Stephen Edwin King (September 21, 1947) is an American writer working in a variety of genres, including horror, thriller, science fiction, fantasy, mystery, and drama. More than 350 million copies of his books were sold and several movies, television adaptations, and comics have been based on them. Sixty Stephen King's novels were published, including seven under the pseudonym Richard Bachmann and five popular science books. He wrote about two hundred stories, most of which were collected in ten author collections.

The mother of the writer, Nellie Ruth Pillsbury, being the fourth child of eight, was born on February 3, 1913, in the city of Scarborough in the family of Guy Herbert and Nelly Weston Fogg Pillsbury. Her personal life did not work out for a long time. She married twice. The writer's father was born on May 11, 1914, in the family of William and Helen Bowden King in Peru (Indiana). In the hospital, Ruth was diagnosed with infertility. Two years later, on September 21, 1947, in Portland, despite the alleged illness, a boy is born in the family, who is called Stephen.

In childhood, Stephen witnessed the death of his peer, who fell under a train - a circumstance about which Steve himself, in his own words, completely forgot. Having suffered a state of shock, but he remembered this accident a few years later when he was told about it.

Due to frequent moves and poor health, Stephen suffered from measles, then with acute pharyngitis, which eventually turned into an ear infection that could not be treated with antibiotics. The boy was reading books and comics with passion. His favorites included the Frankenstein's Castle series, which published stories about various evil spirits, such as "Tales from the Crypt", "Tomb of Horrors", "Crypt of Horror" and "Madness". Steven also read comics about “Spider-Man”, “Superman”, and “Hulk”. Authors of comics often used the address "Dear reader", later Stephen in his works used the greeting "Regular reader". Distracted from his illness, the boy began to write with his mother's encouragement. At the age of seven, he wrote a story about the adventures of Captain Casey. Most of the text was rewritten from the comic book. Ruth, after reading the work, advised her son to create something of his own: "Someone always knocks out someone's teeth. I bet you can do better" she said. After that, Stephen wrote the story "Mr. Sly Rabbit", which told about a white rabbit and three of his friends-animals, traveling around the city in search of children in trouble to help them out. His mother had liked what he wrote and then Steve wrote four more stories about the rabbit, for which he received 25 cents a story, which was his first writing fee.

In August 1966, Stephen went to Orono, enrolling at the University of Maine with a major in English literature and to the College Teaching courses. In 1960, Stephen and his friend Chris Chesley published several short stories in a self-published collection “People, Places, and Things”. A second book, “Star Invaders” was published a year later. In 1966, Stephen King graduated high school and enrolled in the University of Maine, where he met his future wife, Tabitha Spruce.

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Stephen King published under the pseudonym Richard Bachman books "Rage", "The Long Walk", "The Road Works", "The Running Man" and "Thinner". In 1982, the book "The Gunslinger" was published — the first novel in the series "The Dark Tower". In 1998, Stephen King wrote the script for one of the episodes of the popular TV series of that time "the X-files".

On June 19, 1999, in Lovell, Maine, at approximately 4:30 p.m., while Stephen was walking, driver Brian Smith was distracted by his dog, causing his van to run over Stephen, who flew into a ditch and rolled into a hole 14 feet from the pavement of Route 5. According to a statement from Oxford County Sheriff's Deputy Matt Baker, Stephen King was run over from behind, some witnesses reported that the driver was not speeding, and he was not drunk at all. After five operations and physical therapy, Stephen began writing again in July, although his hipbone was still broken and he could only sit for about forty minutes, after which the pain increased and soon became unbearable. In 2001, the novel "Dreamcatcher" was published. In 2004, the last part of the epic "The Dark Tower" was published, which, according to the writer's promises, would be his last work. But Stephen did not keep his promise and continued to publish books. In 2009, Stephen King finally published the novel “Under the Dome”, which he tried to write twice unsuccessfully in the 1970s and 1980s. In 2011, the novel "11/22/63" was released. In 2012, the eighth volume of the Dark Tower series, “The Wind Through the Keyhole”, was released. King also wrote two novels: “Doctor Sleep”, the sequel to “The Shining” and “Joyland”, written in the detective genre. Stephen King is undoubtedly one of the most important figures in modern culture since his stories and novels have perfectly integrated into the field of cinema and comics, which today are popular aspects of today's youth.

                                                                                                                     Mekezhanov Yerassyl
                                                                                                                     librarian of the Department of the International Book