Considered the "King of Terror," Stephen King (Portland, Maine, 1947) is one of the greatest bestselling writers of the XNUMXth century. With more than 350 million books sold, the author of Carrie or The Shining has a life just as sinister as that of the novels that have made him an icon of contemporary literature. We sail in the Stephen King biography and best books.
Stephen King Biography
Born into a family marked by the abandonment of his father when he was only two years old, Stephen King grew up with his brother David and his mother Ruth in Maine, Indiana or Connecticut. The family situation, which suffered from great financial problems, became the perfect setting for a restless child who He began to write stories from a young age and later sell them as stories to his classmates. An activity that was not well regarded by some teachers who forced him to return the money he had earned.
Young King's transition to horror literature took place at the age of 13, when he discovered a box of horror novels that had belonged to his father. From then on he began to write different short science fiction stories that he sent to different magazines. However, most publications ended up rejecting his writings until In a Half-World of Terror, published in Comics Review magazine, became his first cartoon released by an official publication in 1965.
A year later, she began studying Art in English at the University of Maine while working part-time jobs to pay for her studies and help her mother financially. Different stories emerged from these years, such as The Crusher or the Damned Highway.
In 1971, the year in which he managed to graduate, the author married the writer Tabitha King, whom he met at the University. An encounter of fate considering that it was Tabitha who rescued from the trash a work discarded by her husband named Carrie to encourage you to finish it. Little did King foresee that after submitting the manuscript to Doubleday, he would receive a publication offer for a $ 2.500 advance. A figure that increased to $ 400.000 from the sale of the rights to the novel.
King's upward success coincided with his many problems with alcohol and drugs, addictions reflected in characters like Jack Torrance, the main writer of The Shining (1977). Luckily, the author decided to do a total cleanup throughout the 80s.
With works such as The Mystery of Salem's Lost (1975), The Dance of Death (1978), The Dead Zone (1979), Cujo (1981), Animal Cemetery (1983), It (1986) or Misery (1987), Stephen King can boast of one of the strongest literary careers of his generation, because in addition to the millionaire sales of his novels, many of them as Carrie, The Shining, Misery, Life imprisonment or the recent It became ambitious film productions.
A prolific career that was undermined when in the summer of 1999 King was hit by a car and subjected to more than ten operations. The loss of energy led him to slow down the writing of his works and combine his work as a fiction author with his column in Entertainment Weekly or projects such as writing a comic based on his famous saga The Dark Tower.
One of the best writers of the horror genre whose potential is confirmed by these following titles.
Best Stephen King books
Carrie
Although it is not considered as the best work of Stephen King, the symbolism of Carrie it goes beyond its character as a first work or an adaptation to the big screen that swept through 1976. It is a story in which the tension advances in growing featuring a young, seemingly shy girl whose unbridled fury represents the hypocrisies of a corrupt society.
Revelation
King's best-selling fiction it was released in 1978 to critical acclaim and an absolute best-seller. Set in 1990 and divided into three parts, the novel tells of the consequences of a virus conceived as a bacteriological weapon that ends up spreading throughout the world. The characters of the plot have common dreams in which a young man and an old woman appear to them that incites them to travel to Nebraska to fight an abominable being behind all this Revelation.
The Shining
One the most famous works of Stephen King features one of its most iconic characters: Jack Torrance, an alcoholic writer who decides to move with his wife and son to the Overlock Hotel to keep an eye on him during the winter season. An accommodation whose past encompasses underworlds and events that will transform the harmony of this not-so-perfect family. The book, published in 1977, It was adapted for film by Stanley Kubrick in 1980 starring Jack Nicholson. Despite the good reviews of the film, King was not entirely satisfied with the adaptation.
Would you like to read The Shining?
It
After the success of the film adaptation released in 2017, one of the 80s badge horror novels has lived a resurgence that reminds us why It He is one of the most terrifying characters in literature. Published in 1986, the story is set in two time frames: the late 50s and 1985, the year in which the group of "The Losers" returned to their hometown, Derry, to face a ruthless being disguised as a clown who lives in the sewers.
Misery
As if it were a prediction of the altercation that King suffered in 1999, the protagonist of Misery, the romance novel writer Paul Sheldon, who after suffering a car accident wakes up at the home of Annie Wilkies, a nurse who declares herself to be an admirer of his work; so much so that he ends up imposing his will in the creation of the next work in which Sheldon is immersed. A novel that acquired even more terrifying heights after the premiere of the 1990 film adaptation in which Kathy Bates won the Oscar for Best Actress for her incarnation of the devilish Annie.
What are, in your opinion, the best Stephen King books?