Master of Horror: Stephen King
Few authors hold the power to captivate and terrify readers as often and as thoroughly as Stephen King. Born September 21, 1947, King began his writing career penning short stories for men’s magazines while working as a high school English teacher during the early 1970’s.
King wrote short stories in the evenings after work and soon began trying his hand at novel writing. In 1973, his wife, Tabitha, rescued a discarded manuscript from a garbage can and within a few months, “Carrie” earned King his first novel publishing credits. Soon, he was able to quit his teaching job and pursue a full time writing career.
King went on to publish “Salem’s Lot”, “The Shining”, and “The Dead Zone” during the mid to late 1970’s.
Meanwhile, “Carrie” became a major motion picture and audiences found themselves wanting more from this talented author. Soon, more of King’s books became movies and he was able to further his career by adding “screenplays” to his long list of accomplishments.
Since then, we’ve seen countless novels emerge from King at an astonishing rate of speed, each better than the last. His incredible knack for story telling has kept us on the edge of our seats as we’ve read about ordinary characters in extraordinary situations for more than thirty years.
We’ve been horrified by the unforgettable death of a child in “Pet Sematary” and left teary-eyed after the execution of an exceptionally gifted man in “The Green Mile”. King is one of the few authors who can use words to paint a picture so effectively that we walk away with a mental image engraved in our minds capable of terrifying us months, or even years, after we’ve finished one of his bone-chilling novels.
Stephen King’s fans agree: King is the Master of Horror.
