Stephen King

Stephen Edwin King (born September 21, 1947) is an American author best known for horror novels. King's extremely popular books are among the best-selling books ever.

Car accident

In the summer of 1999, King was in the middle of '; he'd finished the memoir section and had abandoned the book for nearly eighteen months, unsure of how to proceed or whether to bother. King reports that it was the first book that he'd abandoned since writing The Stand decades earlier. He had just decided to continue the book. On June 17, he had written up a list of questions that he was frequently asked about writing, as well as some that he wished he would be asked about it; on June 18, he had written four pages of the section on writing. On June 19, he was taking a walk after driving his son to the airport, intending to return home to go see The General's Daughter with his family. As he walked up a hill, a Dodge van crested the top on the shoulder of the road and hit him, throwing him about 14 feet (4.2 m) in the air. Bryan Smith was the driver of the van. King barely missed the driver's side support post in the van and also barely missed a spread of rocks on the ground near where he landed, either of which would likely have killed him or put him in a permanent coma. Unable to get up, King was rushed to a local hospital, which reported that they could not treat him. He was then flown to another hospital; in the helicopter he suffered a collapsed lung. In addition to the collapsed lung, King suffered a leg broken in at least nine places, a split knee, a broken right hip, four broken ribs, and a spine chipped in eight places. Coincidentally, that same year King had written most of From a Buick 8, in which one of the characters dies in an automobile accident, but King says that he "tried not to make too much of it."

Related Topics:
1999 - June 17 - June 18 - June 19 - The General's Daughter - Bryan Smith - Coma - Collapsed lung - Split knee - Broken rib - Spine chip - From a Buick 8 - Automobile accident

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King was released from the hospital after three weeks, then went through half a dozen surgeries on his leg and the accompanying physical therapy. In July 1999, he continued On Writing, though his hip was still shattered and he could sit for barely forty minutes at a stretch before the pain became intolerable. Over time his condition improved. It was reported that Mr. King forgave the driver and actually purchased the van in question for $1,500 (and later had it crushed and disposed to avoid its reappearance on eBay).

Related Topics:
Physical therapy - 1999 - EBay

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The accident, and subsequent hospitilization served as an inspiration for the pilot episode of King's ABC mini-series-turned-full-series, Kingdom Hospital.

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King has appeared in his Dark Tower series. King incorporated his accident into the final novel, in which the hero Roland Deschain and his friends try to stop King from being fatally injured by the van. In the story, Roland hypnotized both King and the driver in order to make them forget his appearence.

Related Topics:
Dark Tower - Roland Deschain

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