former Red Sox pitcher Tom Gordon as the protagonist's imaginary companion. King recently co-wrote a book titled Faithful: Two Diehard Boston Red Sox Fans Chronicle the Historic 2004 Season with Stewart O'Nan, recounting the authors' roller coaster reaction to the Red Sox's 2004 season, a season culminating in the Sox winning the 2004 American League Championship Series and World Series.[citation needed] In the 2005 film Fever Pitch, about an obsessive Boston Red Sox fan, King tosses out the first pitch of the Sox's opening day game. He has also devoted one of his columns for Entertainment Weekly on the subject of commercialism in Major League Baseball.[volume & issue needed] He also starred in an ESPN SportsCenter advertisement referencing both his allegiance to the Red Sox and his preferred writing genre (horror fiction).