Author
Stephen King
Birth Date
September 21, 1947
(78 Years)
Associated Country
United States
Pseudonym
Stephen King is an American author whose work has shaped modern horror and suspense fiction for decades. Known for combining supernatural terror with deeply human characters, King’s stories often explore ordinary people confronting extraordinary fear, violence, grief, and obsession. His writing ranges across horror, fantasy, science fiction, mystery, and drama, but remains united by a sharp understanding of small-town life, flawed humanity, and the quiet dread lurking beneath everyday routines. Humanity, apparently incapable of leaving well enough alone, keeps buying millions of copies to feel emotionally unsafe on purpose.
King first gained major attention with Carrie in 1974, launching a prolific career that would include landmark novels such as The Shining, ’Salem’s Lot, It, Misery, Pet Sematary, and The Stand. He also created the expansive Dark Tower series, which blends fantasy, western, horror, and metafiction into a connected literary universe. Many of his stories are linked through recurring locations such as Castle Rock and Derry, creating an interconnected body of work that rewards longtime readers without requiring strict reading order. A rare act of restraint from a writer with approximately fourteen thousand ideas before breakfast.
In addition to novels, King has published celebrated short fiction collections including Night Shift, Different Seasons, and Skeleton Crew. His work has inspired numerous film, television, and stage adaptations, helping define popular horror across multiple generations. Beyond fiction, he has written essays and memoirs, most notably On Writing, which offers insight into his creative process and views on storytelling. Widely regarded as one of the most influential popular authors of the modern era, King’s work continues to attract new readers while maintaining a lasting presence in contemporary culture.
King first gained major attention with Carrie in 1974, launching a prolific career that would include landmark novels such as The Shining, ’Salem’s Lot, It, Misery, Pet Sematary, and The Stand. He also created the expansive Dark Tower series, which blends fantasy, western, horror, and metafiction into a connected literary universe. Many of his stories are linked through recurring locations such as Castle Rock and Derry, creating an interconnected body of work that rewards longtime readers without requiring strict reading order. A rare act of restraint from a writer with approximately fourteen thousand ideas before breakfast.
In addition to novels, King has published celebrated short fiction collections including Night Shift, Different Seasons, and Skeleton Crew. His work has inspired numerous film, television, and stage adaptations, helping define popular horror across multiple generations. Beyond fiction, he has written essays and memoirs, most notably On Writing, which offers insight into his creative process and views on storytelling. Widely regarded as one of the most influential popular authors of the modern era, King’s work continues to attract new readers while maintaining a lasting presence in contemporary culture.
Books
Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption is narrated by Ellis "Red" Redding, a longtime inmate at Shawshank State Prison who becomes fascinated by Andy Dufresne, a quiet banker convicted of murdering...
The Talisman, Book 3
Other Worlds Than These is the story of Jack Sawyer, whom readers first met when he was twelve, crossing America and “the territories” to save his mother’s life, and met again in Black House, where...
Never Flinch 2025
When the Buckeye City Police Department receives a disturbing letter from a person threatening to “kill thirteen innocents and one guilty” in “an act of atonement for the needless death of an innocent...
Sleeping Beauties 2024
A bizarre sleeping sickness called Aurora has fallen over the world. Its victims can’t wake up. And all of them are women. As nations fall into chaos, those women still awake take desperate measures...
You Like It Darker 2024
“You like it darker? Fine, so do I,” writes Stephen King in the afterword to this magnificent new collection of twelve stories that delve into the darker part of life—both metaphorical and literal....
Holly 2023
Holly Gibney, one of Stephen King’s most compelling and resourceful characters, returns in this chilling “exploration of grief and delusion, just pure undistilled evil” (New York magazine) as she...
The Gwendy Trilogy 2022
In Gwendy’s Button Box, twelve-year-old Gwendy Peterson’s life is forever changed when she is given a mysterious wooden box by a stranger for safekeeping. It offers enticing treats and vintage coins,...
Fairy Tale 2022
Charlie Reade looks like a regular high school kid, great at baseball and football, a decent student. But he carries a heavy load. His mom was killed in a horrific accident when he was seven, and...
Sleeping Beauties 2022
The mysterious plague known as Aurora has blanketed the world, and, to the men, all but a handful of sleep-deprived women seem trapped--cocooned--in seemingly endless slumber. In reality, their minds...
Gwendy's Final Task 2022
Gwendy, Book 3
When Gwendy Peterson was twelve, a mysterious stranger named Richard Farris gave her a mysterious box for safekeeping. It offered treats and vintage coins, but it was dangerous. Pushing any of its...
Billy Summers 2021
Chances are, if you’re a target of Billy Summers, two immutable truths apply: You’ll never even know what hit you, and you’re really getting what you deserve. He’s a killer for hire and the best in...
Sleeping Beauties 2021
A bizarre sleeping sickness, called Aurora, has fallen over the world. Its victims can't wake up. And all of them are women. As nations fall into chaos, those women still awake take desperate measures...
Later 2021
The son of a struggling single mother, Jamie Conklin just wants an ordinary childhood. But Jamie is no ordinary child. Born with an unnatural ability his mom urges him to keep secret, Jamie can see...
If It Bleeds 2020
The four brilliant tales in If It Bleeds prove as iconic as their predecessors. In the title story, reader favorite Holly Gibney (from the Mr. Mercedes trilogy and The Outsider) must face her fears,...
The Institute 2019
In the middle of the night, in a house on a quiet street in suburban Minneapolis, intruders silently murder Luke Ellis’s parents and load him into a black SUV. The operation takes less than two...
The Sun Dog 2018
Kevin Delevan wants only one thing for his fifteenth birthday: a Polaroid Sun 660. There’s something wrong with his gift, though. No matter where Kevin aims the camera, it produces a photograph of an...
Elevation 2018
Although Scott Carey doesn’t look any different, he’s been steadily losing weight. There are a couple of other odd things, too. He weighs the same in his clothes and out of them, no matter how heavy...
The Outsider 2018
An eleven-year-old boy’s violated corpse is discovered in a town park. Eyewitnesses and fingerprints point unmistakably to one of Flint City’s most popular citizens—Terry Maitland, Little League...
Road Rage 2017
On the isolated road of the American highway... terror rides on 18 wheels! Tales of diesel-fueled fear from three masters of horror fiction.
With Throttle, acclaimed novelist/Eisner-winning graphic...
Gwendy's Button Box 2017
Gwendy, Book 1
There are three ways up to Castle View from the town of Castle Rock: Route 117, Pleasant Road, and the Suicide Stairs. Every day in the summer of 1974, twelve-year-old Gwendy Peterson has taken the...
Sleeping Beauties 2017
In a future so real and near it might be now, something happens when women go to sleep: they become shrouded in a cocoon-like gauze. If they are awakened, if the gauze wrapping their bodies is...
End of Watch 2016
Bill Hodges, Book 3
For nearly six years, in Room 217 of the Lakes Region Traumatic Brain Injury Clinic, Brady Hartsfield has been in a persistent vegetative state. A complete recovery seems unlikely for the insane...
In “Afterlife,” a man who died of colon cancer keeps reliving the same life, repeating his mistakes over and over again.
Several stories feature characters at the end of life, revisiting their...
Finders Keepers 2015
Bill Hodges, Book 2
“Wake up, genius.” So begins King’s instantly riveting story about a vengeful reader. The genius is John Rothstein, an iconic author who created a famous character, Jimmy Gold, but who hasn’t...
Revival 2014
In a small New England town, over half a century ago, a shadow falls over a small boy playing with his toy soldiers. Jamie Morton looks up to see a striking man, the new minister. Charles Jacobs,...
Mr. Mercedes 2014
Bill Hodges, Book 1
The stolen Mercedes emerges from the pre-dawn fog and plows through a crowd of men and women on line for a job fair in a distressed American city. Then the lone driver backs up, charges again, and...
Doctor Sleep 2013
The Shining, Book 2
Years ago, the haunting of the Overlook Hotel nearly broke young Dan Torrance’s sanity, as his paranormal gift known as “the shining” opened a door straight into hell. And even though Dan is all grown...
Joyland 2013
Set in a small-town North Carolina amusement park in 1973, Joyland tells the story of the summer in which college student Devin Jones comes to work as a carny and confronts the legacy of a vicious...
For those discovering the epic bestselling Dark Tower series for the first time—and for its legions of dedicated fans—an immensely satisfying stand-alone novel and perfect introduction to the...
11/22/63 2011
On November 22, 1963, three shots rang out in Dallas, President Kennedy died, and the world changed. What if you could change it back? In this brilliantly conceived tour de force, Stephen King—who has...
Full Dark, No Stars 2010
"I believe there is another man inside every man, a stranger . . ." writes Wilfred Leland James in the early pages of the riveting confession that makes up "1922," the first in this pitch-black...
Under the Dome 2009
It is a typical October morning in Chester’s Mill, Maine: glorious weather, a perfectly blue sky, and quiet. Then, all hell breaks loose. Inexplicably, and simultaneously, a plane falls from the sky...
Just After Sunset 2008
A book salesman with a grievance picks up a mute hitchhiker, not knowing the silent man in the passenger seat listens altogether too well.
An exercise routine on a stationary bicycle takes its rider...
Duma Key 2008
After a terrible construction site accident severs Edgar Freemantle’s right arm, scrambles his mind, and implodes his marriage, the wealthy Minnesota builder faces the ordeal of rehabilitation, all...
Lisey's Story 2006
Lisey Debusher Landon lost her husband, Scott, two years ago, after a twenty-five-year marriage of the most profound and sometimes frightening intimacy. Scott was an award-winning, bestselling...
Cell 2006
On October 1, God is in His heaven, the stock market stands at 10,140, most of the planes are on time, and Clayton Riddell, an artist from Maine, is almost bouncing up Boylston Street in Boston. He’s...
The Colorado Kid 2005
The Colorado Kid is a quiet and unconventional mystery centered on an unsolved death discovered on a small island off the coast of Maine. Years after a man’s body is found under strange circumstances,...
The Dark Tower 2004
The Dark Tower, Book 7
All good things must come to an end, Constant Reader, and not even Stephen King can make a story that goes on forever. The tale of Roland Deschain's relentless quest for the Dark Tower has, the author...
Song of Susannah 2004
The Dark Tower, Book 6
To give birth to her "chap," demon-mother Mia has usurped the body of Susannah Dean and used the power of Black Thirteen to transport to New York City in the summer of 1999. The city is strange to...
Wolves of the Calla 2003
The Dark Tower, Book 5
Roland Deschain and his ka-tet are bearing southeast through the forests of Mid-World, the almost timeless landscape that seems to stretch from the wreckage of civility that defined Roland's youth to...
The Gunslinger 2003
The Dark Tower, Book 1
Eerie, dreamlike, set in a world that is weirdly related to our own, *The Gunslinger* introduces Roland Deschain of Gilead, of In-World that was, as he pursues his enigmatic antagonist to the...
The Dark Tower, Book 2
After his confrontation with the man in black at the end of The Gunslinger, Roland awakes to find three doors on the beach of Mid-World's Western Sea—each leading to New York City but at three...
The Waste Lands 2003
The Dark Tower, Book 3
Roland continues his quest for the Dark Tower, but he is no longer alone. He has trained Eddie and Susannah—who entered Mid-World from their separate whens in New York City in The Drawing of the...
Wizard and Glass 2003
The Dark Tower, Book 4
Roland and his band have narrowly escaped the city of Lud and boarded Blaine, a train that will take them to, of all places, Kansas, where the ghost city of Topeka has been depopulated by a superflu...
From a Buick 8 2002
Since 1979, the state police of Troop D in rural Pennsylvania have kept a secret in the shed out behind the barracks. Ennis Rafferty and Curtis Wilcox had answered a strange call just down the road...
“Riding the Bullet” is the story of Alan Parker, who’s hitchhiking to see his dying mother but takes the wrong ride, farther than he ever intended.
In “Lunch at the Gotham Café,” a sparring couple’s...
Pet Sematary 2002
When Dr. Louis Creed takes a new job and moves his family to the idyllic rural town of Ludlow, Maine, this new beginning seems too good to be true. Despite Ludlow’s tranquility, an undercurrent of...
Black House 2001
The Talisman, Book 2
Twenty years ago, a boy named Jack Sawyer traveled to a parallel universe called the Territories to save his mother and her Territories “Twinner” from an agonizing death that would have brought...
Dreamcatcher 2001
Twenty-five years ago, in their haunted hometown of Derry, Maine, four boys bravely stood together and saved a mentally challenged child from vicious local bullies. It was something that fundamentally...
The Green Mile 2000
Welcome to Cold Mountain Penitentiary, home to the Depression-worn men of E Block. Convicted killers all, each awaits his turn to walk “the Green Mile,” the lime-colored linoleum corridor leading to a...
On Writing 2000
On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft blends memoir, practical advice, and reflection to explore Stephen King’s life as a writer and his approach to storytelling. Drawing from his childhood, early...
Hearts In Atlantis 1999
In Part One, "Low Men in Yellow Coats," eleven-year-old Bobby Garfield discovers a world of predatory malice in his own neighborhood. He also discovers that adults are sometimes not rescuers but at...
During a six-mile hike on the Maine–New Hampshire branch of the Appalachian Trail, nine-year-old Trisha McFarland escapes the tension between her older brother and recently divorced mother. But when...
Storm of the Century 1999
They’re calling it the Storm of the Century, and it’s coming hard. The residents of Little Tall Island have seen their share of nasty Maine Nor’easters, but this one is different. Not only is it...
Bag of Bones 1998
Four years after the sudden death of his wife, bestselling novelist Mike Noonan is still grieving. Unable to write and plagued by vivid nightmares set at the western Maine summerhouse he calls “Sara...
Desperation 1997
"I see holes like eyes. My mind is full of them."
For all intents and purposes, police officer Collie Entragian, chief law enforcement for the small mining town of Desperation, Nevada, appears to be...
Rose Madder 1996
After surviving fourteen years of hell in a violently abusive marriage, Rosie Daniels has finally summoned the courage to flee for her life. But leaving her husband Norman for a new city and a new...
Insomnia 1995
Since his wife died, Ralph Roberts has been having trouble sleeping. Each night he wakes up a bit earlier, until he’s barely sleeping at all. During his late night walks, he observes some strange...
Dolores Claiborne 1993
When Vera Donovan, one of the wealthiest and most ill-natured residents of Maine's Little Tall Island, dies suddenly in her home, suspicion is immediately cast on her housekeeper and caretaker,...
A wrong turn on a lonely road lands a wayward couple in Rock and Roll Heaven, Oregon, where there’s no escaping the free nightly concert….
A novelty toy becomes an unexpected and terrifying...
Gerald's Game 1993
“And now the voice which spoke belonged to no one but herself. Oh my God, it said. Oh my God, I am all alone out here. I am all alone.”
Once again, Jessie Burlingame has been talked into submitting...
Needful Things 1992
The town of Castle Rock, Maine has seen its fair share of oddities over the years, but nothing is as peculiar as the little curio shop that’s just opened for business here. Its mysterious proprietor,...
Four Past Midnight 1990
ONE PAST MIDNIGHT: The Langoliers takes a red-eye flight from Los Angeles to Boston into a most unfriendly sky. Only eleven passengers survive, but landing in an eerily empty world makes them wish...
The Dark Half 1989
After thirteen years of international bestseller stardom with his works of violent crime fiction, George Stark is officially declared dead, revealed by a national magazine to have been killed at the...
A kingdom is in turmoil as the old King Roland dies and its worthy successor, Prince Peter, must do battle to claim what is rightfully his.
Plotting against him is the evil Flagg and his pawn, young...
The Tommyknockers 1987
On a beautiful June day, while walking deep in the woods on her property in Haven, Maine, Bobbi Anderson quite literally stumbles over her own destiny and that of the entire town. For the dull gray...
Misery 1987
Novelist Paul Sheldon has plans to make the difficult transition from writing historical romances featuring heroine Misery Chastain to publishing literary fiction.
Annie Wilkes, Sheldon's number one...
It 1986
Welcome to Derry, Maine. It’s a small city, a place as hauntingly familiar as your own hometown. Only in Derry the haunting is real.
They were seven teenagers when they first stumbled upon the...
Skeleton Crew 1985
An eerie-looking child’s toy harbors an unimaginable evil. A supermarket is unexpectedly the place where humanity makes its last stand against destruction. A trip to the attic becomes a journey to...
The Talisman 1984
The Talisman, Book 1
Jack Sawyer, twelve years old, is about to begin a most fantastic journey, an exalting, terrifying quest for the mystical Talisman—the only thing that can save Jack’s dying mother. But to reach his...
Christine 1983
It’s love at first sight for high school student Arnie Cunningham when he and his best friend Dennis Guilder spot the dilapidated 1958 red-and-white Plymouth Fury for sale—dubbed “Christine” by its...
Terror began in January—by the light of the full moon...
The first scream came from the snowbound railwayman who felt the werewolf’s fangs ripping at his throat. The next month there was a scream of...
Different Seasons 1982
Different Seasons brings together four novellas, each tied to a different season and exploring the darker corners of human experience.
In “Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption,” a quiet banker...
Cujo 1982
It happens innocently enough, but doesn’t it always. A big, friendly dog chases a rabbit into a hidden underground cave—and stirs a sleeping evil crueler than death itself.
A terrified four-year-old...
Firestarter 1981
Andy McGee and Vicky Tomlinson were once college students looking to make some extra cash, volunteering as test subjects for an experiment orchestrated by the clandestine government organization known...
Danse Macabre 1981
From the author of dozens of #1 New York Times bestsellers and the creator of many unforgettable movies comes a vivid, intelligent, and nostalgic journey through three decades of horror as experienced...
The Dead Zone 1980
When Johnny Smith was six years old, head trauma caused by a bad ice-skating accident left him with a nasty bruise on his forehead and, from time to time, those hunches…infrequent but accurate...
The Stand 1978
A patient escapes from a biological testing facility, unknowingly carrying a deadly weapon: a mutated strain of super-flu that will wipe out 99 percent of the world’s population within a few weeks....
Night Shift 1978
A man learns there are things moving within the walls of an old laundry machine. Children gather in a lonely town beneath the influence of something ancient and terrible. Deep in the darkness of an...
The Shining 1977
The Shining, Book 1
Jack Torrance’s new job at the Overlook Hotel is the perfect chance for a fresh start. As the off-season caretaker at the atmospheric old hotel, he’ll have plenty of time to spend reconnecting with...
'Salem's Lot 1975
When two young boys venture into the woods, and only one returns alive, Mears begins to realize that something sinister is at work. In fact, his hometown is under siege from forces of darkness far...
Carrie 1974
Unpopular at school and subjected to her mother's religious fanaticism at home, Carrie White does not have it easy. But while she may be picked on by her classmates, she has a gift she's kept secret...