71 Facts About Stephen King For His 71st Birthday
- Mitzi J Hernandez
- Sep 21, 2018
- 7 min read
Stephen King is the man behind some of the number one best-selling novels. King, has mystified, terrified, and entertained us for decades.
In honor of Stephen King’s 71st Birthday today, I made a list of 71 things about the Master of Horror.
1.- His full name is Stephen Edwin King.
2.- King was born September 21, 1947 in Maine.
3.- King was seven when he begun to write his own stories. As a boy King found a box of fantasy horror fiction books and stories that had belonged to his father, and he read them all, and that’s how his decision to write horror came. The book that inspired him was The Lurker in the Shadows by H.P. Lovecraft.
4.- King’s father abandoned the family when he was two years old. His mother raised him and his brother David.
5.- King has a Bachelor of Arts in English. He graduated from University of Maine.
6.- King and his wife attended the same University. He met his wife Tabitha in the library stacks at the University of Maine in 1967.
7.- King married Tabitha in 1971.
8.- King has three children, Naomi, Joe and Owen King.
9.-After college he wrote short stories for popular magazines. He did not receive much money from the sale of his stories and sometimes he was not paid at all.
10.- King was an English teacher in a High School in Maine.
11.- King initially threw his first novel, Carrie, to the trash. He discarded it in frustration. But his wife Tabitha rescued it and she urged him to keep working on until he finished the book. Thank you, Tabitha!
12.- King's first novel Carrie was a huge success. This allowed King to quit his other jobs and write full-time.
13.- King is one of the bestselling authors all time. His books have sold more than 350 million copies worldwide.
14.-King is one of the Top 10 Most translated authors. His books have 3,354 translations from English.
15.- King has written books under the pen name of Rick Bachman. He has published 7 novels under this name.
16.- King has written at least 91 books.
17.- King has written 200 short stories.
18.-King has also written under the pen names John Swithen and Beryl Evans.
19.- King’s books have been adapted into films. Some popular movies are IT, The Shining, Misery, The Dark Tower, Stand By Me and many others.
20.- King was declared unfit for military service. He was unfit due to high blood pressure, limited vision, flat feet and punctured eardrums.
21.-King played in a band. King played rhythm guitar for a band made up of successful writers called The Rock Bottom Remainders.
22.- King hates being surrounded by huge crowds. He doesn’t like the attention he gets as a celebrity.
23.- King’s entire family writes. Both of King’s sons are published authors, they picked the love for story telling from their father — and their mother Tabitha King. King’s daughter, Naomi, is a writer of all sorts too.
24.-King likes tea. He is not a fan of coffee.
25.-King has an evil dog. Not really but he often refers to his puppy Molly as “Thing of evil”.
26.- King has a great sense of humor. He’s more funny than scary. If you don’t believe me, then you should follow his twitter account.
27.-King is also a producer. King has produced shows for television.
28.- King watched when one of his childhood friends was killed by a train. However, King doesn’t remember much of the event.
29.- King suffers from triskaidekaphobia – fear of the number 13.
30.- King doesn’t remember writing some novels from the 80’s. This was due to his alcoholism, including Cujo.
31.- King has battled with alcoholism and drug addiction. King struggled with drug and alcohol abuse throughout the 1980s.
32.- King is a big fan of Rock N’Roll and metal. Two of his favorite bands are AC/DC and The Ramones.
33.- King and his wife own three radio stations. All the radio stations are in their home state of Maine.
34.- King works are somehow connected. While characters from other books appear in some of his others, The Dark Tower series is the saga of books which connect the entire underlying universe together.
35.- King writes a minimum of 2,000 words per day.
36.- King has been crowned “The Master of Horror”.
37.- King was in a car accident and bought the car that hit him. The accident left King with multiple injuries. After the accident, King and his lawyer bought the van for $1500.
38.- King is a red sox fan. King is a hardcore fan, so much so that he wrote a story about the Boston Red Sox in his book—The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon (who was a former Red Sox pitcher.)
39.- King loves his hometown. He has used Maine as the setting for many of his horror novels.
40.- King’s father was a writer. King’s father, Donald Edwin King, was an (unsuccessful) writer.
41.- King has a fortune. King has an estimated net worth of $400 Million. King has luxury cars, his own private jet, and a waterfront vacation home in Florida.
42.- King had many rejections before he made it. King started writing and submitting his short stories when he was 16. King finally got his first acceptance when he was 19 for a story called “The Glass Floor.” He was paid $35.
43.- King was poor growing up. King was raised by a single mother, and his family grew up very poor.
44.- King is a Harry Potter fan.
45.- King is an extremely fast and prolific writer. His 304-page book, The Running Man, was completed in only 10 days.
46.- King has the Guinness World Record. He received it for the most motion picture adaptations from a living author.
47.- King in an overachiever. King has a record for the most books on the NYT best seller list at one time. In 1995, he had four books on the list: Thinner, The Talisman, Skeleton Crew, and The Bachman Books.
48.- King is afraid of heights and flying.
49.- King contributed $1.2 million to build the Mansfeld Stadium in Bangor, Maine. King’s only condition was that the score board be positioned so that he could see it from his home while he was working.
50.- The thing that scares him most is Alzheimer’s. For King the scariest thing in the world are the mental illnesses associated with old age, such as dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. He is afraid of losing his mind.
51.- King has his personal library. His library has over 17,000 books and he has read them all except for a handful of the newest ones.
52.- King despises The Shining adaptation. King has been incredibly vocal about his disgust for Kubrik's direction and has criticized the movie a lot. There isn’t anything that King likes about it.
53.- King wrote a music video for Michael Jackson. King wrote the script for Jackson's Ghosts music video.
54.- King wrote for porn magazines. In King’s beginning of his career he sold short stories to porn magazines such as Playboy and Cavalier.
55.- King banned one of his own novels. King banned the novel “Rage” that he wrote under the pen name of Rick Bachman.
56.- King wrote “Heroes for Hope” starring the X-men.
57.- King only gives out autographs at book signing events.
58.- King sells some of his short stories for a dollar. All King asks for is a copy of the film and that it be limited to his short stories. He calls the completed films his “Dollar Babies”.
59.- King nailed his rejection letters to the wall.
60.- King writes to deal with his own fears. King found a unique way to deal with fear: he channeled it into his writing. Now his nightmares can become the nightmares of readers everywhere.
61.- King has a genetic predisposition to macular degeneration. King’s condition affects his eyes, that’s why King wears really thick glasses.
62.- King loved the movie 28 Days Later. King loved it so much, he bought out an entire showing in New York City.
63.- King prefers to be called Steve.
64.-King favorite book is Salem’s Slot. King has written a lot of material in his career, but he himself counts his second book 1975's 'Salem's Lot as his personal favorite.
65.- King has a terrifying house. King's home in Bangor, ME looks like a gothic mansion, with its small balcony and bat-topped wrought iron gates.
66.- King wrote a musical with John Mellencamp. King teamed with American rock star John Mellencamp and composer T-Bone Burnett to write the musical Ghost Brothers Of Darkland County.
67.- King turned down the chance to do Nightmare On Elm Street 5. King had the chance to write and direct A Nightmare On Elm Street 5: The Dream Child. But King was taking a break from the horror genre for personal reasons, so he ended up passing.
68.- King appeared on an episode of the television show "Sons of Anarchy” in 2010. King’s character name was Bachman.
69.- King is an executive producer of a show streaming in Hulu. The series, "Castle Rock," is named after the fictional small Maine town that provides the setting for various King books and stories.
70.- King has received several awards and nominations. King has received multiple awards and nominations for his work, including multiple Bram Stoker Awards, World Fantasy Awards, and British Fantasy Society Awards as well as the National Medal of Arts, Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters and the O. Henry Award. He has also received awards for his contribution to literature for his entire oeuvre, such as the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement (2004), the Canadian Booksellers Association Lifetime Achievement Award (2007), and the Grand Master Award from the Mystery Writers of America (2007).
71.- Stephen Edwin King is the greatest author ever.
King’s books have entertained readers for four decades. King is one of the greatest authors of his generation and of all time. His books are timeless and will continue to be enjoyed by readers for years to come.