Horror films and stories have been very popular in American culture. Many people don't realize that their favorite scary characters wouldn't have been imagined without the help of a certain writer; Stephen King. King has devoted much of his time and talent to bringing us our most beloved stories that we tell around a bonfire with our friends. King was able to take our most terrifying fears and incorporate them into his stories. Stephen King was and still is a huge inspiration to the world of horror. The horror genre will never be the same. Stephen Edwin King was born on September 21, 1947 to Donald King and Nellie Pillsbury in Portland, Maine. King was the couple's first child, but they later adopted their eldest son, David (Ramsey). When King was only two years old, his father abandoned his family. Over the next few years, King and his family constantly moved from place to place until they finally settled in 1958 (Ramsey). In high school, Stephen King worked for a local newspaper. It was in 1965 that King sold his first short story, I Was a Teenage Grave Robber, which was later transformed into In A Half-World of Terror (Ramsey). Over the next two years, King successfully published two amateur novels, one of which is considered the beginning of the King era. Stephen King attended the University of Maine on a full scholarship (Ramsey). There he worked part-time in the school library where he met Tabitha Spruce, who would later become his wife (Ramsey). Despite all his accomplishments at such a young age, Stephen King's legacy was only just beginning. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay From a very young age, Stephen King was able to have some of his short stories published. Now it was time for his career to take off. In 1973, King wrote and published her first novel, Carrie, the story of a young teenager who takes revenge on her classmates. The novel quickly became a success, paving the way for King's career to fully blossom. Salem's Lot was released shortly after Carrie. Many of King's early works were hits, including The Shining (1977), Firestarter (1980), Cujo (1981), and the infamous IT (1986) (Stephen King). However, fearing that people would not accept multiple books by the same author per year, King decided to create pseudonyms (Stephen King). He used Richard Bachman (Boman) and John Swithen (Stephen King). Even under different names, Stephen King's novels have never lost their appeal. Some wonder how someone could write such frightening and deadly stories. What they don't know is that Stephen King really came close to death. In the summer of 1999, King was struck by a driver and thrown 14 feet into the air (Ramsey). He was hospitalized for several weeks and suffered numerous injuries such as a collapsed lung, broken ribs and bones, and even multiple leg fractures (McCann). King also underwent numerous procedures. Nonetheless, Stephen King drew inspiration from his misfortunes. In the final book in the Dark Tower series, The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower King named a character Bryan Smith, after the man who hit him (McCann). He took almost every detail of his accident and put them into this novel, right down to the part where Bryan almost hits a person, named Stephen King, with his car after being distracted by his dog (McCann). Some interactions between the two characters in the book are based on the real dialogue that took place between King and Smith (McCann).)..