Stephen King

BIO

Stephen King is the author of more than thirty books, all of them worldwide bestsellers. Among his most recent are DREAMCATCHER, ON WRITING, HEARTS IN ATLANTIS, THE GIRL WHO LOVED TOM GORDON, BAG OF BONES, THE GREEN MILE, and BLACK HOUSE with Peter Straub. ON WRITING WAS his first book of nonfiction since DANSE MACABRE, published in 1981. He served as a judge for Prize Stories: The Best of 1999, The O. Henry Awards. He lives in Bangor, Maine, with his wife, novelist Tabitha King.

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ARTICLE

KING QUALITY

Your child could be the next Stephen King.

Before you laugh, shake your head and move on to this week's reviews, think about how Stephen King got to be Stephen King. It wasn't easy.

When Stephen King was two, his father walked out on him, his older brother, David, and their mother Nellie Pillsbury King. Mrs. King, by all accounts, did not have the luxury of wasting time and energy on self-pity. She, after all, had to feed and provide for herself and two very small boys. The family bounced around quite a bit for several years and although, by King's account, they never went hungry my guess was that the future was, at times, very, very uncertain. But somehow the boys were educated. This says as much about Stephen and David as it does about their mother. As we all know, you can give the football to the quarterback but what separates the bad from the good is whether he rolls up in a ball and cries for mommy or coolly looks downfield while a 350 pound tackle is doing his best to lay rude hands on him, but there aren't many kids of any age who are so enamored of book learning that they don't need some persuasion once in a while. And apparently the King boys got it.

So, we have Stephen, whose multitalented abilities and work ethic have resulted in his being a genre unto himself. And this was not a case of random lightning striking. Brother David is quite the genius in his own right, as well, to the extent that in some circles --- small, but technologically important --- he is known as David King, who has a younger brother who writes books or something. What do these guys have in common? Their mother, who, though no doubt uncertain about what the next month or day would bring, though no doubt tired from working drudge-like hours at drudge-like jobs, decided that she was going to make a difference. One person. And she did.

You know people like this. I do. Let's start with my wife, who left material comfort in Long Island to work for years as a special education teacher in Oak Hill, West Virginia. And took a bit of each of her paychecks to buy shoes for a student who might be looking a little threadbare. Or my friend Jim, the hippie-Commie lawyer, who when he isn't pounding the table arguing with me, visits a homeless shelter each night trying to teach some poor, halfway sober soul how to read. Will this move the world? No. Will it make a difference? Maybe.

So. I know you're tired. You work, you deserve a break and you don't need me standing on your last nerve about this any longer. But if your child is interested in something, don't hinder him. Help him. And if the most he is capable of being interested in is crawling across the room to tip over the dog dish, pick him up and read to him. It sinks in. And it may not turn him into the next Stephen King, but he may have the ability and inclination to take care of you in your old age. And that's enough.

   --- Joe Hartlaub

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ARTICLE

Every epic has a beginning.

It is tempting to begin this story on September 21, 1947, with the birth of Stephen Edwin King to Ruth Pillsbury King and Donald King, their second son and first and only biological child. But perhaps his story really starts in 1949 when Donald King, later described by his wife as not having a great deal of stick-to-it in his nature, went out for a pack of cigarettes and disappeared from the lives of his wife and two children forever.

From all accounts, Mrs. King was not one to cry and wring her hands over this loss. She did, after all, have two small boys to take care of. Among her few remaining assets was a talent for the piano, a wonderful sense of humor and a work ethic that would shame us all. While the Kings did not live in grand style, there was always food on the table and a roof over their heads.

Because of economic necessity, the family moved frequently. They found themselves in Durham, Maine, in 1958 where a number of Mrs. King's relatives resided and where the family would remain for several years. And it was in the fall of 1959 or 1960 that Stephen and his older brother David would make a discovery that would change Stephen's world forever --- and shake up the rest of the world as well.

The King family settled in a modest home in Durham which was about a quarter-mile away from the home of Oren and Ethelyn Flaws. Ethelyn was Mrs. King's sister and at some indeterminate point in the past had volunteered the use of the Flaws' garage attic to store various items belonging to the King family. David and Stephen --- inseparable then as now --- loved to rummage through this attic, which served as somewhat of a de facto family museum, looking at pictures and memorabilia of family members.

The King brothers found traces of their long-gone father on several of their forays into the attic. David, on one occasion, discovered a reel of movie film and rented a movie projector which allowed the King brothers to watch, over and over, candid footage of their father, waving and smiling to sons who had not even been a gleam in his eye when the film was made. They also found boxes of their father's merchant marine manuals and the like. But what really rocked Stephen's world forever was Stephen's discovery on a brisk fall afternoon of his father's box of paperback books.

These were not just any books. Donald King's tastes ran to science fiction and...horror. And his son Stephen devoured the books. And even though the box of books disappeared a week or two after its discovery and resurrection (Stephen's Aunt Ethelyn was a school teacher and did not consider such...literature...to be a wholesome influence) the die was cast.

Donald King was a bit more than a reader, however. He also tried his hand, though not for long, at genre writing, collecting rejection slips for his short stories from magazines such as Bluebook and Argosy. And at the age of nine, his son Stephen started writing, too. Stephen King began writing for his Aunt Gert, who paid him a quarter for each completed story. King now laughingly describes how he inundated her with stories. But he kept writing after the practice stopped. He wrote one-page stories with a childhood friend named Chris Chesley and stories by himself as a teenager and a 50,000 word science-fiction novel titled THE AFTERMATH when he was 16 years old (no, it has never been published) and stories for photo-offset comic book and science fiction fanzines and stories while he was getting a degree at the University of Maine and columns for the college newspaper. And in 1967, he made his first professional sale, to a long-forgotten, occasionally wonderful magazine titled Startling Mystery Stories which bought his story, The Glass Floor. King continued to write, even after graduating from the University of Maine in 1970, while working a variety of laborer-type jobs, and getting a job teaching English at Hampden academy. Marriage to his college sweetheart, Tabitha Spruce, and the birth of their first child occurred in 1971. And still he wrote. He made second tier short story sales to what are politely known as "men's magazines" (and impolitely known as "strokebooks") which, he fondly recalls, would provide money which would arrive just in time to pay for a doctor's visit or a new set of children's clothes. And he kept on writing, and amassing rejection slips for short stories and novels.

In 1973,  King submitted a novel about a troubled, lonely girl whose telekinetic powers awaken with the onset of adolescence. The book, entitled CARRIE, was published in 1974. And things began changing for Stephen King. 'SALEM'S LOT, a tale of vampirism let loose in a small Maine town followed. Then THE SHINING, a masterpiece about a majestic --- and haunted --- resort hotel in Colorado. A collection of short stories called NIGHTSHIFT, and a mammoth book about world decimation by a plague inspired by evil called THE STAND were also published. And pretty soon (seemingly "overnight," to those of us who were not collecting rejection slips while working at factory jobs) Stephen King was a household name.    

Before the end of the decade, however, King found that he was becoming more than a well-known horror writer. Horror novels began to be described as "Stephen King-type books." King, with characteristic graciousness and modesty, credits William Peter Blatty's novel THE EXORCIST with opening the door for his type of novel to be accepted in the mainstream. King, however, did not walk in through the door; he blew the whole damn house off of its foundations. Although readers used to have to hunt through the fiction, or the science fiction for the H. P.  Lovecraft or William Hope Hodgson reprints, they began to appear in bookstores and drugstores and even in airports sections designated to...Horror. You know, Stephen King-type books. He even wrote Stephen King-type books under the name "Richard Bachman," with titles like RAGE and THINNER and THE RUNNING MAN. And people still could not --- and cannot --- get enough of Stephen King.  

There was --- and is --- just one problem with this classification. King is not only a good horror writer. He is, quite simply, an excellent writer. People who would not pick up a horror novel unless you held a cleaver to the throat of their six-week-old beagle pup will read DIFFERENT SEASONS or THE GIRL WHO LOVED TOM GORDON and pass it on. And they should. But they should also go on to MISERY or THE DEAD ZONE and DESPERATION and BAG OF BONES. And then go hunt down novels like THINNER. For these stories are not just blood and gore and monsters; they are tales about confrontation and elements of the human condition like hard choices ('SALEM'S LOT, PET SEMETARY, NEEDFUL THINGS), romance (BAG O' BONES), and heroism, which is nothing more than doing the right thing when the right thing is not easy (the ongoing saga of THE DARK TOWER). King touches on all of these things. Just like that Shakespeare fella used to.

And just like Shakespeare, King has his critics. Some of whom whine so much they should be placed together in a cellar. King writes too many books. This complaint comes from the keyboards of those who wish that they could do --- just once --- what King has done time and time again, but who instead sit like monkeys tied for all eternity to word processors hoping that their random striking will one day turn out HAMLET. King appeals to the lowest common denominator. This is a complaint usually voiced against anyone who is more popular than the declarant, and a complaint registered against Shakespeare by the critics of his day.

But it's funny. The critics who moan the loudest dismissed King as a flash in the pan 20 or so years ago. And some of his best writing is in his latest book, HEARTS IN ATLANTIS, or in one of his most recent short stories, Lunch at the Gotham Cafe.  Name another writer, living or dead, who has been able, with only minor variability, to sustain the consistent quality which Steven King has over the course of a quarter century. And I do mean the world. King is not a localized acquired taste. He is a household name in Britain and Argentina. My friend Mike Parks, sculptor, bass player and collector extrordinaire, has a set of the works of Stephen King. In Japanese.

Flash in the pan. No. Lowest common denominator. Hardly. He has written enough classics, while at the same time remaining unique, to be a genre unto himself. And I have a feeling that he has not even written his best book yet. King, when at the top of his game presents a universality, a timeless portrait of the human condition with which the greatest and least of us and all others in between can identify. He remains fresh with each new offering. Yet, his books, from the first page to the last, are as comfortable as that old pair of shoes that you simply cannot give up. You know the pair. The pair the spiders just crawled into.

   --- Joe Hartlaub

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PAST INTERVIEW -- 1999

The TBR offices were all abuzz when we got THE call.

It was Stephen King's office calling to tell us that he would do an interview for TBR. But once the cheers and high-fives subsided, there was an eerie moment of silence. Our minds raced. What should we ask the King of horror --- the man who terrified and compelled us with all-time classics like CARRIE and THE SHINING?

We are pleased to announce ---- even to those of you who have read everything Stephen King has ever written and sleep with the STEPHEN KING COMPANION under your pillow --- that you are in for a special treat! We've asked the questions every fan wants answered and the ones we were dying to ask. We're glad to bring you the funny side of the man who is the master at keeping you up half the night reading --- and the other half afraid to fall asleep.

And no, you won't have to go to Bangor, Maine to get the answers. They're all right here on TBR.

TRC: It has taken you many years to write the DARK TOWER series. How has your writing changed from the GUNSLINGER to WIZARD AND GLASS? Is this your favorite storyline?

STEPHEN KING: With each new book, the novels about Roland got more complex, and they became more individual. When I began, I was very influenced by the so-called spaghetti westerns of Sergio Leone and since then the gunslinger has taken on a character and will of his own. I wouldn't say this is my favorite story line, although it is hard to tell since it is the only continuing series I have written, but it seems to be many readers' favorite story line.

TRC: You have said that you just write "salami fiction" for popular entertainment. Yet the hero of MISERY expresses conflict about being thought of as a popular writer. Do you ever feel that conflict?

STEPHEN KING: I never feel a conflict in my own soul between popular fiction and so-called literary fiction; when I sit down at the word processor, I just do what I do. I am always disappointed, however, when my work or another writer's work is relentlessly ghettoized by people who would protest vehemently if blacks were excluded from their local country club.

TRC: You have been quoted as saying "I want to stay dangerous, and that means taking risks." What is your next big risk?

STEPHEN KING: My next big risk is a book called ON FICTION, which is a book about writing stories. It is also a book about my own past, and that feels very risky to me.

TRC: There has been a lot of news about your new contract with Scribner. What prompted you to change publishers now?

STEPHEN KING: I had gotten a bit stale at Viking, and we had reached a point where we were a bit too comfortable with each other. Harking back to the previous question, much of the risk is gone. Scribner's feels like a fresh start.

TRC: You were just in the Australian outback. Did you wrestle any crocodiles? Did you get any ideas for a new novel?

STEPHEN KING: I didn't wrestle any crocodiles or get any ideas in Australia, but I did box a kangaroo. Just kidding.

TRC: You said you are writing a non-fiction book about the craft of writing. What do you think are the essentials for practicing the craft?

STEPHEN KING: Yes, I am writing a book about writing, but if I tell you what I am writing, who will read the book?

TRC: Who is the bigger KING --- you or Elvis?

STEPHEN KING: Elvis is the KING. Elvis will always be the KING. However, there is this --- I am still alive.

TRC: Dave Barry has said that the ROCK BOTTOM REMAINDERS "plays music as well as Metallica writes novels." Will the band be touring anytime soon?

STEPHEN KING: Yes, The Rock Bottom Remainders will be touring. During Mental Health Week, we intend to tour several lunatic asylums and hopefully have some success in reaching deeply catatonic patients.

TRC: Is it true that you listen to loud heavy metal music while you write? Many consider metal dead --- do you agree? Do you listen to any new bands or do you stick with the classics like Metallica and AC/DC?

STEPHEN KING: All heavy metal is good metal.

TRC: Many movies have been adapted from your novels and short stories. Is this a blessing or a curse? You were not happy with the Kubrick version of THE SHINING --- what about the new version? Are there any more movies/TV series in the works?

STEPHEN KING: The following films are in the works: APT PUPIL, which is pretty much completed; STORM OF THE CENTURY, a 6-hour miniseries which is in preparation, and ROSE MADDER, which is in pre-production for HBO. Also pending are DESPERATION (New Line Cinema) and THE GREEN MILE (Castle Rock Productions, Frank Darabont, Director). And I have written an episode of THE X-FILES, but do not know its fate yet.

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