Stephen King: American Original

He needs no introduction. He's the bestselling writer alive. His career began with an unfinished manuscript his wife pulled out of the trash. At the time, he was a schoolteacher raising a young family in a trailer; there were bills to pay. She implored him to finish it. When he did, a publisher bought it for $2,500. The paperback rights sold for $400,000. The book was Carrie , about a young girl who wants nothing more than acceptance but ends up exacting bloody revenge.

It was 1974; Stephen King was a mere 27. Things hadn't looked good for a long time: His father had abandoned the family when he was 2; his mother was chronically poor, chronically worried; he had to pay for his college tuition by working at a commercial laundry. By 25, he was drinking too much.

Now, 32 years later, it is difficult to think of another novelist who has the same combination of fame and productivity. Alexandre Dumas? Georges Simenon? King has published more than 150 works of fiction -- among them, The Dark Tower , Cujo , Christine , Misery , The Shining -- and more than 50 have been made into films. On October 24, he will release his much awaited novel Lisey's Story.

There are critics who have scrambled to give him prizes (three years ago the National Book Foundation gave him a Lifetime Achievement Award), and there are critics who call his stories "penny dreadfuls" (Harold Bloom's exact words). But he has captured the imagination of readers around the world.

He has tried to deflect the fame by writing under pseudonyms (Richard Bachman, John Swithen); he has tried to spread the largesse by giving his fortune away to charities; but the achievement is there to stay: His work has defined horror for a generation.

Many's a writer who would kill for that scruffy Muse.

-- Marie Arana