It was a dark and stormy night. I was sitting in my recliner in the family room while the lightning danced across the sky and the thunder shook the rafters. My wife and son had already gone upstairs to their bedrooms and were sleeping away. I was reading IT, by Stephen King. As the storm continued to get scarier, so did the story, and I thought I was beginning to hear noises coming from the other room. That’s when I decided I didn’t want to stay downstairs by myself any longer.
Of all the authors I have read, Stephen King remains my favorite. Born September 21, 1947, he is the king of contemporary horror and suspense. And I’m obviously not the only reader who likes him because his books have sold over 350 million copies. He has written seven novels under the pen name of Richard Bachman, and another 42 under his own name. A lot of his novels and short stories are set in his home state of Maine.
His initial claim to fame in the horror genre was Carrie. But that success almost didn’t occur. As he was writing it, King became discouraged with it and threw it in the trash. Tabitha, his wife, rescued it and encouraged him to complete it. Doubleday bought the completed version and gave him an advance of $2,500. Later, the paperback rights sold for $400,000. And the rest is history. Carrie was turned into a movie, and King went back to work turning out additional successful stories including Salem’s Lot, Christine, The Shining, and Needful Things to name a few.
But he can write on subjects other than horror. One favorite of mine is called The Body. It appeared in a collection called Different Seasons, and the story was later made into the now-famous movie, Stand by Me. In that same collection, the story that was the basis for The Shawshank Redemption also appears.
Success followed success, until June 19, 1999. King was walking along the shoulder of Route 5 in Lovell, Maine, reading a book. My sources give no explanation for that strange action on his part. Around 4:30 that afternoon, he was struck by a minivan driven by Bryan Smith, who had been distracted by the movement of a dog in the back of his vehicle.
The accident resulted in multiple fractures of his right leg and a broken hip. The bones of his leg were shattered so badly that the doctors initially wanted to amputate. However, they managed to stabilize the bones and, after five operations, King returned to writing in July. The accident did have a lasting effect in that he was able to sit at his computer for only a short time until the pain became unbearable. The minivan that struck him was later crushed, to Kings dismay, because he stated in an interview later that he wanted to destroy the van with a pickaxe
King, a prolific writer throughout his career, continues to write. He announced in March 2011 that his next novel, 11/22/63 will be released November 8, 2011. It is supposed to be an alternate history version of the Kennedy assassination. This reader is looking forward to that one.