King has received Bram Stoker Awards, World Fantasy Awards, British Fantasy Society Awards, his novella The Way Station won a Nebula Award for best novelette nominee and, in 2003, the National Book Foundation awarded him the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters.
"I am the literary equivalent of a Big Mac and Fries."
"People want to know why I do this, why I write such gross stuff. I like to tell them I have the heart of a small boy... and I keep it in a jar on my desk."
King and his wife, Tabitha, have three children, Naomi, Joe and Owen. Tabitha, Joe and Owen are also published writers.
When King was two years old, his father, a merchant seaman, left the family under the pretense of "going to buy a pack of cigarettes," leaving his mother to raise King and his adopted older brother David by herself, sometimes under great financial strain. The family moved around, landing temporarily in De Pere, Wisconsin; Fort Wayne, Indiana; and Stratford, Connecticut, before returning again to Durham, Maine when Stephen was eleven. There, Ruth King cared for her parents until their deaths. She then became a caregiver in a local residential facility for the mentally challenged.¹
I belong to several affiliate programs. When you purchase a book from this site, I earn a commission from amazon. Thank you.