Stephen King is an ‘New York Times’-bestselling American author who specialized in the genres of horror, supernatural fiction, crime, fantasy, and supernatural fiction. King was born on September 21, 1947 in Portland, Maine. He grew up with divorced parents, Donald and Nellie Ruth Pillsbury King, and he and his brother frequently traveled between Connecticut and Indiana where their respective parents lived. After graduating from Lisbon Fals High School in 1966, he studied for a degree in English at the University of Maine.

During college, he published his first short story, which appeared in Startling Mystery Stories. After graduating from the University of Maine, he worked as a teacher while also starting his writing career. He first published under the pseudonym of Richard Bachman with his first horror novel, Carrie.

After the huge success of his first novel, he became a full time writer in 1973. He continued to write some of his popular works which include Salem's Lot (1975), The Shining (1977), Cujo (1981) and IT (1986). He wrote several books under the pseudonym because he feared that the public would not accept more than one book from the same writer a year.

Many of his novels went on to become very successful Oscar winning film adaptations which include The Shining, The Shawshank Redemption, Misery, IT, The Green Mile, and several others. In honor of his success in writing and prolific output, Stephen King was awarded the National Medal of Arts in 2015. King continues to still write and be involved in provocative projects.