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.

King's recent years

In 1994, King won an O. Henry Award for his short story, "The Man in the Black Suit", and in 2003 King was honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award by the National Book Awards. There was an uproar in the literary community with King being the choice.

Related Topics:
1994 - O. Henry Award - 2003 - National Book Awards

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:"He is a man who writes what used to be called penny dreadfuls. That they could believe that there is any literary value there or any aesthetic accomplishment or signs of an inventive human intelligence is simply a testimony to their own idiocy." -Harold Bloom, a Yale professor.

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Others in the writing community expressed their contempt for the literary elite's attitude. Orson Scott Card wrote "Let me assure you that King's work most definitely is literature, because it was written to be published and is read with admiration. What Snyder (former CEO of Simon & Schuster) really means is that it is not the literature preferred by the academic-literary elite." http://www.hatrack.com/osc/reviews/everything/2003-09-21.shtml

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Stephen King has also written six books under the pseudonym Richard Bachman. King staged a mock funeral for Bachman after the pseudonym was made public, which in turn inspired the book The Dark Half, in which a novelist stages the burial of his horror author pseudonym after having a "serious" novel published, only to find that his alter ego does not want to leave quite so easily.

Related Topics:
Pseudonym - Richard Bachman - The Dark Half

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King also wrote one short story under the name John Swithen - "The Fifth Quarter".

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King used to play guitar in the band Rock Bottom Remainders but has not joined them on stage for some years. The band's members include: Dave Barry; Ridley Pearson; Scott Turow; Amy Tan; James McBride; Mitch Albom; Roy Blount Jr.; Matt Groening; Kathi Kamen Goldmark; and Greg Iles.

Related Topics:
Rock Bottom Remainders - Dave Barry - Ridley Pearson - Scott Turow - Amy Tan - James McBride - Mitch Albom - Roy Blount Jr. - Matt Groening - Kathi Kamen Goldmark - Greg Iles

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Since 2003 King has provided his take on pop culture in a column appearing on the back page of Entertainment Weekly, usually every third week.

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