This book has been sitting on my shelf for over 10 years. I bought it before I discovered that I am not a fan of Stephen King. In the last 10 years, I’ve started a few King novels and finished exactly one. His style and manner of writing just isn’t my thing.

However, as this book attests, my singular opinion is only that. An opinion which has no bearing on King’s chronic success. I actually enjoyed reading about his life and the wild inspirations for his novels. But I will say that the editor and/or designer of this particular biography assembled this more like a textbook. The main text was broken up by asides and inserts that occasionally spanned several pages. Constantly flipping back and forth to attempt to read this thing in any semblance of an order grew tiresome.

Read it. Rated it. Donated it. ( )

My only complaint...and it's a minor one, because Bev Vincent definitely did his homework here, is that I would have enjoyed an even deeper dive into the books. Why did King choose the characters he did? Why did he take the story in that particular direction? That sort of thing. But that's the writer in me asking for that stuff. All in all, an enjoyable read and an informative look into the mind of Stephen King. ( )

This is really a coffee table book, but it's still enchanting. A must have for hard-core Stephen King fans. It features reproductions of pieces of copy edited manuscripts in folders that can be pulled out of each chapter. Rarely seen photos and insight on some of his most important novels up through 'Under the Dome'. ( )

Loads of info about the King of Horror. Fun and Informative. ( )

Knowing my love for King, you might be surprised to learn that I just found out about the existence of this book today. Despite the fact that I am a devoted King fan, and a member of the Stephen King Fan group here on GR, in which there was a thread about this book open since last October, I somehow managed to miss it.

But that was kind of fortuitous, as events worked out in such a way as for me to get this book 1/2 price. But even if I hadn't, it would still have been worth every penny.

This is an absolute MUST-HAVE for every King lover. Inside is a plethora of tidbits and relics of King's life and career. Everything from reproductions of sections of the newspaper he and his brother put out as kids, to reproductions of rough drafts of work, sketches, etc.

Bev Vincent provides not only a readable and interesting narrative, but also contributes a lot of insight into King's work that I'd never thought of before. It makes me want to go back and read these books with a new eye. (So I think I will! :D)

A lot of the information in this book regarding King's life is general knowledge or pulled from the pages of Danse Macabre (which I haven't read yet, but will squeeze in as soon as it lands on my doorstep), On Writing, which I've just read, and quotes from interviews and the like. Most of the major facets of King's life are touched on. His childhood, his early writing career, his inspiration and ideas, The Rock Bottom Remainders, his radio station, his accident (with some touches on "old" King vs "post-accident" King), his relationship with his wife, his philanthropy, his innovation in publishing, and the possibilities the future may hold. Just about everything but the kitchen sink. But I'd have read about that too if they put it in. :)

Contained within these pages is a quote which I think sums up most of what I love about King:

"...King says, 'I believe these {horror} stories exist because we sometimes need to create unreal monsters and bogies to stand in for all the things we fear in our real lives.'
His hope, though, is that 'you don't get scared of monsters-- you get scared for people.' This succinctly describes one of the secrets of King's success-- his books are fundamentally about how people react to stressful circumstances. He makes readers care for his characters, and then throws something catastrophic at them."

This quote is in the section dedicated to The Shining, but it's true of all of his work, in my opinion. I love the way that King brings his characters to life. They are more than just words on a page, they could be real people, some that I would love to know, others that I'd avoid like the plague, but real nonetheless.

I'm proud to call Stephen King my favorite author. He deserves it. Not only is he able to write characters that make me physically miss them after a while, but he is accessible, and real and good-hearted himself. And yet, literary snobs like Harold Bloom seem to think that he is the "death of the Literary Reader". Pfft. This is twice that old Harold has offended me (three times if you count that he cannot even spell "Tolkien", yet claims to be a fan...). Somebody needs to slap old Harold. He's an idiot. King's response is to say

"Harold Bloom has never been very interested in popular culture, and he has no real grasp of popular culture, popular writing, or the places where what we call pop culture crosses what you would call higher culture... What I would really like to do is see Harold Bloom given an injection of sodium pentothol so that he had to tell the truth and say 'Now, Harold, how much Stephen King have you actually read?' And I think the answer would be probably less than one whole book. My guess is he's dipped a few times, and you come to the table with certain prejudices, and naturally you're going to see those prejudices fulfilled."

Bravo. How true. Prejudiced is the perfect word to describe Harold Bloom in my opinion.

Anyway, enough ranting about Harold. (Although I now wonder if overweight, pimply and pompous poet-wannabe Harold Lauder was modeled after old Harold Bloom? Hmm. The answer does not lie within this book, but if I ever meet King, I'll be sure to ask.) Really, now, enough of the snobs.

As I mentioned before, this is a must have for any King fan. Surely the Harold quote is enough to justify the purchase, but really, these 176 pages are jam-packed with memorabilia that shows us (if we didn't know already) that King is a person, and a GOOD one, not just a FAMOUS or a RICH person.

He's active in his community, has several charities, and gives back whenever he can, most recently by purchasing bus tickets so that a good-sized chunk of soldiers home from Afghanistan (I think- may have to check which war they were home from) could visit their families for the holidays.

So, yes, he deserves to be my favorite author, and he's got a spot on my 'favorite person' list too. :) ( )