As a long-time Stephen King fan, I want to wish him a Happy Birthday as he turns 78 today. For a man to live the life he has and to still be kicking is a testament to perseverance. Raised in poverty mostly in rural Maine, his father left when he was two. And King and his mother, Nellie Ruth, and brother, David, bounced around New England and the Mid-west.
King admitted by the time he graduated high school and entered college, he was drinking a lot. He worked odd jobs to make ends meet and wrote short stories to sell to “skin magazines.” He later discovered his mother cut corners to send him money while he was in college. She never got to see her son become famous as she passed away in late December 1973 shortly before his first novel, Carrie, was published. He did say his mother had received the new the book was going to be published before her death. Yet, King himself said the publication advance wasn’t enough to quit his teaching job just yet. That would a few years later.
Married in 1971 to his college sweetheart, Tabitha Spruce, they spent a few years having to work extra jobs to make ends meet. When he first received word on the publication of Carrie, the family didn’t even have a working phone and Tabitha had to go to the neighbor’s house to inform him at work. Tabitha would be the one King would say made him finish Carrie after he threw the first few pages in trash.
Following success in the latter half of the 1970s, King began to abuse alcohol and drugs a lot, snorting cocaine and other drugs. He has admitted to having no memory writing the first draft of Cujo. He said it was Tabitha who came to him in the mid-1980s giving him an ultimatum – he can have the drugs and booze or her and their kids (Joe, Naomi and Owen), but he couldn’t have both. Following the disaster that was his only directorial effort Maximum Overdrive, King got clean and began to devote his success to many causes, donating monies to libraries and fire departments so they could purchase more equipment.
He’s well known to be an outspoken liberal and anti-war activist, even though he sheepishly admitted to voting for Richard M. Nixon in 1968 as he had a way to get America out of Vietnam. During the 1990s, he found himself reach bigger success as many of his adaptations (Misery, The Shawshank Redemption, Delores Claiborne and The Green Mile) became critical hits and recognized at the Oscars and other awards shows.
Following a 1999 accident in which he was struck by a van while taking a walk, he managed to bounce back with a moving memoir On Writing that showcased more how Tabitha was his better half. In 2003, he was awarded the Medal for Distinguished Contributions to American Letters by the National Book Awards. In 2014, he was awarded the National Medal of Arts.
Even though he has only directed one movie, he has written several screenplays as well as teleplays and worked with horror filmmakers George A. Romero and Mick Garris. He admitted in the early 2000s, he would quit publishing once he completed The Dark Tower series. But it doesn’t seem like there’s any slowing down for King as of now despite criticisms for his social media posts.
What is your favorite book and/or movie/TV series? Please comment.
Zane Says 