He has been called the Master of Horror. The name of my favorite novelist invokes childhood memories of jumping that last foot to get into bed, making your parents check the closet, hiding under the covers with a flashlight, and begging to sleep with the lights on. His novels are epic battles between good and evil, they examine the best and worst in people, and they bring all those childhood monsters to life.
Stephen Edwin King was born September 21, 1947 in Portland, Maine, the second child of Donald King and Nellie Ruth Pillsbury-King. Stephen and his brother David were raised by their mother after their father left the family. In 1970, he graduated from the University of Maine at Orono, and the following year, he married his wife of 40 years, Tabitha Spruce. The couple has three children, Naomi, Joe, and Owen.
Stephen King is a prolific storyteller, having published 49 novels and several short stories, including Carrie, The Stand, The Shining, Misery, and It. All the aforementioned novels have been made into movies, and there are plans for a movie based on the Dark Tower series to be released in 2013.
My favorite book, The Eyes of the Dragon , was written by Stephen King and published in 1987. I first read this book when I was 11 years old, and have escaped through it often throughout the last 20 years. Filled with magic and fantasy, The Eyes of the Dragon tells the tale of Prince Peter, wrongly convicted for the crime of murdering his father, King Roland. The person responsible for this injustice is the king’s advisor, Flagg, a powerful, evil wizard. Fans of Mr. King will recognize Flagg and the characters of Thomas and Dennis who make appearances in other Stephen King novels, particularly the Dark Tower Series.
Stephen King has become a favorite author for myself and many others because the reader is able to visualize and confront those things that go bump in the night. He writes of ordinary people and fantastical creatures, and journeys of growth. In the end, good usually overcomes evil, and really, isn’t that what we are all looking for?