The King of Horror reveals the inspiration behind the prolific author’s brilliant works of horror through a combination of photos and documents from King’s archives. It also provides an in-depth account of the stories behind how his novels, novellas, short stories, and adaptations came to be. It might sound totally made-up that Stephen King once met a bartender named Grady in an empty hotel in Colorado, or that the famous author helped his young daughter bury her cat in a nearby “pets sematary” after it was killed on a busy road. However, this book for young adults reveals how King took these and other personal experiences and everyday life events and transformed them into something horrific using his extraordinary imagination. Young adult readers will learn how King went from poor college student to one of the best-selling—and most recognizable authors of all time. They will follow along as the evolution and influences of Stephen King’s work over nearly 50 years are discussed, and they will learn how the themes of his writing reflect the changing times and events in his life.

This new title, targeted for young adults who are King fans, has been adapted from expert Bev Vincent’s engrossing Stephen King: A Complete Exploration of his Work, Life, and Influences. It is fully revised, redesigned, and updated with that audience in mind and includes:

• A review of King’s complete body of work, including Fairy Tale, published in September 2022.
• Rare memorabilia from King’s own collection, including personal and professional correspondences, handwritten manuscript pages, book covers, and movie stills.
• Interludes on specific topics such as real-life settings that inspired King’s writing, the editor who discovered him, his life as a Boston Red Sox fan, and the accident that almost ended his life.
• Sidebars with interesting details about background information quotes.

Celebrate the masterful King of Horror with this informative and entertaining look inside King’s most iconic titles and the culture they have created.

Bev Vincent is the author of Stephen King: A Complete Exploration of His Work, Life, and Influences; The Dark Tower Companion; The Road to the Dark Tower, the Bram Stoker Award–nominated companion to Stephen King’s Dark Tower series; and The Stephen King Illustrated Companion, which was nominated for a 2010 Edgar® Award and a 2009 Bram Stoker Award. In 2018, he co-edited the anthology Flight or Fright with Stephen King.

His short fiction has appeared in places such as Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, Borderlands 5, Ice Cold, and The Blue Religion. He has been a contributing editor with Cemetery Dance magazine since 2001 and is a former member of the Storytellers Unplugged blogging community. He also writes book reviews for Onyx Reviews and has served as a judge for the Al Blanchard, Shirley Jackson and Edgar Awards.

FOREWORD 
INTRODUCTION 
CHAPTER 1
THE FUTURE ARTIST AS A YOUNG MAN (1950–1969) 
CHAPTER 2
THE DOUBLEDAY YEARS (1970s) 
INTERLUDE: STEPHEN KING AS RICHARD BACHMAN ·
INTERLUDE: WELCOME TO CASTLE ROCK 
CHAPTER 3
MIDAS TOUCH (1980s)
INTERLUDE: THE DARK TOWER 
INTERLUDE: UNSEEN KING 
INTERLUDE: WELCOME TO DERRY 
CHAPTER 4
EXPERIMENTATION AND CHANGE (1990s) 
INTERLUDE: THE ACCIDENT 
CHAPTER 5
AFTER THE ACCIDENT (2000s) 
INTERLUDE: THE STEPHEN KING UNIVERSE
CHAPTER 6
KING OF CRIME (2010 AND BEYOND) 
INTERLUDE: COLLABORATIONS 
Conclusion
THE TEST OF TIME 
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY 
APPENDIX I: BOOKS BY STEPHEN KING 
APPENDIX II: ADAPTATIONS 
ENDNOTES
IMAGE CREDITS 
ABOUT THE AUTHOR 
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS