Horror master Stephen King remains just as prolific today as he's ever been, but a bad auto accident back in 1999 almost ended his life prematurely. One wonders what not only the horror genre, but the overall pop culture landscape would look like today if not for Stephen King. The man writes books at a speed most authors could only dream about, and also has a success rate that puts most artists of any kind to shame. He also even excels when stepping outside the horror world, such as with The Shawshank Redemption and Stand by Me.
First breaking out via the smash success of his debut novel Carrie in 1974, King has since published 60 additional full-length books, as well as written over 200 short stories. As if his literary empire wasn't enough, King's work has also been adapted into dozens and dozens of films, miniseries, and normal TV shows. They may not all be great, but they only serve to reinforce how important King's contributions are to pop culture at large.
Stephen King is currently 72-years-old, and shows no signs of slowing down, releasing two new novels in 2018, and another in 2019, with a new short story collection called If It Bleeds on the way in 2020. Additionally, a whopping four feature films and three TV series based on King's work were released in 2019, with more in the works. Yet, 20 years ago, King's life was almost ended in an incredibly tragic way, a result that would've denied the world an astonishing 30 additional books by the celebrated author.
How Stephen King Almost Died in 1999
On the afternoon of June 19, 1999, at around 4:30 pm, Stephen King was out for a walk on the shoulder of a road near his Maine home. It should've been a quiet stroll, but that wasn't to be, as a distracted driver hit King with his minivan, sending the author flying. King was badly injured, including sustaining a collapsed lung, a broken leg (which doctors briefly considered amputating), a shattered hip, and severe cuts to his scalp. King remained hospitalized for about a month after the incident, and ended up undergoing multiple surgeries to repair the extensive damage to his body.
The recovery process for both the injuries King sustained in the accident and the various surgeries he underwent afterward was long and arduous, and during this time, writing became almost unbearable for King due to the pain he'd feel after sitting for too long. These physical issues led King to announce his retirement from writing, although that obviously didn't stick, and he would tell an interviewer later that part of the problem was how much he was having to rely on painkillers like Oxycontin during his recovery, which wasn't helping his writing process. Thankfully, Stephen King survived that sad day in June 1999, and will hopefully continue treating his constant readers to new stories for many years to come.