Stephen Edwin King was born on 21 September 1947 in Portland, Maine, a place that later became the setting for most of his novels. King spent his childhood moving around with his mother and adopted older brother, often suffering from severe financial strain. Stephen King started writing stories at an early age. At ten, he started writing science fiction stories based on popular movie characters and selling the stories to his classmates. Two years later, when his brother started his own "garage-paper" called Dave's Rag, Stephen King became a frequent contributor.

In 1971, Stephen King graduated from the University of Maine with a Bachelor of Arts in English and became a high school teacher. In the same year, he married aspiring novelist Tabitha Spruce, with whom he shared a trailer outside the city. The Kings went through some rough times, barely making it unless Stephen King was able to sell a short story to a magazine. In the space of a few years, Stephen King began several novels that he eventually abandoned, until his wife pushed him to finish Carrie and submit it to a New York publisher. The novel sold for only 2,500 US dollars (USD), but another big publisher bought the paperback rights soon after for 400,000 USD.

While publishing success stayed with Stephen King after that, his private life deteriorated. He became seriously addicted to alcohol, cocaine, and prescription drugs. In his memoir, On Writing, King admits that he barely remembers writing some of his early novels, because he was so intoxicated at the time. Almost ten years later, his family staged an intervention and forced him to seek help. Stephen King has been sober since the late 1980s.

Stephen King has become known as the master of horror. Many of his most famous books have been made into films, including Salem's Lot, The Shining, The Green Mile, and It. Aside from his many successful novels and collections of short stories, Stephen King has written books in collaboration with other authors, including the popular Black House with Peter Straub. In the early 1980s, Stephen King published four non-horror novels under the pseudonym Richard Bachman. Fans eventually picked up on the similar literary styles and forced Stephen King to release a statement saying Bachman had died of "cancer of the pseudonym."

Stephen King is one of the few writers in the world to become a popular icon. He's instantly recognized and is frequently cited on television shows such as Family Guy, Futurama, The Simpsons, and Friends.