I was not at the top of my class, nor at the bottom.' Later that summer King began working on a novel called 'Getting It On', about some kids who take over a classroom and try unsuccessfully to ward off the National Guard. Looking back on his high school days, King recalled that 'my high school career was totally undistinguished. In 1966 he graduated from high school and took a scholarship to attend the University of Maine. King made his first actual published appearance in 1965 in the magazine Comics Review with his story 'I Was a Teenage Grave Robber.' The story ran about 6,000 words in length. King's stories included 'Hotel at the End of the Road', 'I've Got to Get Away!', 'The Dimension Warp', 'The Thing at the Bottom of the Well', 'The Stranger', 'I'm Falling', 'The Cursed Expedition', and 'The Other Side of the Fog.' A year later, King's amateur press, Triad and Gaslight Books, published a two-part book titled 'The Star Invaders'. Collaborating with his best friend Chris Chesley in 1963, they published a collection of 18 short stories called 'People, Places, and Things-Volume I'. Stephen attended Lisbon High School, in Lisbon, in 1962. David bought a mimeograph machine, and they put together a paper they sold for five cents an issue. Stephen began his actual writing career in January of 1959, when David and Stephen decided to publish their own local newspaper named 'Dave's Rag'. They traveled throughout many states over several years, finally moving back to Durham, Maine, in 1958.

Ruth took over raising the family with help from relatives. The Kings were a typical family until one night, when Donald said he was stepping out for cigarettes and was never heard from again. His father was born under the surname 'Pollock,' but used the last name 'King,' under which Stephen was born. His parents were Nellie Ruth (Pillsbury), who worked as a caregiver at a mental institute, and Donald Edwin King, a merchant seaman. Stephen Edwin King was born on September 21, 1947, at the Maine General Hospital in Portland.

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