Stephen King has terrorized generations of viewers with his novels and short stories, and while he mostly writes fiction, many of his works were inspired by events and people from his own life – and here’s every one of them. Stephen King has rightfully earned the title of the King of Horror thanks to his many works from this genre, and it all started in 1967 when he sold his first professional short story, “The Glass Floor”, to Startling Mysteries, and in 1973, his first novel, Carrie, was published.
Although it initially sold modestly, Carrie became a bestseller after Brian de Palma’s 1976 movie adaptation, which opened many doors for King as an author. King has since allowed readers to explore a variety of fears, places, and meet all types of characters – monsters, aliens, or humans, though the latter most often than not turn out to be the real monsters. Many of King’s characters have become part of pop culture, such as Pennywise the Dancing Clown from IT, Carrie White from Carrie, Jack Torrance from The Shining, Annie Wilkes from Misery, and many, many more.
Stephen King takes inspiration from a variety of sources – whether literary classics (like Dracula for Salem’s Lot), popular horror creatures, real-life tragedies and serial killers, and more. However, there are some stories that were inspired by his own life, whether by traumatic experiences, unusual but harmless ones, his own personal struggles, and people he has met. Here’s every Stephen King story inspired by his own life.
Carrie
Carrie is the story of Carrie White, a high-school girl who is constantly bullied at school and is also physically and psychologically abused by her religious fanatic mother, Margaret White. After an especially traumatic incident at school that goes too far, and tired of the constant abuse she goes through at home, Carrie discovers she has telekinetic powers, and so she unleashes her revenge against those who did her wrong on prom night. However, as Carrie has no control over her powers, she causes mass destruction and kills many, many people. Carrie White is based on a composite of two girls King met in grade school and high school, and King once spoke about one of them. King explained that her mother wasn’t “a religious nut” but “a game nut”, and the girl had only one change of clothes for the entire school year, and the one time she arrived with a new outfit, everyone made fun of her.
The Shining
The Shining follows Jack Torrance, a struggling writer and recovering alcoholic who takes a position as the off-season caretaker of the Overlook Hotel in the Colorado Rockies. As his relationship with his family is fractured, Jack takes his wife, Wendy, and their son, Danny, with him, in hopes to rebuild their relationship. Jack also hopes to find the motivation he needs to work on a play, but when a snowstorm leaves them cut off from the outside world, and along with Danny’s mysterious psychic abilities, the supernatural forces inhabiting the Overlook Hotel awaken and start to mess with Jack’s sanity. After writing Carrie and Salem’s Lot, King wanted to spend some time away from Maine and he and his wife, Tabitha, traveled to Colorado, where they stayed at the infamous Stanley Hotel, which is said to be haunted. The Kings were the only two guests when they arrived, as the hotel was preparing to close for the season.
After dinner, King took a walk around the empty hotel and ended up in the bar, where he was served drinks by a bartender named Grady. That same night, King had a dream about his son running through the corridors as he was chased by a fire hose, and that helped him come up with the basis of The Shining. In addition to that, Jack Torrance’s struggles with addiction are also based on King’s own problems with alcohol.
Cujo
Cujo is the story of the title St. Bernard, who is bitten by a bat and starts behaving oddly, becoming very aggressive. As Cujo morphs into a dangerous beast, he goes on a rampage in a small town, where stay-at-home mom Donna comes across Cujo along with her son, Tad. In an interview with The Paris Review in 2006, King shared that the idea for Cujo came to him after a potentially dangerous encounter with a St. Bernard. As King was having problems with his motorcycle, he visited an auto shop on the northern outskirts of Bridgton, Maine. There, a St. Bernard emerged from the garage, growling at him and lunging for his hand, but the mechanic stopped the dog from harming King. This, along with a news report about a young kid that was killed by a St. Bernard, made Cujo happen.
The Body
The Body takes place in the summer of 1960 in Castle Rock, Maine, and tells the story of Gordie LaChance, a 12-year-old boy who with his three friends sets out to find the body of a boy who disappeared and is presumed dead. During the course of their journey, the boys, who all come from abusive or dysfunctional families, come to grips with death and the hard truths of growing up in a small factory town that doesn’t offer them much of a future. The Body is said to be inspired, to an extent, by a traumatic event in Stephen King’s childhood: although he doesn’t remember the incident, when King was four-years-old, he went off to play at a friend's house, who lived near railroad tracks, but the young boy was hit by the train while playing on the tracks and was killed.
Pet Sematary
Pet Sematary follows doctor Louis Creed and his family as they move from Chicago to Ludlow, Maine, as Louis has taken a job at the university. There they befriend their neighbor, Jud, who warns them about the dangerous road they live on, and shows Louis the pet cemetery close to their home, where the local kids bury their deceased pets. Unfortunately, tragedy hits the Creeds when their cat is run over by a truck, and months later, Gage, their youngest son, is also killed by a truck. Louis learns that the burial ground near their house has the mysterious power of bringing the deceased back to life, so he tries to bring Gage back, which has terrible consequences. Back in 1979, King was a “writer-in-residence” at the University of Maine, and the house he was renting was adjacent to a major road, where pets were often killed by trucks. Just like in the novel, the cat of King’s daughter was run over on that road, and they buried it in the “pet sematary” near their house. Some time later, King’s youngest son, who was not yet two years old, ran towards the road, but he stopped him right on time – and so these incidents made way for the story of Pet Sematary.
Thinner
Thinner tells the story of Billy Halleck, a morbidly obese lawyer who kills a Romani woman as she was crossing the street, but he manages to escape legal punishment thanks to his connections. However, the woman’s father places a curse on Halleck, causing him to lose weight uncontrollably. At the time of the novel’s writing, King was overweight and his doctor told him he needed to lose weight and stop smoking, which served as the basis for Thinner. King even added a line spoken to him by his doctor regarding his weight: “'Listen, man, your triglycerides are really high. In case you haven't noticed it, you've entered heart attack country”.
Misery
Misery follows romance novelist Paul Sheldon, who after being seriously injured during a car accident, is taken in by former nurse Annie Wilkes, who looks after him. However, Annie turns out to be Sheldon’s deranged self-proclaimed number one fan, and she’s actually holding Sheldon prisoner. Part of King’s inspiration for Misery was fan reaction to his fantasy novel The Eyes of the Dragon, as many fans rejected it, so very much like Paul Sheldon felt attached to the Misery books, King felt chained to horror fiction. In addition to that, Annie Wilkes was inspired by King’s addiction, calling Annie his drug problem and, in an interview with Rolling Stone, he said Annie Wilkes “is cocaine. She was my number-one fan".
Lisey’s Story
Lisey’s Story is the story of Lisey Landon, the widow of famous novelist Scott Landon. Two years later, Lisey is still mourning Scott, but as she goes through his possessions, she is forced to confront some not-so-happy memories about her marriage and some suppressed memories of Scott’s unusual abilities. In 2003, Stephen King became sick with double pneumonia, and while he was in the hospital, Tabitha decided to redesign his studio. When he returned home, he saw his books and belongings in boxes, and so he realized that’s what his office would look like when he dies.