The Long Walk (King's Background)

1947

Born September 21 in Portland, Maine

1950s

King is rumored to have started writing stories as early as six or seven years old taking his ideas from comic books

1950s

States that he was interested in horror and similar genres from a very young age, and later would identify "fear" in all its various forms as a central theme in his writing

1966-1967

Though not published until later, King writes The Long Walk during his time as a freshman at the University of Maine.  The time period in which King wrote the novel has lead many to interpret it as an allegory of the senselessness and televised spectacle of the Vietnam War (1955-1975).  Others have looked to earlier time periods such as the "Trail of Tears" (1830-1850) when the idigenous peoples of the "Five Civilized Tribes" were forced to leave their homes under the Indian Removal Act resulting in immense brutality and thousands of deaths.  Other parallels are certainly possible, but all stress the cruelty of dystopia

1967

King publishes his first short story, "The Glass Floor"

1971

King is hired as a high school teacher in Hampden, Maine

1974

King publishes his first novel, Carrie.

1974

He states that the novel uses telekinesis as a means to examine bullying and adolescent cruelty.  This will become a central trope of his work: using horror, speculative fiction, realism, and other genres, to examine real world struggles.

1979

Publishes The Long Walk under the psuedonym, Richard Bachman.  He also publishes novels such as The Running Man (1982) as Bachman.

1970's - Present

King continues to be a prolific author and cultural phenomena currently appreciated by both casual and scholarly readers, though this was not always the case.  His works have been widely translated, as well as adapted to other media.  He has won numerous awards, including  the Medal of Distinguished Contribution to American Letters in 2003.