Stephen Edwin King Research Paper

On September 21, 1947 at Maine General Hospital, Nellie Ruth Pillsbury King more commonly known as Ruth, gave birth to Stephen Edwin King. Stephen was the Kings second child but first natural born. Like many typical families of the time Stephens mother would take care of the house and his father Donald would make the money for the household. This soon changed in 1950 when Donald said he was going to the store to buy some cigarettes but never returned, leaving Ruth to care for Stephen and his brother by herself. Being that their mother could not afford to pay for a babysitter and working three jobs just to keep them afloat, Stephen and David would read to each other to “take care” of each other. Most of the time they would read mystery stories

She kept the boy’s spirits up with humor and storytelling which would have a lasting impact on Stephen. The boys decided that they should be able to rely on themselves so David found an old typewriter and started a newsletter known as “Dave’s Rag” and Stephen contributed by writing reviews on movies, TV shows and short stories. Stephen’s life revolved around reading, even lining his walls with paperbacks. After he would make a little money from his neighbors he would go the theater to watch Si-Fi and horror movies. One day he found a box of his father’s stuff which had a stack of rejection letters from magazines and when he asked his mother about them she said that he was an aspired writer but lacked persistence. Stephen then decided to attempt to get published and soon started a stack of rejection letters himself but he never lost hope. In high school Stephen had a job digging graves which inspired him to write a short story about it, that was then published in

Although life was going very well for Stephen, he stayed a humble man and knew that it could all soon go away if Carrie was his only published book. To make sure this would not happen he would write at least 1500 words per day. His writings would mostly be inspired by people and incidents in his small rural town in Maine. His next published book was Salem’s Lot, which he received $250,000 for and was promised more for the movie rights. When the movie was released it was an immediate success and was the movie that made Stephen a “King” in the movie industry. With the huge success of Carrie, Stephens fans were waiting and searching for anything that had his name on it, which turned out to be his next success and first hard back best seller, The Shining. It sold 50,000 in hardbacks and the paperback sold almost 2.5 million copies. This book was inspired by the hardships and stress he and his wife went through before Stephen was a successful, published author. His fourth success and what many people claim as his masterpiece was The Stand, which was released in 1978. The original manuscript for the novel was 1200 pages long, which his publisher Doubleday asked him to shave 400 pages off. This upset Stephen because he felt that with all the money he was bring the publisher, he should