Stephen Edwin King, a popular American writer, was born in Portland, Maine on September 21, 1949. He is a storyteller who plots to explore the effects of evil and fear (Academic American Encyclopedia 81; World Book 323). Stephen King goes by many names or pseudonyms and they are Richard Bachman and John Swithen(Major 20th Century Writers 1626). He said, "I just want to scare people. I"m very humble about that." He has won both critical acclaim and enormous popular success (Academic American Encyclopedia 81; Discovering Authors Jr. CD-ROM). King thinks of himself as a regular guy and really is one, although he does lives in a Victorian mansion with his wife and children. Aside from his writing, he also owns a rock and roll AM radio station and his own publishing company. His favorite hobbies are doing jigsaw puzzles, bowling, playing the guitar and going to the movies (Discovering Authors Jr. CD-ROM). His father, Donald, was a merchant sailor and his mother was Nellie Ruth (Pillsbury) King. One day his dad went out for a pack of cigarettes and never came back. After their parents separated, Stephen and his adopted older brother, David lived with their mother, moving back and forth between Massachusetts and Maine. His mother took a job working in a laundry and a bakery to support the family and pay the rent on the house. He wrote his first book at the age of seven and went to high school at Hampden Academy in Maine. He held jobs a janitor, a laborer in an industrial laundry, and worked in a knitting mill during his childhood (Discovering Authors Jr. CD-ROM; Geier Computer). Stephen majored in English and got his Bachelor"s degree at the University of Maine at Orono. On January 2, 1971, he married, Tabitha Jane Spruce, who was a novelist. Stephen and his wife had three children, they were Naomi Rachel, Joseph Hill, and Owen Phillip. Stephen King is a member of the Authors Guild and the Authors League of America (Major 20th Century Writers 1626; Handy Computer).