Literary figure
“I'm writing but I'm writing at a much slower pace than previously and I think that if I come up with something really, really good, I would be perfectly willing to publish it because that still feels like the final act of the creative process, publishing it so people can read it and you can get feedback and people can talk about it with each other and with you, the writer, but the force of my invention has slowed down a lot over the years and that's as it should be.” (King 2002)
The above are words from Stephen King, a New York Times-bestselling novelist who made his name in the horror and fantasy genres. Much of his work has been adapted into films. Unfortunately, family problems, drinking addiction and a terrible accident on the road have led King to become a very controversial figure in the literary world. He possesses a brilliant mind and intense creativity to craft master pieces of writing. In the following paragraphs some other issues about his polemic ideals will be exposed.
Stephen Edwin King was born September 21, 1947, in Portland, Maine. As soon as King was two years old, his father left the family under the pretense of "going to buy a pack of cigarettes" (Wikipedia), leaving his mother to raise King and his adopted older brother, David, by herself, sometimes under great financial strain.
After leaving the university, King earned a certificate to teach high school but, being unable to find a teaching post immediately, initially supplemented his laboring wage by selling short stories to men's magazines such as Cavalier. Many of these early stories have been published in the collection Night Shift.
It can be said that Stephen King’s career as an author started in 1973; he sold his first novel, Carrie, the tale of a tormented teen that gets her revenge in school where she was victim of severe bulling. Surprisingly, he had tossed the novel to the trash can after he finished writing it! And his wife convinced him to send the book to an editing company.
The book became a huge success after it was published the following year, allowing him to dedicate himself to writing full time. More popular novels soon followed, including “Salem's Lot (1975), The Shining (1976), The Stand (1978), Cujo (1981) and It (1986). The Shining was made into a movie starring Jack Nicholson, and the film has become a classic horror thriller. “(biography.com)
Additionally, sad as it seems, King faced a terrible hardship in the zenith of his magnificent profession: “King was walking on the shoulder of Route 5, in Lovell, Maine. Driver Bryan Smith, distracted by an unrestrained dog moving in the back of his minivan, struck King, who landed in a depression in the ground about 14 feet from the pavement of Route 5.” (litlovers.com) He suffered several injuries including a collapsed right lung, multiple fractures in his right leg, scalp lacerations and a broken hip.
By 2002, King announced he would stop writing, apparently motivated in part by frustration with his injuries, which had made sitting uncomfortable and reduced his energy, and because of a strong depression caused by the same accident he overcame. The words he pronounced in his website about quitting his literary career are stated in the very first paragraph of this biography.
Stephen’s accident caused a lot of reactions from his public around the country. King's lawyer and two others purchased Smith's [the driver] van for $1,500, reportedly to prevent it from appearing on eBay. The van was later crushed at a junkyard, much to King's disappointment, as he fantasized about smashing it up. King later mentioned during an interview with Fresh Air's Terry Gross that “he wanted the vehicle destroyed at a charity event in which individuals would donate money for an opportunity to smash it with a sledgehammer.” (Wikipedia)
On the other hand, the now 62-year-old spent much of his early years battling both drug and alcohol addiction. He even freely admits that he can barely remember working on some of is best-known classics! Probably, “the stress of having to sustain a family on a insufficient teaching wage fed King's addiction and he admits to being surprised and thankful that his wife did not leave him.” (addictioninfo.org)
If it was not enough, by 1985 the writer had added drug addiction, mainly cocaine and marijuana, to his alcoholism, but continued functioning on a marginally competent level, at least that is what he thought back then.
One day, King compared the Mormon Stephanie Meyer author (the creator of Twilight series) to JK Rowling, saying that both authors were "speaking directly to young people". "The real difference is that Jo Rowling is a terrific writer and Stephenie Meyer can't write worth a darn. She's not very good," he told an interviewer from USA Weekend.(Guardian.co.uk)
Although critical reaction to King's work has been mostly positive, he has occasionally come under fire from academic writers. Science fiction editors John Clute and Peter Nichols offer a largely favorable assessment of King, noting his "pungent prose, sharp ear for dialogue, disarmingly laid-back, frank style, along with his passionately fierce denunciation of human stupidity and cruelty (especially to children) [all of which rank] him among the more distinguished 'popular' writers." (Wikipedia)
In fact, there are many important things to say about King’s craft and personal life that are both closely reliant on each other. His books were usually inspired by personal experiences and difficult events he suffered and perhaps that is the reason why his books are so polemic and full of complex situations. Also, in my personal point of view I look at him as an inspiration to success in one’s life. He overcame plenty of hardship and instead of staying home and cry we can take the other path and learn good things from the bad ones.
I would like to end this biography with this quotation by King about talent and success in what we do: “Talent is cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work.” (brainyquote.com)
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