Stephen King grew up poor but his writing has made him a very wealthy man, and he praises his mother for giving him the room to become a writer. King reveals now that he used the paperback royalties from his first novel, Carrie, to allow his mother to stop working, he tells CBS Sunday Morning anchor Jane Pauley in an interview to be broadcast June 13 (9:00 AM ET) on the CBS Television Network.
King’s mother, Nellie Ruth Pillsbury King, died at age 60 of cancer. However, she did get to see Carrie, published.
“The hardcover advance was small, but the paperback advance just bowled us over, it was, like, $400,000 in 1974. It was a huge amount of money. And – my brother and I talked a little bit about it,” King tells Pauley.
“And we went to – the Pineland facility where she worked. She was in her … green uniform, green rayon uniform, never told this story before,” King continues. “But she was stoned, totally stoned on over-the-counter medication. She was in excruciating pain by that point. … And– my brother … and I … said, ‘Mom, you’re done.’ … There’s enough to take care of you now because the book sold for a lot of money, and you can go home…. And she just put her hands over her face and cried.”
Pauley sits down with King for a wide-ranging interview about his writing career, his marriage, and his latest project, a miniseries, “Lisey’s Story,” for Apple TV.
While King has mastered the craft of providing thrill rides for his millions of readers worldwide through his books, films and TV projects, he also admits he’s not a fan of roller coaster rides in real life.
“You’re not?” Pauley asks.
No,” King says. “No, you see, the thing is, I build the roller coasters. That doesn’t mean I have to ride on ’em.”