by George Beahm
SK meets and becomes friends with Chris Chesley, his first literary collaborator, and his movie buddy for Saturday matinees at the Ritz in nearby Lewiston. (He and Chesley hitchhike every Saturday to see the movies for eight years, until SK gets a driver’s license in 1966.)
1959
Ruth buys a used Underwood typewriter for $35 for Stephen; he starts submitting professionally to digest-sized science fiction magazines.
David King publishes a community newspaper, Dave’s Rag (January); it’s cover-priced five cents. At first, copies are individually hand-typed, then reproduced by hectograph, and finally by mimeograph. David King is the editor in chief and illustrator, Donald P. Flaws is the sports editor, and SK is a general reporter.
Self-Published
Thirty-one of the Classics, mimeographed, an abridgment and retelling by SK of thirty-one classic novels. (Announced but possibly not published.)
“Jumper,” a short story serialized in Dave’s Rag. (One installment of “Jumper” is reprinted in Secret Windows in 2000.)
“Land of 1,000,000 Years Ago,” a mimeographed short story.
1960
SK discovers a box of paperback books, science fiction, and horror, belonging to his father, an aspiring writer who submitted short fiction but never got published. As Ruth told SK, his father lacked persistence.
Self-Published
People, Places, and Things—Volume I, with nine stories by Chris Chesley and eight by SK (19 pages, mimeographed, from Triad Publishing Company). SK’s include “The Hotel at the End of the Road,” “I’ve Got to Get Away!,” “The Dimension Warp,” “The Thing at the Bottom of the Well,” “The Stranger,” “I’m Falling,” “The Cursed Expedition,” “The Other Side of the Fog,” and “Never Look Behind You” (a collaboration with Chesley).
“Rush Call,” published in Dave’s Rag.
1961
Self-Published
The Pit and the Pendulum (a V.I.B. Book), a novelization, printed by mimeograph in a run of forty copies, for twenty-five cents each.
A short story in which the students take over a grammar school. It sold for a quarter a copy to SK’s classmates. (Title and publication date unknown.)
SK sends a short story to Forrest J. Ackerman’s magazine Spacemen, but it’s rejected. He tells Forry in a cover letter, “I am 14 years of age, and have been writing as far back as I can remember, and submitting manuscripts for the last couple of years.” (It is eventually published by “FSJ” in Famous Monsters of Filmland 202, spring 1994.)
1962
SK graduates from a one-room grammar school near his home (June).
SK begins his first year at Lisbon Falls High School (September), eight miles away from West Durham; he commutes via Mike’s Taxi of Lisbon. (The taxi itself is a converted hearse. As Jeff Pert, in his profile of Brian Hall wrote, “Mike had an old limousine, and he’d haul the handful of Durham kids to school in that. Hall says one of the regular riders was one of the two girls on whom King based the protagonist of Carrie. When the limo arrived, there was a rush to get the best seats. You didn’t want to ride all the way to Lisbon with Carrie on your lap.” SK, over six feet tall, plays tight end / left tackle on the varsity football team.)
1963
SK edits the school newspaper, The Drum, as a sophomore. Only one issue is published under his editorship, but it’s monster-sized.
SK self-publishes a parody of the school newspaper titled The Village Vomit, earning him a three-day suspension; school officials divert his writing talent to more productive use and get him a part-time job as a sports reporter for the Lisbon Weekly Enterprise, under the watchful eye of its editor, John Gould.
SK completes “The Aftermath,” a seventy-six-page, single-spaced, science fiction story (approx. 45,000 words, his longest fiction to date, on February 15).
Self-Published
“The Invasion of the Star-Creatures” (Triad, Inc. and Gaslight Books, June 1964).
1965
Published
SK publishes “I Was a Teenage Grave Robber” in Comics Review, edited by Mike Garrett, a zine for comics fans, printed by Ditto machine, 1965. (It is reprinted as “In a Half-World of Terror,” in Stories of Suspense, a fanzine published by Marvin Wolfman, in 1966.)
SK publishes “Codename: Mousetrap,” a short story (Lisbon High School newspaper, The Drum, volume 3, number 1, October 27, 1965).
1966
SK plays the rhythm guitar with the Mune Spinners in his senior year at the high school prom.
SK gets a driver’s license.
SK gets a job at Worumbo Mill and Weaving in Lisbon Falls, which inspires the story “Graveyard Shift” after he’s told about a holiday cleanup basement crew, where rats were purportedly dog-sized.
Dave King graduates cum laude from the University of Maine at Orono (May).
SK is accepted to Drew University but turns it down, despite a partial scholarship offer. He elects to attend the University of Maine at Orono (September).
Published
“The 43rd Dream,” a short story, in the Lisbon Falls High School newspaper, The Drum, January 29, 1966.
1967
SK submits The Long Walk to a Bennett Cerf first novel competition, but it’s rejected. (It is published in 1979 by New American Library.)
Published
“The Glass Floor,” Startling Mystery Stories (fall), SK’s first professionally published story, for which he was paid $35. Quoting a line from Dickey’s Deliverance, SK’s assessment, as he wrote in Weird Tales 298, is, “Naw—it ain’t as bad’s I thought.”
1969
SK is in a work-study job program to pay for tuition and books. SK meets Tabitha Spruce; they both work part-time at the university library.
Published
“The Garbage Truck,” a column for the University of Maine at Orono newspaper, The Maine Campus (February 20).
A short poem titled “The Dark Man,” in Ubris (University of Maine at Orono literary magazine, fall issue), published as The Dark Man by Cemetery Dance (July 2013) and profusely illustrated by Glenn Chadbourne. The poem marks the first appearance of Randall Flagg.
“Night Surf,” in Ubris (spring, 1969), a trial cut foreshadowing The Stand.
1970
SK graduates from the University of Maine at Orono with a teaching certificate and a B.S. degree in English (June). Because no teaching positions are available in the local area, SK takes a job pumping gas for $1.25 an hour but quits to work at the New Franklin Laundry because of a pay increase, to $1.60 an hour ($60 a week); Tabitha works the second shift at a Dunkin’ Donuts in downtown Bangor.
Naomi Rachel is born (June 1).
The Kings live in an inexpensive rented apartment in Orono.
Published
SK makes his first sale to Cavalier magazine, which publishes “Graveyard Shift” in its October 1970 issue. He earns $200 for the story—his largest check to date.
SK completes a 485-page, double-spaced manuscript, “Sword in the Darkness” (April 30). An excerpt was published in Rocky Wood’s Stephen King: Uncollected, Unpublished (2005).
1971
SK marries Tabitha Jane Spruce in Old Town (January 2).
SK signs a contract to teach high school English at Hampden Academy at an annual salary of $6,400 (Hampden, Maine).
Tabitha King graduates from the University of Maine at Orono with a B.A. degree in history (May).
SK completes Getting It On (published as Rage by New American Library under the Bachman pen name in 1977). SK sends a query letter to Doubleday addressed to “The Editor of The Parallax View,” which is rerouted to William “Bill” G. Thompson, who reads and rejects it but encourages SK to submit more manuscripts.
1972
Joe Hillstrom King is born (June 4).
Stephen begins writing a short story, “Carrie,” intended for Cavalier. Discouraged, he crumples and throws three pages in the trash, rescued by Tabitha. She gently encourages him to continue, and he
does. It grows in length until it becomes a short novel of fifty thousand words, after adding bogus documentation.
SK submits The Running Man, which is rejected by Doubleday, and also Ace Books, whose publisher, Donald A. Wollheim, told him they didn’t publish dystopian novels. (It is published by New American Library in May 1982 under the Bachman pen name.)
Published
A short story, “The Fifth Quarter,” (Cavalier, April 1972) as John Swithen, a pen name (the only other one ever used).
1973
The Kings live in a rented trailer on Klatt Road in Hermon, Maine. To save money, the phone is removed. After they are evicted, they move to a blue-collar neighborhood in Bangor. SK submits and sells Carrie to Doubleday for $2,500 (March/April). The paperback rights sell to New American Library (NAL) for $400,000, earning him $200,000 (May).
They rent four rooms on the upstairs floor in a house at 14 Sanford Street (rent is $90 a month). The $200,000 allows him to quit teaching to write full-time; he finishes the school year in June, fulfilling his contract.
SK completes Blaze.
The King family moves to Sebago Lake in North Windham, Maine, to be closer to Stephen’s mother, who is in failing health. He borrows money against the expected $200,000 check and tells her to quit her blue-collar job at the Pineland Training Center in New Gloucester, Maine. She quits and spends the last few remaining months of her life with her son David in Mexico, Maine.
SK begins writing a novel, Second Coming, later retitled ’Salem’s Lot.
Ruth King dies of cancer surrounded by her two sons and their immediate families. Being too ill to read, one of her sisters had read her Carrie from the advance galley of the book, which SK lovingly inscribed (December 18).
Published
“Trucks,” in Cavalier (June 1973), the basis for the film Maximum Overdrive, with screenplay by SK, who also directed it.
1974
The Kings temporarily move to Boulder, Colorado, where he begins work on a novel that would become The Stand, the number one fan favorite of all his books.
Stephen and Tabitha take a vacation to the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado, where he is inspired to write The Shining.
Published
Carrie (Doubleday, trade hardback, April) is his first published novel. Its cover price is $5.95.
1975
The Kings return to Maine, and buy their first home, in Bridgton, the setting for one of his most quintessential stories, “The Mist.”
Published
’Salem’s Lot (Doubleday, trade hardback, October), originally titled Second Coming.
“The Lawnmower Man,” in Cavalier (May 1975), the basis for a movie adaptation that prompted a lawsuit from King because of its tangential story line and excessive use of SK’s name for marketing purposes to hype the video release.
“The Revenge of Lard Ass Hogan,” in The Maine Review (July 1975), revised for its inclusion in “The Body” (from Different Seasons).
1976
SK meets literary agent Kirby McCauley at a party in New York City. (In 1977 he becomes SK’s literary agent.)
Mass market paperback editions of Carrie and ’Salem’s Lot, goosed by the movie release of Carrie, sell 3.5 million copies. SK is well on his way to becoming the Modern Master of Horror, a title that, over the years, chafes.
SK suffers writer’s block and goes through a difficult time with false starts on Welcome to Clearwater, The Corner, The Dead Zone, and Firestarter; he’s concerned about self-imitation because of Firestarter’s similarities to Carrie.
Published
“Weeds,” in Cavalier (May 1976), the basis for “The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill,” in the movie Creepshow.
Visual Adaptation
Carrie is released (November 3). Directed by Brian de Palma, it stars Sissy Spacek in the title role and Piper Laurie as her mother, Margaret White; both were nominated but did not win Academy Awards for their performances.
1977
SK’s fame and popularity is such that, as Mel Allen for Writer’s Digest wrote in a profile, “[He’s] had his phone number changed, and the local operator tells countless people every day, ‘No, I’m sorry, we are not permitted to disclose that number,’ because strangers call from all parts of the country to ask for money, interviews, help in finding a publisher for the 800-page novel they’ve written about werewolves, or advice on how to do away with the demonic neighbor who has caused the vegetables to succumb to root rot.”
The Kings’ second son, Owen Phillip King, is born (February 21).
The Kings move to England for a one-year stay but return after only three months. While there, SK meets novelist Peter Straub, with whom he will later collaborate on two novels, The Talisman (1984) and The Black House (2001), with a third projected to be written in 2015.
Published
The Shining (Doubleday, trade hardback, January 28), originally titled The Shine, is published.
“The Cat from Hell,” in Cavalier (1977). In March, a partial story is published; in June, the completed version of the story is published; and in September, with King’s beginning, the second half written by Phil Bowie, who won the story competition, is published in Cavalier.
“Children of the Corn,” in Penthouse (March 1977), which inspired nine movies.
“Weeds,” in Cavalier (May 1976), the basis for the film segment, “The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill,” in Creepshow, the title role of which is played by SK.
Rage (as Richard Bachman), from New American Library (mass market paperback, September 13), originally titled Getting It On. (In 1999, SK told his publisher to put the book out of print, citing it as a possible accelerant to school shootings.) It was the first Bachman novel published.
1978
The Kings move to Orrington, Maine, with its “pet sematary” (a child’s spelling) on the hill behind the house.
SK serves a one-year stint as writer in residence at the University of Maine at Orono (he’s asked to stay for a second year but turns down the offer to pursue full-time writing); he teaches Introduction to Creative Writing and gothic fiction.
SK leaves Doubleday after irreconcilable contractual conflicts, significantly a 50/50 split of income on paperback sales, which he feels is unwarranted. SK’s editor, Bill Thompson, suffers collateral damage. SK recalled, “When I left Doubleday, they canned him. It was almost like a taunt: we’ll kill the messenger that brought the bad news” (Bhob Stewart, Heavy Metal, February/March 1980).
Recognition
’Salem’s Lot wins an American Library Association Award.
Published
Night Shift (Doubleday, trade hardback, February), new stories: “Jerusalem’s Lot,” “The Last Rung on the Ladder,” “Quitters, Inc.,” and “The Woman in the Room.”
SK’s first sale to F&SF with a short story, “The Night of the Tiger” (February).
The Stand (Doubleday, trade hardback, September).
SK’s first Dark Tower tale, “The Gunslinger,” in F&SF (October).
1979
The Kings move to their home in Center Lovell, Maine.
Donald Edwin King dies, in Wind Gap, Pennsylvania (November).
Recognition
SK is, along with Frank Belknap Long, a guest of honor at the fifth World Fantasy Convention (Providence, Rhode Island, October 12–13); SK receives a World Fantasy Award for contributions to the field.
Published
The Long Walk, by Richard Bachman (New American Library, trade edition, mass market paperback, July), currently under option by Frank Darabont for a film adaptation.
“The Crate,” in Gallery, the basis for an episode in the film Creepshow.
The Dead Zone (Viking Press, trade hardback, August). SK’s first novel for Viking.
Visual Adaptation
’Salem’s Lot, directed by Tobe Hooper, is broadcast (November 17)
1980
The Kings buy a house on West Broadway for $135,000.
Recognition<
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Stephen receives an Alumni Career Award from the University of Maine.
Night Shift wins a Balrog Award.
SK receives the Convention Award from the World Fantasy Convention.
Published
Firestarter (Phantasia Press, limited edition; Viking Press, trade hardback edition, September). The cover painting by Michael Whelan was used only for the Phantasia Press edition. This was also SK’s first novel to be published in a signed and limited edition.
“The Mist,” in an original anthology, Dark Forces, edited by Kirby McCauley. It is considered one of SK’s finest stories and becomes the basis of a major film, directed by Frank Darabont.
Visual Adaptation
The Shining, directed by Stanley Kubrick, is released as a film. SK is its biggest critic, and in the years to come takes to the media to complain about it. (SK’s remake was aired on May 23, 1997.)
1981
Recognition
SK receives the Career Alumni Award from the University of Maine.
SK receives a special British Fantasy Award for “outstanding contribution to the genre.”
Firestarter wins an American Library Association Award.
Published
Stephen King’s Danse Macabre (Everest House, limited and trade hardback edition, April 20). SK’s first published nonfiction book, a study of the horror field.
Cujo (Mysterious Press, limited edition; Viking Press, trade hardback edition, September).
Roadwork, by Richard Bachman (New American Library, trade edition, mass market paperback, March).
“Do the Dead Sing?,” Yankee magazine (November), published as “The Reach” in Skeleton Crew (1985). Generally acknowledged as his finest short story.
Tabitha King publishes her first novel, Small World, (Macmillan Publishing, April.)
Visual Adaptation
As screenwriter and an actor (“The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill”), SK is hands-on with Creepshow, also adapted as a comic book with a cover by EC artist Jack Kamen, with interior art by Bernie Wrightson.
1982
Recognition
At Necon II, Stephen King is the roastee.
“Do the Dead Sing?” wins a World Fantasy Award (tied).
