Stephen Edwin King was born on September 21, 1947 at the Maine General Hospital in Portland Maine. His parents were Donald Edwin King and Ruth Pillsbury King. Stephen being the only natural born child in the family and his older brother David having been adopted at birth two years earlier. The Kings were the typical family until one night when Donald King said he was stepping out for cigarettes and was never heard from again. At this point Ruth took over raising the family with help from other relatives of the family. They traveled throughout many states over several years finally moving back to Durham, Maine in 1958. Stephen King began his actual writing career in January of 1959 when David King and Stephen decided to publish their own local town newspaper named Dave's Rag. David bought a mimeograph and they created a paper that sold for five cents an issue. Stephen King attended Lisbon High School, in Lisbon, Maine in 1962. Collaborating with his best friend Chris Chesley, in 1963 they published a collection of 18 short stories called People, Places, and Things-Volume I. King's stories included "Hotel at the End of the Road", "I've Got to Get Away!", "The Dimension Warp", "The Thing at the Bottom of the Well", "The Stranger", "I'm Falling", "The Cursed Expedition", and "The Other Side of the Fog." A year later King's amateur press Triad and Gaslight Books, published a two part book titled "The Star Invaders". Stephen King made is first actual published appearance in 1965 in the magazine Comics Review with his story "I Was a Teenage Grave Robber." The story ran about 6,000 words in length. In 1966, Stephen King graduated from high school and took a scholarship to attend the University of Maine. Looking back on his high school days, King recalled that "my high school career was totally undistinguished. I was not at the top of my class, nor at the bottom." Later that summer King began working on a novel called "Getting It On", about some kids who take over a classroom and try unsuccessfully to ward off the National Guard. During his first year at college, King completed his first full length novel, "The Long Walk." He submitted the novel to Bennett Cerf/Random House only to have it rejected. King took the rejection bad and filed the book away. Stephen King made his first small sale with his story "The Glass Floor" for the amount of thirty-five dollars. In June 1970, Stephen King graduated from the University of Maine with a Bachelor of Science degree in English and a certificate to teach high school. King's next idea came from the poem by Robert Browning, "Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came." He found bright colored green paper in the library and began work on The Dark Tower saga. But due to his lack of income he was unable to further pursue the novel at great length and it too was filed away. King took a measly job of pumping gas earning $1.25 an hour. Stephen King then began to earn money for his writings by submitting his short stories do men's magazines such as Cavalier. On January 2, 1971, Tabitha Jane Spruce and Stephen King were married. And in the fall of 1971, King took a teaching job at Hampden Academy earning $6,400 a year. The Kings then moved to Hermon, a town west of Bangor, Maine. Stephen King than began work on a short story about a teenage girl named Carietta White. After a completing a few pages, King decided it was not a worthy story and crumpled the pages up and tossed them into the trash. Fortunately for Stephen, his wife Tabitha took the pages out and read them. She encouraged her husband to continue the story. He did. In January 1973, King submitted Carrie to Doubleday. In March, Doubleday bought the book. On May 12, Doubleday sold the paperback rights of Carrie to New American Library for $400,000. Based on the book contract, Stephen King would get half of that. King quit his teaching job to pursue writing full time. And the rest, as they say, is history. Since then, King has had numerous short stories and novels published and movies created from his work. Stephen King is called the "Master of Horror". His books have been translated into 33 different languages, published in over 35 different countries. There are over 300 million copies of his novels in publication. He continues to live in Bangor, Maine with his wife where he writes out of his home. In June 1999 Stephen King was severely injured in an accident that left him in critical condition with injuries to his lung, broken ribs, a broken leg and a severely fractured hip. After three weeks of operations he was released from the Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston, Maine.

Usually sets stories in Maine.

Most of his lead male characters are writers.

Newspapers reported that he has bought the van that hit him on June; he plans to hammer it to pieces on the anniversary of the accident. [September 1999]

King was accidentally hit in the back by a minivan while walking on Route 5 near North Lovell, Maine. He suffered a broken leg, a bruised lung and a head laceration. The driver of the van was distracted by his dog. King was found lying in a depression about 14 feet off the road and appeared to have been thrown by the collision. The van's windshield was broken and the right front corner of the car was crunched in from the impact of striking King. [19 June 1999]

Revealed that he is suffering from Macular Degeneration, a currently incurable condition which will most likely lead to blindness. [May 1999]

Estimated annual salary is $40 million. [May 1999]

HBO has paid $1.5 million for the rights to the novel 'Rose Madder'. [October 1996]

King has never censored his own work - the death scene of the doctor in novel "'Salem's Lot" was cut due to the demands of the editor in Doubleday.

King published six novels (Rage, The Long Walk, Roadwork, The Running Man, Thinner and The Regulators) under the pseudonym Richard Bachman.

Portions of King's writings from when he was 9 years old appears in the 1993 book, "First Words", edited by Paul Mandelbaum, available from Algonquin books.

Supposedly created his pseudonym Richard Bachman by reading a novel by Donald E. Westlake, whose pseudonym is Richard Stark, while listening to Bachman-Turner-Overdrive. Likes to have cameos in his movies (big screen and TV).

It is falsely rumored that Stephen will not sign autographs because of superstition. Factually, he does not do autographs because he hates the idolatry of celebrities. He will sign autographs if they are sent to his office where he checks that no one gets more than two in their lifetime. It generally takes him 18 - 24 months to send an autograph. He also will not endorse an official fan club for the same reason.

Met his wife Tabitha King while the two were working at the Fogler Library as students at the University of Maine in Orono, Maine.

Used to work for a dry cleaner before publishing his first novel.

His daughter Naomi wed her 54 year old lesbian partner Thandeka (who is a theological school teacher) in Nashville, Tennessee. [June 2000]

Bryan Smith, the driver of the van which hit Stephen King, dies. Stephen King said in statement "I was very sorry to hear of the passing of Bryan Smith, the death of a 43-year-old man can only be termed untimely." [26 September 2000]

Scored in the 1300s on the SAT.

Children: Naomi Rachel (b. 1972), Joseph Hillstrom (b. 1974) and Owen Phillip (b. 1979).

Wrote "The Running Man", a 304 page novel, in only ten days

Owns three radio stations in Maine (one has been named AP Station of the Year more than once) Online at zoneradio.com

Certified by Guinness Superlatives (the "Book of World Records" group) as having the most number of motion picture adaptations by a living author.

In 1992, Stephen and Tabitha King gave a donation to build Mansfield Stadium in Bangor, Maine. In August, 2002, he threw the first pitch at the opening of the Senior League Baseball World Series; and the Kings were honored for their generosity with an inscribed stone momument shaped like a home plate.

Contributed a short monologue to two versions of the Blue Öyster Cult song "Astronomy" (from the out-of-print "Imaginos" album) on a promotional CD single.

His short story "The Man in the Black Suit" won an O. Henry Award for Best Short Story in 1996.

25 Novemeber 2003 - Underwent surgery to remove scar tissue and fluid from his lungs from a bout of pneumonia.

Owns a house on Sanibel Island, Florida

Supposedly created his pseudonym Richard Bachman by reading a novel by Donald E. Westlake, whose pseudonym is Richard Stark, while listening to Bachman-Turner-Overdrive.

Once said that his favorite personal horror movie was Tourist Trap (1979), directed by David Schomeller.

"I've killed enough of the world's trees."

"I'm a salami writer. I try to write good salami, but salami is salami."

"Each life makes its own imitation of immortality."

"When asked, 'How do you write?' I invariably answer, 'one word at a time.'"

"I recognize terror as the finest emotion and so I will try to terrorize the reader. But if I find that I cannot terrify, I will try to horrify, and if I find that I cannot horrify, I'll go for the gross-out. I'm not proud."

"I am the literary equivalent of a Big Mac and fries."

"For every six crappy poems you read, you'll actually find one or two good ones. And that, believe me, is a very acceptable ratio of trash to treasure."

People want to know why I do this, why I write such gross stuff. I like to tell them I have the heart of a small boy... and I keep it in a jar on my desk.

[Asked why he hasn't personally directed more movies] Just watch "Maximum Overdrive."