Thanks to Stephen King I have a phobia of clowns and balloons as well as obscure cemeteries, oh and lets not forget little blonde-headed girls who look at me the wrong way. I never knew much about him other than he lives in Maine so I decided to research him after watching The Shining for the hundredth time.
Born on September 21, 1947 in Portland, Maine. His Father left the family two years later, leaving King's Mother to raise him and his older adopted brother on her own. As a child he witnessed a friend killed by a train-hmmm....Stand By Me? I always wondered the origins of that story. Apparently, he never remembered the details of the incident.
In 1970 he graduated from the University of Maine with a BA in English and in the same year his daughter was born. With selling a few short stories and working odd jobs he struggled financially. He decided to get his teaching certificate and shortly after was hired at Hampden Academy. Subsequently his alcohol abuse began and continued on for ten years.
Carrie was published in 1973 and I recall watching the movie as a child even though I wasn't allowed. Salem's Lot (I still get the chills recalling the tv miniseries with David Soul) was published in 1975 and shortly after moved his family to Boulder, CO where he birthed the idea for The Shining. Needless to say his career took off from there.
His talents don't stop at horror, but he also dabbles in poetry, songwriting as well as comics. Here are some of my favourite quotes of his....
"Get busy living, or get busy dying."
"Fiction is the truth inside the lie."
"I guess when you turn off the main road, you have to be prepared to see some funny houses."
"A lot of us grow up and we grow out of the literal interpretation that we get when we're children, but we bear the scars all our life. Whether they're scars of beauty or scars of ugliness, it's pretty much in the eye of the beholder."
Thank you Stephen King for being who you are.
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