Life, Books, and Legacy: Stephen King

King has talked extensively about his writing journey. Many fans know about his infamous nail in the wall, where he would skewer his rejections as they came in.

They also know that if it wasn’t for King’s wife, Tabitha King, his debut novel may have never launched his spectacular career. 

King was a teacher living with his wife and two children in a trailer in Herman, Maine when he wrote Carrie. By this time, he was writing short stories for various magazines and wanted to try to write longer fiction.

It wasn’t an easy process. With encouragement from Tabitha, King kept at it, eventually selling the novel at twenty-six years old to Doubleday. 

Depending on which edition you purchase, IT by Stephen King is a whopper of a book.

The lowest page count in older editions runs around 1,089 pages, most standard editions these days come in at 1,184 pages. Even more surprising, IT isn’t even King’s longest book, though it is a close second.

That honor goes to The Stand, which has almost half a million words with most new editions landing 1,440 pages long. 

With over 66 novels and dozens of short story collections, knowing where to start can be a daunting task.

We went through his body of work to find the best Stephen King books, according to his readers. 

Stephen King is no stranger to controversy in his books. Some range from fan outrage over character treatment to ill-advised sexual activities.

But only one book has been so controversial that King himself pulled it from publication and won’t allow it to be reprinted—ever. 

Rage follows the story of a violent student who shoots his teacher and holds his class hostage at gunpoint. Though the novel was written well before school shootings were anywhere near as prolific as they are today, many critics cited the novel as playing a role in their prevalence.  

After the novel was either referred to or found in the possession of several school shooters, King wrote the essay, “Guns”, and pulled the novel from publication.

You can read more about Rage and its controversy, here.  

It should come as no surprise that King has a whopping forty-one adaptations based on his work.

He also has three scheduled for upcoming release with an additional ten in development. Here are the top ten Stephen King adaptations based on critic and fan response. 

A movie steeped in nostalgia for so many reasons, Carrie is considered one of King’s most popular adaptation by both critics and fans alike.

Sissy Spacek shines in the titular role under Brian De Palma’s direction, and seeing a young John Travolta get his comeuppance as the terrible Billy Nolan is a delightful treat. 

Is there anything more terrifying than the daunting prospect of leaving your childhood behind? King doesn’t seem to think so. This group of boys starts with nothing but summer adventures on their minds.

But as they face obstacles on their journey, they learn the truth of their private lives and are forced to grow up in a way that strikes home no matter what stage of life they’re in. 

Adapted from the novella, Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption, this adaptation focuses on the friendship between two men in prison.

The reality of prison showcases a nest of horrors without bringing in any supernatural elements, and yet Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman bring depth and humanity to a story that embraces the redeeming power of hope. 

The all-star cast alone makes this an adaptation worth watching. Though it does tend to run a bit long, the emotional resonance of these profound performances pushes The Green Mile into a must-watch film.

It’s a journey that highlights the horror of what people are capable of, not by the deeds they do, but by the compassion and love one man has for life. 

Kathy Bates makes this movie one of the best adaptations of all time. Her performance as the terrifying Annie Wilkes tormenting her favorite author (James Caan) is one of her most terrifying to date.

And listen, none of us enjoy it when an author kills our favorite character. But Annie Wilkes takes her unhappiness to a whole new level.

It’s a must-watch for any King fan. 

Though King himself wasn’t a fan of Kubrick’s adaptation and the movie deviates fairly significantly from the novel, fans and critics couldn’t turn away.

With an unforgettable performance by Jack Nicholson and Shelley Duvall, The Shining is a terrifying glimpse into one man’s descent into insanity. 

Noted by critics as one of the best King adaptations, The Dead Zone sees Johnny Smith (Christopher Walken) as he struggles to reconcile his current present with his not-so-distant past after he wakes from a coma.  

There will always be a place in our hearts for the first adaptation, but the 2017 version takes the original to the next level.

The superb performances balance the terror of supernatural horrors with the heartbreaking and emotional journey six children must take to overcome the various hurts of their childhood. 

Jennifer Jason Leigh and Kathy Bates create a delicious tension as they face off in this layered thriller. Leigh accuses Bates of killing her mother, but the truth is far more complicated.

As she investigates, she circles deeper into her childhood and is forced to face some dark truths. 

Not all adaptations have to be entirely faithful to the original story to gain King’s approval.

1408 deviates from the source material but manages to capture what King believed was the essence of the story.

Focusing on the psychological terror of an author battling his own demons in a haunted hotel room, John Cusick and Samuel L. Jackson deliver in this creepy and tightly focused thriller. 

According to multiple sites on the internet, Stephen King’s net worth is around an estimated $500 million dollars.

Considering he has written dozens of global bestselling novels, had multiple adaptations, and seems to live a quiet lifestyle, it should be no surprise that he’s managed to amass that fortune.

While some of that money is tied into the three homes he owns, King also donates millions every year to libraries, local fire departments, schools, and subsidizes the National Poetry Foundation.

It’s also rumored that he’s turning his infamous Bangor, Maine mansion into an archive for his work along with a writer’s retreat. 

The author has had his fair share of health issues throughout his life.

He has openly talked about his struggle with drugs and alcohol, and how he’s worked to overcome those darker impulses and maintain sobriety for decades.

In 1999, while walking on the shoulder of a state road, King was hit by a car and suffered serious injuries, including a collapsed lung and multiple broken bones.

He recovered and is currently healthy, alive, and doing well.  

Stephen King has three homes.

Most people recognize his home in Bangor, Maine with its spiderweb gates and gothic spires. But that’s not his main residence anymore.

He and his wife, Tabitha, split their time between Lovell, Maine, and Sarasota, Florida.

Since the Bangor home has become an unofficial tourist attraction, it makes sense that the other two houses would be a safer haven for the author and his family. 

Stephen King is 76 years old at the time of this writing. He was born on September 21, 1947.

This places King firmly as a Virgo, which makes a lot of sense. Virgos are known for being hard-working and diligent, while also being very personable despite their quiet demeanor, traits that seem to embody the author.

And don’t be fooled by his age. King continues to write, and even publishing a book earlier this year. 

Before Twitter became X, it was the preferred social media for most authors, which makes sense.

It was the only social media that not only relied primarily on words, it forced users to craft their thoughts into razor-sharp short tweets. It was a challenge writers happily accepted and Stephen King is no exception.  

Even after many authors changed their accounts to “updates only” and fled for bluer skies or new threads, King has remained as vocal and active on X than ever before. And why not?

He still enjoys over seven million followers with thousands continuing to engage with his posts.  

It helps that King has no qualms with fighting for what he believes in. One of his most popular tweets garnering over twelve million views chastised Elon Musk after the billionaire accused King of “deadnaming” Twitter as a terrible attempt at anti-trans humor. 

The author has also never held back when expressing his thoughts on former President Donald Trump. He has never been a fan, and clearly never will be. 

But even someone who enjoys a relatively strong following with fans can’t always avoid the negative spotlight. One of his most controversial tweets was regarding diversity in the arts.

At first, King tweeted that quality should be held above diversity, a stance that many argued was very problematic because it ignores how many people are excluded from participating when diversity is ignored.

He later walked back his comments. 

Stephen King is known for making appearances in adaptations of his works. But does he appear in shows that aren’t his own?

He does, though often it’s as himself, like when he told Marge Simpson he was taking a break from horror to write Benjamin Franklin’s autobiography.  

King’s appearance on Sons of Anarchy was brief, but memorable. He played a caretaker named Bachman, a nod to one of his more famous pen names, Richard Bachman.

In addition to the role, a fictional Stephen King novel titled, Cycle Zombies, is written into the story with one of the bikers reading it when hunkered down in the crew’s cabin. 

Stephen King is happily married to Tabitha King, née Spruce. The couple wed on January 2, 1971, and have remained together ever since.

Tabitha King is a philanthropist and novelist in her own right, and King often attributes her for not just salvaging his debut novel but being the steady hand throughout his career and life.  

It might come as a surprise that Stephen King is quite tall. He stands 6’4” tall and has maintained his weight around 200 pounds for his entire life. On his website, he states that he descends from Scots-Irish ancestry, who were known for their height. 

Stephen and Tabitha King have three children.

Joe Hill is their middle child, though not the only writer. Owen King, the youngest, also writes and publishes novels.

Joe Hill decided at the start of his career to try to succeed as a writer on his own merit and largely succeeded. It was only after his first novel was a success and Vanity Fair wrote an article on his relationship with his famous father that Hill admitted his true identity publicly. 

Featured image: Wikimedia Commons