#LetrasMacabras: 8 by Stephen King | Part 1 of 3

By: Casandra Vicario

Admired by many and hated by just as many others, the one thing Stephen Edwin King never provokes among horror fans is indifference, which is why he couldn't be missing from this Macabro 13, especially since the magazine Proceso took it upon itself to publish the most outstanding novels by this major icon of horror in our time, with close to 100 million books sold worldwide.

Stephen King was born in Portland, Maine, United States. His first book of stories was written together with Chris Chesley and was titled “People, Places and Things” in the early 1960s.

After graduating in 1970, he married novelist Tabitha Spruce in 1971, whom he had met while working as a student assistant at the university library, and with whom he had 3 children and now has 4 grandchildren. In the early years of his marriage, Stephen King worked at a laundromat, earning occasional income from short stories published in a men's magazine.

His first successful novel was “Carrie” in 1974; the story was brought to the big screen two years later under the direction of Brian de Palma — just a small taste of everything he would go on to publish and the many adaptations of his work we would enjoy up to today.

In 1973, he moved to southern Maine, where he wrote the novel 'Salem's Lot, which was originally titled Second Comming and the Jerusalem's Lot. From that point on, Stephen King began a fast-paced career of publications and film and television work. His prolific literary output is one of the most representative bodies of work in the mystery and horror genre of American literature. His stories are filled with diabolical killers, vampires, ghostly apparitions, and beings with parapsychological and extrasensory powers.

Some of the novels that have been adapted into films include: The Dead Zone , Christine , Firestarter , Cujo and Pet Sematary, for which he also wrote the screenplay and appeared as an actor in a small role.

Also making the jump from page to the big screen were Cycle of the Werewolf , The Dark Half, Misery , Needful Things ,Dolores Clairborne, The Green Mile, and of course “The Shining,” directed by Stanley Kubrick, to name a few.

Stephen King also made several forays into filmmaking himself. Sometimes he wrote the original screenplay for his films himself, as in the case of the adaptation of the comic Creepshow (directed by George Romero in 1982) and of Sleepwalkers (1992); on other occasions, King himself took on directing duties, as in the case of Maximum Overdrive(1985).

He also published other novels under the pseudonym Richard Bachman, such as “Roadwork,” “The Long Walk,” and “The Running Man,” which was also later adapted into film.

In the next installment we'll cover the first 4 Stephen King works that belong on your bookshelf.