Biography
The king of horror, Stephen King is responsible for some of the most chilling novels ever written, including Carrie, IT and The Shining.
Born in Maine in 1947, Stephen Edwin King was a voracious reader from a young age. After stumbling across a collection of short stories by H.P. Lovecraft in the attic as a child, he realised that he wanted to write for a living.
After graduating from university in 1970, he wrote short stories before finding work at a school. It was while working as a high school teacher that he became inspired to write about the cruelty of children: Carrie, his debut novel, was published in 1974. After teaching Dracula to his students, King wrote Salem’s Lot the following year, and, after a visit to the Stanley Hotel, wrote The Shining in 1977.
His early novels were well-received, and helped turn the horror genre from niche to mainstream. The film release of Carrie in 1976 bolstered sales of his novels, and helped cement King as the king of horror. It also allowed him to quit his job and focus on writing full time. A prolific writer, King has to date written 65 novels, 200 short stories - most of which have been published in short story compilations - 5 non-fiction books, and 7 novels under the pen name Richard Bachman.
With an immense gift for creating characters we come to genuinely care about, even as they commit the most horrific acts, Stephen King’s novels are wildly imaginative yet eminently relatable, drawing you in with the familiar and shocking you with the unexpected.
