The spookiest thing about the just-published Stephen King: A Complete Exploration of His Work, Life, and Influences is how many fascinating tidbits of information about Stephen King writer Bev Vincent fits into the book, while still leaving space aplenty for archival photos and documents from the Carrie writer’s personal collections.
You’ll have to buy the tome to see the images but you can entertain (and terrify!) your friends with these ten fascinating facts Entertainment Weekly gleaned from reading Vincent’s book.
Here is one of the facts…
Success came just in time
When King wrote his first published novel, Carrie, in the early 1970s, he was barely able to support his family working as a teacher at Maine’s Hampden Academy and ultimately went phone-less to save money. In 1973, he borrowed $75 from his wife Tabitha’s grandmother and visited New York to meet with Doubleday editor Bill Thompson in New York. The gamble paid off when, a month later, the publisher paid King a $2500 advance for his tale of a teenager with supernatural gifts. The author celebrated by buying a Ford Pinto to replace the family’s 1965 Buick. King’s days of worrying about his phone bill would permanently end later in the year when Signet paid Doubleday $400,000 for the book’s paperback rights.
