Stephen King
Life Events
| Date | Event | Details |
|---|---|---|
21 September 1947 | Birth | Born in Portland, Maine, Stephen King sold his debut novel Carrie in 1974 after his wife retrieved it from the bin where he had thrown it. He is one of the bestselling authors in history with over 350 million books sold, working primarily in horror, supernatural fiction, and dark fantasy. He has described The Dark Tower series, begun when he was nineteen, as his magnum opus - the connective tissue that links much of his wider fiction together. |
2 November 1980 | Award Won | World Fantasy Award Special convention award |
19 June 1999 | Accident | While walking near his home in Lovell, Maine, King was struck by a van driven by Bryan Smith and left critically injured. He suffered a broken hip, leg, and several ribs, a collapsed lung, and damage to his spine. During his long recovery he resumed work on the Dark Tower series, which he had largely abandoned for years. He wrote the final three novels - Wolves of the Calla, Song of Susannah, and The Dark Tower - in a concentrated burst, publishing all three between 2003 and 2004. He has said the accident gave him a new urgency about finishing the series. |
7 June 2003 | Award Won | Bram Stoker Award Life achievement |
2004 | Award Won | International Horror Guild Award Living Legend |
31 October 2004 | Award Won | World Fantasy Award Life achievement |
Birth21 September 1947
Born in Portland, Maine, Stephen King sold his debut novel Carrie in 1974 after his wife retrieved it from the bin where he had thrown it. He is one of the bestselling authors in history with over 350 million books sold, working primarily in horror, supernatural fiction, and dark fantasy. He has described The Dark Tower series, begun when he was nineteen, as his magnum opus - the connective tissue that links much of his wider fiction together.
Award Won2 November 1980
World Fantasy Award
Special convention award
Accident19 June 1999
While walking near his home in Lovell, Maine, King was struck by a van driven by Bryan Smith and left critically injured. He suffered a broken hip, leg, and several ribs, a collapsed lung, and damage to his spine. During his long recovery he resumed work on the Dark Tower series, which he had largely abandoned for years. He wrote the final three novels - Wolves of the Calla, Song of Susannah, and The Dark Tower - in a concentrated burst, publishing all three between 2003 and 2004. He has said the accident gave him a new urgency about finishing the series.
Award Won7 June 2003
Bram Stoker Award
Life achievement
Award Won2004
International Horror Guild Award
Living Legend
Award Won31 October 2004
World Fantasy Award
Life achievement
Reading Orders
Universes (1)
Series (1)
Books (8)
The Gunslinger
The Dark Tower
1982
The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed. Roland Deschain, the last of his kind, crosses a vast and dying wasteland in pursuit of the Man in Black - a sorcerer whose capture may hold the key to Roland's quest for the Dark Tower. Along the way he encounters a boy named Jake, pulled from our world into his, and makes a choice that will haunt the books that follow. The first novel in the series is spare and strange, closer in feel to a prose poem than a conventional fantasy - deliberately disorienting, deliberately withholding. First published in a limited edition of 10,000 copies by Donald M. Grant, it was substantially revised by King in 2003 to align with the later books.
The Drawing of the Three
The Dark Tower
1987
Roland wakes on a beach at the edge of the Western Sea, injured and alone. Three doors stand upright in the sand, each opening onto a different mind in our world, at different points in time. Through them Roland draws the companions who will travel with him: Eddie Dean, a heroin addict from 1980s New York; Odetta Holmes, a woman whose split personality conceals a dangerous alter ego; and a third figure whose identity reshapes what came before. The second novel is a decisive gear change from The Gunslinger - faster, stranger, and more character-driven, it is where the series proper begins. The ka-tet takes shape here, and the emotional core of the sequence clicks into place.