<span class="SFPTagline"> From SCIFIPEDIA </span>

Stephen King (Stephen Edwin King), born September 21, 1947, in Portland, Maine, received a BA in English from the University of Maine in 1970. His first professional fiction sale was the story "The Glass Floor," which appeared in Startling Mystery Stories in 1967.

His first novel sale came in 1973, to Doubleday & Co. The paperback rights to Carrie, the story of traumatized high-school girl who develops telekinetic powers, brought King a degree of financial security. He followed up in 1975 with Salem's Lot, a much heftier tome, engaging one of the staples of the horror genre--vampires.

King found an enormous audience for his tales of adventure and grue…