stephen king

As one of the most influential American writers, Stephen King uses fear to capture his readers by engulfing them into his world of fears. Winning over fifty awards, Stephen King has changed the face of contemporary horror, suspense, science fiction, and fantasy novels. Stephen King's life influences his literary works through his many fears, his upbringing in Maine, and his life as a parent. Stephen King was born on September 21, 1947 in Portland, Maine. When King was six his dad left to go buy a carton of cigarettes and he never came back. He would later go on to quote, “I am always interested in this idea that a lot of fiction writers write for their fathers, because their fathers are gone” (King). King was born into a very poor family, and his mother stained to stay afloat on bills. They moved around a lot until King was eleven, because at this time they moved back to Maine where his mother took care of her parents. Her family gave them food and clothes while they were there, since she could not have a job while she took care of them. King’s only sense of euphoria as a kid was when he was reading. Any extra money that he made would be put into buying a paperback book from the local book store. (Rogak 8-25) Stephen King is set apart from everyone else in his writing because he is writing about his personal fears. King has many fears such as: the dark, snakes, rats, spiders, squishy things, psychotherapy, deformity, closed-in spaces, death, clowns, being un-able to write, flying, and many more. King’s reason for writing is that when he writes, he says that in that moment, that all of the fears that he has are no longer existent in that moment. But right when he stops writing, those fears close in on him again. For example, one of Stephen Kings many fears is clowns, and one of his bestselling books, and later screen play, was IT. King “draws upon his fears quite