108 Fun Facts About Stephen King

What do the children who battle Pennywise in It call their group?

The Losers' Club is the band of seven Derry children—Bill, Ben, Beverly, Richie, Eddie, Mike and Stan—who fight Pennywise in 1958 and again as adults in 1985.

What was Stephen King's debut novel, published in 1974?

Carrie, about a bullied telekinetic teenager, was published by Doubleday in April 1974; Brian De Palma's film followed in 1976.

Who rescued the first pages of King's debut novel from the wastebasket?

His wife Tabitha pulled the crumpled pages of Carrie from the wastebasket and urged him to finish it, saying she wanted to know what happened next.

Where was King living, and what was his day job, when he wrote his debut novel?

King wrote Carrie in a rented trailer in Hermon, Maine, while teaching English at Hampden Academy for about $6,400 a year; Doubleday's Bill Thompson bought the manuscript in 1973.

What was the hardcover print run of King's debut in April 1974?

Doubleday printed 30,000 hardcovers of Carrie in April 1974 and sold about 13,000; the 1975 Signet paperback sold over a million copies in its first year.

Under what pen name did King publish Rage, The Long Walk, Roadwork, The Running Man and Thinner?

King published five novels as Richard Bachman from 1977 to 1984 because publishers believed readers would buy only one King book a year; the 1996 novel The Regulators also bore the name.

Who exposed King's pseudonym in 1985?

Steve Brown, a Washington, D.C. bookstore clerk, noticed the Bachman books read like King and found a Library of Congress record naming King; King then said Bachman died of 'cancer of the pseudonym'.

Where did King stay before writing The Shining, which became the model for the Overlook?

King and Tabitha spent a night at the nearly empty Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado, in late 1974, and the hotel became the model for the Overlook in The Shining.

How did King describe Salem's Lot?

King called 'Salem's Lot 'Peyton Place meets Dracula': the 1975 novel drops a Dracula-style vampire, Kurt Barlow, into the gossiping small town of Jerusalem's Lot, Maine.

In which King novel does a weaponized superflu nicknamed 'Captain Trips' wipe out most of humanity?

The Stand (1978) follows survivors of Captain Trips, a 99.4%-lethal flu leaked from an army lab, as they gather behind Mother Abagail in Boulder or Randall Flagg in Las Vegas.

Which 1979 King novel about a man with second sight was the first set in his fictional town of Castle Rock?

The Dead Zone (1979) follows Johnny Smith, who wakes from a coma after nearly five years with psychic powers and foresees a politician, Greg Stillson, starting a nuclear war.

Which 1981 novel does King say he 'barely remembers writing' because of his addictions?

In On Writing King says he barely remembers writing Cujo (1981), the story of a rabid Saint Bernard that traps a mother and son in a stalled car, because he was drinking heavily and using cocaine.

What make and year of car is Christine?

Christine is a red-and-white 1958 Plymouth Fury that possesses its owner, 17-year-old Arnie Cunningham; John Carpenter filmed the novel in 1983, the year it was published.

What real event inspired Pet Sematary?

Local children had built a pet cemetery; King found the resulting book too disturbing and only published it to fulfil his Doubleday contract.

King described which novel as a 'final exam on horror', putting in all the monsters kids fear?

It (1986) follows seven Derry children terrorised by a shape-shifting entity that feeds on their fears; the novel won the 1987 British Fantasy Award.

What is the name of the 'number-one fan' who holds a writer captive in Misery?

Annie Wilkes, a former nurse who calls herself Paul Sheldon's 'number-one fan', keeps the injured novelist drugged and captive; Kathy Bates won the Best Actress Oscar for the 1990 film.

Which 1982 collection of four novellas produced Stand by Me, The Shawshank Redemption and Apt Pupil?

Different Seasons (1982) collects four novellas, one per season; the fourth, The Breathing Method, won the 1983 British Fantasy Award for short fiction.

How was The Green Mile originally published in 1996?

It held six positions on the New York Times paperback bestseller list at once.

Who is the gunslinger hero of The Dark Tower series?

Roland Deschain, last gunslinger of Gilead, pursues the Man in Black across Mid-World toward the Dark Tower; King modelled him on Clint Eastwood's Man with No Name.

Counting The Wind Through the Keyhole, how many novels make up The Dark Tower series?

Eight: the seven core novels from The Gunslinger (1982) to The Dark Tower (2004) plus The Wind Through the Keyhole (2012), which King set between the fourth and fifth books.

On June 19, 1999, what happened to Stephen King while walking on Route 5 in Lovell, Maine?

Driver Bryan Smith was distracted by an unrestrained dog; King suffered a collapsed lung and multiple leg fractures, and warned his nurses against Misery jokes.

What was the 2000 book On Writing?

The Wall Street Journal called it 'a one-of-a-kind classic'; his other major nonfiction is Danse Macabre (1981).

Which King story became 'the world's first mass e-book' in 2000, with over 500,000 downloads?

Riding the Bullet, a 16,000-word ghost story, was sold online only by Simon & Schuster in March 2000 for $2.50 and drew about 400,000 downloads in its first 24 hours.

Which 2013 novel is a sequel to The Shining?

Doctor Sleep (2013) follows a grown-up Dan Torrance, now a hospice worker, protecting a gifted girl from the True Knot; Mike Flanagan's film version starred Ewan McGregor in 2019.

Which 2014 King crime novel about a retired policeman won the Edgar Award for Best Novel?

Mr. Mercedes (2014), in which retired detective Bill Hodges hunts the driver who ploughed a stolen car into a job-fair crowd, won the 2015 Edgar Award for Best Novel.

Which fellow horror novelist co-wrote The Talisman and Black House with King?

Peter Straub, author of Ghost Story, wrote The Talisman (1984) with King and its sequel Black House (2001), the two trading sections back and forth so readers could not tell who wrote what.

What is bestselling novelist Joe Hill's relationship to Stephen King?

Joe Hill, born Joseph Hillström King in 1972, is King's eldest son (Owen followed in 1977); he wrote Heart-Shaped Box, Horns and NOS4A2 under the pen name to make his own way.

Which film did King direct himself, in 1986?

Maximum Overdrive (1986) adapts King's story 'Trucks', in which machines turn on humans at a truck stop; King later admitted he was 'coked out of my mind' while directing it.

Rob Reiner named his production company after which fictional King town?

Castle Rock Entertainment went on to make Misery and The Shawshank Redemption.

Stand by Me is based on which King novella?

Wil Wheaton, River Phoenix, Corey Feldman and Jerry O'Connell play four boys hunting for a corpse in 1959.

Why did King dislike Stanley Kubrick's The Shining enough to make his own miniseries in 1997?

King felt Kubrick's 1980 film deviated too far from the novel—a cold film that dropped Jack's slow descent and the hotel's real ghosts—so he wrote the 1997 ABC miniseries himself with Steven Weber as Jack.

Where was Kubrick's The Shining mostly filmed?

The Overlook set was the largest ever built at Elstree, with the Ahwahnee Hotel's lounge as a model.

Which number is Danny warned to stay away from in Kubrick's The Shining?

In the film, Dick Hallorann tells Danny to keep out of Room 237; the novel's room is 217, which the Timberline Lodge asked Kubrick to change so guests would not fear a real room.

Which novella did Frank Darabont adapt into his 1994 prison film?

Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption, the spring novella in Different Seasons (1982), takes its title from the Hayworth poster Andy hangs over his tunnel; Darabont bought the rights for $5,000.

Although set in Maine, where was The Shawshank Redemption actually filmed?

The Ohio State Reformatory in Mansfield, Ohio, a castle-like prison that closed in 1990, stood in for Shawshank; it was reopened as a museum, with tours of the film's cell blocks.

How many Oscar nominations did The Shawshank Redemption receive, winning none?

The Shawshank Redemption earned seven nominations at the 1995 Oscars—including Best Picture, Best Actor for Morgan Freeman and Best Adapted Screenplay—and lost every one, mostly to Forrest Gump.

Which stars were attracted to the role of Andy Dufresne before Tim Robbins?

Tom Hanks passed to make Forrest Gump, Kevin Costner passed to make Waterworld, and Tom Cruise was Rob Reiner's choice when Reiner offered to buy the script; Tim Robbins got the part.

Where does Andy dream of living after Shawshank?

Andy tells Red he wants to live in Zihuatanejo, a Pacific town in Mexico, fixing up an old boat; the film's final scene reunites them on its beach.

Who plays Pennywise in the 2017 film It?

Tim Curry played the clown in the 1990 miniseries; Skarsgård returned for the HBO prequel Welcome to Derry in 2025.

Roughly how much did the 2017 film It gross at the worldwide box office?

It (2017) took about $700 million worldwide on a $35 million budget, the biggest total for a horror film up to that point, and the 2019 sequel It Chapter Two added roughly $470 million.

Which prestigious 2003 award did King receive, to the annoyance of some literary critics?

The National Book Foundation gave King its Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters in November 2003; earlier recipients included Philip Roth, Arthur Miller and Toni Morrison.

Which novel did a bookmobile librarian hand young King, who wanted 'stories about how kids really are'?

King, then about 12, got Lord of the Flies from a Bookmobile librarian after asking for stories about how kids really are; in a 2011 introduction he called it 'the first book with hands'.

What was King's first professionally sold short story, bought by Startling Mystery Stories in 1967?

'The Glass Floor', a story about a haunted room, earned King $35 from Startling Mystery Stories in 1967, his first paid sale, made while he was a college student.

King plays guitar in which charity band made up of authors?

The Rock Bottom Remainders, formed in 1992 by publicist Kathi Kamen Goldmark, put King on rhythm guitar beside Amy Tan, Dave Barry, Scott Turow and Mitch Albom to raise money for literacy charities.

Which 1998 novel about a widowed novelist was King's first with Scribner and won a Bram Stoker Award?

Bag of Bones (1998), King's first novel for Scribner after leaving Viking, follows widowed novelist Mike Noonan at his lakeside house Sara Laughs; it won the 1998 Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel.

Besides Bangor and Lovell in Maine, where do the Kings winter?

The Kings own a Gulf-front house on Casey Key, a barrier island south of Sarasota, Florida, where they spend the winter months away from the Maine snow.

In which Maine city was Stephen King born on September 21, 1947?

King was born at Maine General Hospital in Portland on 21 September 1947; the family later lived in Durham, Maine, where he grew up from age 11.

What was King's father's original surname before he changed it to King as an adult?

Donald Edwin King was born Donald Pollock in Peru, Indiana, in 1914 and took the name King as a young man; he walked out on the family when Stephen was two.

Which magazine published many of King's early short stories, and was the intended home of Carrie?

Cavalier, a men's magazine, bought early King stories such as 'Graveyard Shift' (1970) and 'The Mangler' (1972); Carrie began as a short story he meant to sell there.

Under what one-off pseudonym did King publish 'The Fifth Quarter' in 1972?

The name belongs to a character in Carrie; Bachman came later and was exposed in 1985.

Which 2009 King novel traps the town of Chester's Mill inside an invisible barrier?

Under the Dome (2009) cuts Chester's Mill, Maine, off from the world when a transparent dome drops over it, and follows the power struggle led by town selectman Big Jim Rennie; CBS adapted it in 2013.

Which 1987 novel, full of addiction metaphors, prompted King's wife to stage an intervention?

The Tommyknockers (1987), about townsfolk transformed by a buried alien ship, was written on cocaine and beer; soon after, Tabitha dumped his drugs and pills on the rug in front of family and friends.

Which high-fantasy novel did King originally write for his daughter Naomi?

The Eyes of the Dragon, a fairy-tale fantasy first issued in a 1984 limited edition and widely in 1987, was written for Naomi, who disliked his horror; its villain Flagg also stalks The Stand and The Dark Tower.

Which two 1992 novels about women are loosely linked by a solar eclipse?

Gerald's Game and Dolores Claiborne, both published in 1992, share the total solar eclipse of 20 July 1963, during which Jessie Burlingame and Dolores each glimpse the other's ordeal.

Which 2008 King novel follows a one-armed artist recovering on a Gulf Coast island?

Duma Key (2008), King's first novel set in Florida, follows Edgar Freemantle, who lost an arm in a crane accident and discovers that his paintings on the island can change reality.

Which novel did King co-write with his son Owen, set in a West Virginia women's prison?

Sleeping Beauties (2017), written with Owen King, imagines a sleeping sickness that cocoons every woman on Earth except Evie Black, an inmate at Dooling Correctional in West Virginia.

Which George A. Romero film marked King's screenwriting debut in 1982?

Creepshow (1982), five comic-book-style tales scripted by King and directed by George A. Romero, pays tribute to the EC horror comics of the 1950s; King himself acts in 'The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill'.

Which critic attacked King's 2003 literary honour as 'dumbing down our cultural life'?

Harold Bloom, the Yale critic, wrote in the Boston Globe that honouring King was 'another low in the shocking process of dumbing down our cultural life', calling him 'an immensely inadequate writer'.

The title of Stephen King's The Shining was inspired by a song from which former Beatle?

John Lennon's 1970 single Instant Karma! supplied the title. An earlier King idea, about a psychic boy in an amusement park, had been called Darkshine.

Which pop superstar co-wrote the 1996 short horror film Ghosts with Stephen King and starred in it?

Michael Jackson played five roles in Ghosts, which ran over 38 minutes and held the Guinness record for the longest music video until 2013.

For decades, Stephen King let student filmmakers adapt his short stories for what token fee?

$1 was the price of his Dollar Baby deal, and a 20-year-old Frank Darabont used it to film The Woman in the Room before directing three King features.

Why is the word cemetery spelled wrongly in the title of Stephen King's novel Pet Sematary?

It copies a graveyard's sign: in the story the town's children tend a woodland burial plot for their animals, and its sign carries the misspelling.

In Stephen King's It, what is six-year-old Georgie chasing when he meets Pennywise at a storm drain?

A paper boat sails down a flooded gutter and into the drain, and the clown coaxes Georgie to reach in after it, the killing that opens the story.

Which actress won an Academy Award as the obsessive nurse in the 1990 film of Stephen King's Misery?

Kathy Bates won Best Actress for the part, which made Misery the first film of a Stephen King novel to take home an Academy Award.

Which hard rock band, a Stephen King favourite, scored the only film he directed?

AC/DC, King's favourite band, scored the whole film and released the music as the album Who Made Who.

In which fictional Maine town does Pennywise the clown prey on children in Stephen King's It?

Derry is King's own portrait of Bangor, as he told a biographer, and the town returns as a setting in several of his other novels.

Which actor played Pennywise the clown in the 1990 television miniseries of Stephen King's It?

Tim Curry gave the clown a Bronx accent, modelling the voice on an old-time Catskills comic, and improvised much of his menace on set.

In Stephen King's novella The Mist, where do townspeople shelter as monsters prowl the fog outside?

A supermarket is the refuge because King dreamed up the story in one, imagining giant insects besieging the building as he shopped after a thunderstorm.

Which of the seven friends in Stephen King's It grows up to become a successful horror writer?

Bill Denbrough, the stuttering older brother of the clown's first victim, becomes a horror author, while Ben turns architect and Richie a disc jockey.

Which school bully leads the gang that hounds the seven friends in Stephen King's It?

Henry Bowers starts by harassing Ben on the last day of school, and the creature later manipulates him into murdering his own abusive father.

Which of the seven friends in Stephen King's It stays in town as the librarian and calls the others back?

Mike Hanlon stays behind while the six others move away and forget the whole ordeal, so it falls to him to phone them when the child killings start again.

In Stephen King's It, what kind of animal is Maturin, the ancient being that created the universe?

A turtle is the monster's cosmic opposite: one of the children meets Maturin in the void during the ritual they use to fight the creature.

Which Saturday Night Live alumnus played the adult Richie in the Stephen King film It Chapter Two?

Bill Hader was the pick of Finn Wolfhard, the young Richie, when the child cast were asked who should play them as adults, and the studio agreed.

In Stephen King's It, what do the children call the marshy wasteland where they escape the school bullies?

The Barrens is where Ben flees his tormentors on the last day of school, and where the group later drives the gang off in a rock fight.

Which filmmaker directed the 2017 film of Stephen King's It after Cary Fukunaga dropped out?

Andy Muschietti, the Argentine director who broke through with the horror film Mama, took over later in 2015 and stayed on for the 2019 sequel.

In the 2019 film It Chapter Two, Stephen King has a cameo as the owner of what kind of business?

A pawn shop is King's patch in the sequel, which also finds room for the veteran director Peter Bogdanovich, playing himself on a film set.

In Stephen King's The Green Mile, what animal does death-row inmate Eduard Delacroix teach to do tricks?

A mouse named Mr. Jingles becomes his closest friend on death row, and after a miraculous healing the animal lives on for another 64 years.

In Stephen King's Children of the Corn, a couple driving through which state find a town with no adults?

Nebraska is where Burt and Vicky reach a deserted town whose abandoned stores show calendars over a decade out of date, with only children's laughter to be heard.

Which real baseball closer is the hero of the lost nine-year-old girl in a 1999 Stephen King novel?

Tom Gordon is the Red Sox pitcher Trisha follows on her Walkman; cornered by a bear, she copies his stance and hurls the radio at its face.

Which Stephen King novel about a writer's murderous pen name was his answer to being unmasked?

The Dark Half gives its novelist a buried alter ego called George Stark, whose surname salutes the alias under which Donald E. Westlake wrote crime fiction.

Which Stephen King novel has shopkeeper Leland Gaunt trade treasures for pranks on the neighbours?

Needful Things is the name of Gaunt's antique shop, where prices are low but each buyer must also play a trick that sets the townspeople against one another.

Which novel about a famous author's widow has Stephen King called his favourite of all his own books?

Lisey's Story follows Lisey Landon as she clears her late husband's study two years after his death and uncovers the other world he used to escape to.

Which Stephen King novel appeared in 1996 at the same time as The Regulators, its mirror-image twin?

Desperation shares its demon, Tak, with the twin book, which King put out on the same day under his old pen name.

Which Victorian poet wrote the poem that chiefly inspired Stephen King's Dark Tower series?

Robert Browning's poem is printed in full in the final volume, and King also credits The Lord of the Rings and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.

Which 1981 non-fiction book by Stephen King surveys horror in print, film, radio, television and comics?

Danse Macabre opens on 4 October 1957, the day the Soviet launch of Sputnik gave the young King his first taste of what he calls real terror.

In the film of Stephen King's Misery, what tool replaces the axe the nurse wields in the novel?

A sledgehammer breaks both his ankles on screen because director Rob Reiner insisted on toning down the book, where the foot is cut off and cauterised.

How is the Overlook Hotel destroyed at the end of Stephen King's novel The Shining?

Its boiler explodes after Danny reminds the possessed hotel that his father has forgotten to release the pressure; Kubrick's version leaves the building standing.

In Stephen King's novella The Langoliers, where do a handful of sleepers wake to find everyone else gone?

On a red-eye flight from Los Angeles to Boston, only the passengers who were asleep remain, and the airliner is flying on autopilot with no crew.

Which action star played Ben Richards in the 1987 film of Stephen King's The Running Man?

Arnold Schwarzenegger replaced Christopher Reeve in the lead, and the film made its hero a framed police officer forced onto a deadly game show.

Which British actor played the gunslinger hero in the 2017 film of Stephen King's The Dark Tower?

Idris Elba, whom the film's director had admired since The Wire, faced Matthew McConaughey as his nemesis.

Which actor played the mystery writer Mort Rainey in the 2004 Stephen King film Secret Window?

Johnny Depp's reclusive novelist is accused of plagiarism by a stranger named John Shooter, who turns up at his cabin in upstate New York.

Which horror director's film of Stephen King's Christine came out in the same year as the novel?

John Carpenter took the job when delays stalled two other projects, one of them another King adaptation, Firestarter, and he co-wrote the score himself.

Stephen King sued successfully to have his name removed from which 1992 virtual-reality film?

The Lawnmower Man strayed so far from his short story that a court ordered his name off it, and he won further damages when the home video put it back.

Before his novels sold, Stephen King worked in what kind of business that inspired his story The Mangler?

A laundry gave him the speed ironer of the story, a folding machine the workers nickname the mangler, which starts pulling its operators inside.

Stephen King long owned what kind of business in Bangor, trading as the Zone Corporation?

Radio stations were his sideline: he bought the rock outlet WKIT in 1995 to sit beside WZON, then announced the group's closure in 2024, citing financial losses.

Which British actor played the fugitive Nazi war criminal in the 1998 film of Stephen King's Apt Pupil?

Ian McKellen played Kurt Dussander, who is living quietly in California under a false name when a high school student works out who he really is.

Which alien-invasion novel did Stephen King write out by hand while recovering from serious injuries?

Dreamcatcher was finished in longhand in about half a year, and King found that the slow work of pen and paper helped him recuperate.

Which demonic Stephen King villain recurs across at least nine novels under aliases such as Walter o'Dim?

Randall Flagg usually travels under names sharing his initials, and King traced him back to a poem he wrote in college about a drifter who confesses to murder.

Which death-row prisoner in Stephen King's The Green Mile turns out to have a miraculous healing touch?

John Coffey, a towering man condemned for the murder of two girls, first shows the gift by curing the block supervisor's painful infection.

Which struggling writer takes a winter caretaker job at the Overlook Hotel in Stephen King's The Shining?

Jack Torrance needs the isolated job because his drinking and temper cost him a teaching post, after he assaulted a student.

Which Overlook Hotel chef shares young Danny's psychic gift in Stephen King's The Shining?

Dick Hallorann picks up the boy's psychic distress call while working at a faraway winter resort and rushes back to the snowbound hotel to help.

Which novelist is nursed, then imprisoned, by his rescuer after a car crash in Stephen King's Misery?

Paul Sheldon is made to burn his new crime manuscript and bring his dead romance heroine back to life on an antique Royal typewriter.

Which private detective recurs in Stephen King's crime fiction and got a 2023 novel named after her?

Holly Gibney began as a supporting character and worked her way up to solo cases; King has admitted that she stole his heart.

Which elderly neighbour leads Louis Creed to the ancient burial ground in Stephen King's Pet Sematary?

Jud Crandall knows what the ground can do because, as he later admits, he went through the same thing with a beloved dog when he was a boy.

Which young girl in Stephen King's Firestarter can set things ablaze with her mind?

Charlie McGee is hunted with her father by a government agency called the Shop, which once tested a hallucinogenic drug on him at college.

Who is the only girl among the seven friends who fight the clown in Stephen King's It?

Beverly Marsh sees blood fountain from her bathroom sink that no adult can see, and she grows up to become a fashion designer.

Which sadistic guard in Stephen King's The Green Mile deliberately sabotages a prisoner's execution?

Percy Wetmore leaves the sponge in the electric chair's cap dry, having refused a better job elsewhere until he was allowed to run an execution.

In Stephen King's novel The Shining, what comes to life in the hotel gardens to menace the family?

Topiary animals come alive in the book, but Kubrick's film dropped them for a hedge maze because the special effects of the day could not manage them.