Stephen King: From Rags to Riches

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Stephen King had a, somewhat, troubled childhood, which, some people believe was the reason he was inspired to write some of his darker works and made him into the writer he is today. Stephen King, one of the most intense storytellers of our time, was born in Portland, Maine in 1947, into a family of three: his mother, Nellie Ruth Pillsbury, his father, Donald, and his adopted older brother, David. After his parents had separated, when his father left for a pack of cigarettes and never returned, Stephen King and Donald King were cared for by their mother. King and his brother spent parts of their childhood in Fort Wayne, where their father’s family lived, and in Stratford, Connecticut, until Nellie Ruth Pillsbury brought them back to Durham, Maine for good. Twelve-year-old Stephen King developed a love for writing when he wrote articles in his brother’s local newspaper, titled, “Dave’s Rags.” King wrote mainly about upcoming television shows and began to sell the successful articles to people for thirty cents. Young Stephen King even sold them at his school until his teachers put a stop to it. He attended grammar school in Durham, followed by enrolling in the Lisbon Falls High School, where he graduated in 1966. In 1967, when he was twenty, King made his first professional publication, “The Glass Floor,” (King, Tabitha). His earlier works, however, lacked scientific grounding because he had not achieved any college level degree until he studied at The University of Maine at Orono, where he met his future wife, Tabitha. He was active in student politics, serving as a member of the Student Senate. He came to support the anti-war movement on the Orono campus, arriving at his stance from a conservative view that the wa...

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...es are very unique and his books, “roar forward on all twelve cylinders and doesn’t let up, ”and are recommended if the reader wants an exciting thriller (King, Stephen).

Work Cited:

“Biography of Stephen King.” Horrorking.com. N.p. n.d. Web. 7 Feb 2014.

King, Tabitha. “The Author.” StephenKing.com. 2014. Web. 7 Feb 2014.

Skibinski , Christian. “Biography.” imdb.com. Amazon. 2014. Web. 24 Feb 2014.

Geduld, Marcus. “Should Stephen King Get More Credit As A Writer From Literary Critics?” Forbes.com. Forbes. 8 Feb 2012. Web. 24 Feb 2014.

Nevala-Lee, Alec. “The Uncanny Influence of Stephen King.” Wordpress.com. Wordpress. 20 May 2011. Web. 16 March 2014

King, Stephen. The Ledge. New York City: Doubleday, 1976. Print.

King, Stephen. The Dark Half. New York City: Viking, 1989. Print.

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