On May 24, "Coffey's Hands" the third part of
his serial novel "The Green Mile" was released.
By the end of this week, four of his books will be
listed among the top 5 of New York Times
Bestseller list. CSotD is honored to present
Stephen King, one of the world's most popular
writers and the undisputed master of macabre.
|
Stephen King was born in Portland, Maine in 1947. He and
his older brother, David, were raised primarily by his mother
after his parents separated. Stephen's childhood was
spent living between Fort Wayne, Indiana, where his father's
family lived, and Massachusetts and Maine with his mother
and her family. Eventually, Stephen and David settled with
their mother in Durham Maine, where the boys attended
school.
King graduated high school in 1966 and pursued a Bachelors of Science degree in English at the University of Maine at Orono. While a student, he met his future wife, Tabitha Spruce, among the shelves of the Folger Campus Library, where both worked as students. King graduated from the University in 1970, and married Tabitha one year later. King initially was unable to find placement as a teacher, so he and Tabitha lived off his earnings as a laborer at an industrial laundry, and her student loans and savings. Occasionally they would receive a boost from one of his short stories that had been published in various men's magazines. Many of these stories were later compiled into the NIGHT SHIFT collection.
In the fall of 1971, Stephen began teaching high school English at Hamden Public High School in Maine. Writing in the evenings and on weekends, he continued to produce short stories and to work on novels. In the spring of 1973, King's novel CARRIE was published, enabling him to leave teaching and concentrate on his writing. Since then King has enjoyed success in various genres of writing, ranging from short stories and novellas, to screenplays and full length novels. He has even acted and directed for the movies.
King's latest work, THE GREEN MILE, is a serial novel published in six parts. The serial novel is unique because it combines the elements of a short story with the overall texture and fluidity of a novel. King recalls first reading serialized stories in The Saturday Evening Post as a boy. "I liked it because the end of each episode made the reader an almost equal participant with the writer. You had a whole week to try and figure out the next twist of the snake. Also, one read and experienced these stories more intensely, it seemed to me, because they were rationed. You couldn't gulp, even if you wanted to (and if the story was good, you did)."
THE GREEN MILE: Part 1, The Two Dead Girls, and THE GREEN MILE: Part 2, The Mouse on the Mile, have both been number one on the New York Times best seller list. The newest installment of THE GREEN MILE: Part 3, Coffey's Hands, was released on May 27. Besides THE GREEN MILE series, Stephen King's ROSE MADDER has now been released in Signet Paperback.
ROSE MADDER is a psychological suspense story about a woman, Rosie, who wishes to escape from the nightmare of her abusive fourteen-year marriage. However, as she leaves one life in pursuit of the next, the demon embodied by her husband pursues her in attempts to drag her back to her existence of beatings and degradation. Rosie finds solace in a painting of a woman that conveys to her the strength necessary to create a hero within herself, so she may conquer both the internal and external terrors which are trying to claim her.
ROSE MADDER contains the psychological conflicts of MISERY (a character trying to overcome and defeat the powers which dominate them) and the elements of fantasy, where characters become contained simultaneously within myth and reality, reminiscent of the DARK TOWER series.
Stephen King has been quoted as saying, "I want to stay dangerous, and that means taking risks." The risks that King takes translates to new and exciting genres for those of us who have become accustomed visitors to his shadowed worlds.