Claudio Hernández - The Beginnings of Stephen King

The beginnings of Stephen King

Claudio Hernndez

Translated by Daniela Castillo Sabido

The beginnings of Stephen King

Written By Claudio Hernndez

Copyright 2018 Claudio Hernndez

All rights reserved

Distributed by Babelcube, Inc.

www.babelcube.com

Translated by Daniela Castillo Sabido

Cover Design 2018 Ivn Ruso

Babelcube Books and Babelcube are trademarks of Babelcube Inc.

Claudio Hernndez

My little Stevie, my great genius of horror

The Beginnings of Stephen King

Copyright

F irst Edition eBook Spanish : December 2016

Second English Edition eBook : May 2017

Claudio Hernndez, 2016. All rights reserved.

Ivan Ruso for the cover, 2016

Daniela Castillo, translated December 2017

LEGAL DEPOSIT:

In the part of this publication, including the cover design, may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, optical, Editor or author. All rights reserved.

For my wife Mary, who puts up with rubbish like this in times of crisis.

The spelling mistakes are mine. The story, Stephen Kings.

S tephen King conceived Carrie, the Stranger, like its known in Brasil, at the age of 19 and it wasnt until he was 27, after seeing his mother die, when the novel was published, on April 5, 19746. The movie adaption came from the hand of Brian de Palma on 1976. From there, Stephen Kings name, Steve for friends, began to wake a notable interest among his readers, which grew with gigantic steps when he had his third and most famous novel on the bestseller list. It was almost biographical and splendorous: The Shining. But not everything began there, but way before, and that is precisely what Im going to tell...

Prologue

E verything youre going to read here is about Stephen King, so be prepared for a good and satisfying trip to the mind of this popular writer. Many believe that Stephen King writes in his house on Maine with cobwebs on the ceilings and bats attached to the victorian doors, but no, he does it in the outskirts of Bangor, Maine, in a building where his office evidently is, in a dead end. A little higher theres an armory, a snow plow, and, right after, an ancient cemetery, not even painted for the occasion. From the outside, the building seems like a deliberate choice taken for Kings tranquility, from which Edgar Allan Poes mom, H.P. Lovecraft or more recent ones like Bradbury and Matheson. But lets start from the beginning. Stephen Edwin King is the second natural child, as the first was adopted (because the gynecologist told her she could not be a natural mother), of the marriage between Donald King and Nellie Ruth Pillsbury, although King saw his father figure disappear at the early age of two. This fact scarred him for life. However, King does not reproach anything or wonders why he left home to never look back or what forest hes buried in. In this dramatic episode, King remembers he found, at his thirteen years, a box full of manuscripts written by his father (which never saw the light) in one of the many houses he lived in during his teenage years. There were also many books by H.P.Lovecraft. There are some who say this forged him to write his most famous collection of stories for ten years: Night Shift. He was 23 when he completed them. Ten years earlier, King also went to the movies, walking many miles, to see a movie about monsters or aliens and then write his own version. This kid was forged in poverty until his mothers death, and is now the most respected man for his job as author and thinker. Yes, you read that correctly, because if Stephen King had not been an author, he would have probably been a psychiatrist. It is deduced due to his high knowledge of the human brain, fear and its consequences, King was born in Maine on September 21st of 1947 and, today, in the year 2016, he has 69 years, in which he has written almost a hundred books, using even a pseudonym for six of them and another one for a story. King dominates two types of universes that link in his every work. On one side, we have his first and mayor successes like Carrie, The Shining, Salems Lot, The Stand or The Dead Zone, and on the other side we have a much intriguing and premature King , who wrote under the pseudonym of Richard Bachman some novels such as Rage, The Long Walk, Thinner or The Running Man. Like John Swithen signed a story titled The Fifth Quarter for the Cavalier magazine (as if it were a pseudonym of Richard Bachman), as Stephen King also published in in adult magazines such as Penthouse or Cosmopolitan (checks often arrived on time to buy his son Owens antibiotics or to pay the phone bill). Stephen King is a very restless person, he always explains how he came up with this or such idea and how it is to be written, and then he dips into his nightmares and torments, because it is for him to whom he writes for and about. If we read all of his work we get an X-Ray of his life, his fears, his concerns, his good knowledge. Everything. He writes novels of more than a thousand words and works as long as The Dark Tower, of 10,000 words, where he reveals to us in crowded paragraphs how he really is, what he hides behind his thoughts, in his self. King has a very particular writing style that has become universal, every horror writer want to be like him. His style anchors in the human brain and has a writing of great length and depth. He likes to plant a small seed and make it grow to maturity. He stops in the details, visual communication of the scenes, continuity and internal references. Like I mentioned before, King does therapy when he writes and he himself has gotten to say he has filters in his brain that filter that which others cant. Besides, many agree that part of Kings secret is in creating characters with whom we can empathize and anguish when they do. King has recognized, on many occasions, not remembering writing Cujo, for example, but does remember the fear that was involved in writing Pet Sematary. So, King is a person just like us, with his fears, phobias and joys. Besides, his books, contain many references about his culture and country, and mixes them with his characters personalities, which are a clear reflection of a North American on foot, to which he manages to extract his fears, temptations, thoughts, attitudes... everything. Just like that, King uses quite an informal type of narration, but effective, referring to his fans as constant readers and even, as friends. He knows how to get into your mind.