Over the next few weeks, I am going to present information on leading lights in various genres. This week, two of the world's favorite horror writers grace this page -- Dean Koontz and Stephen King.
Dean Koontz
Brief Bio:Dean Ray Koontz was born July 9, 1945 in Everett, Pennsylvania, He was educated at Shippensburg State Teachers College, Shippensburg, Pennsylvania. After Teachers College, he worked as a teacher-counselor with the Appalachian Poverty Program in 1966-67. For the next two years, he was a high school English teacher. Then in 1969, he decided to become a fulltime writer. He married Gerda on October 15, 1966. They have no children and live in Orange, California.
During his writing career, Dean has used the following pseudonyms: Dean Koontz, David Axton, Brian Coffey, Deanna Dwyer, K.R. Dwyer, John Hill, Leigh Nichols, Anthony North, Richard Paige, Owen West and Aaron Wolfe.
Dean Koontz Interview - Author unknown, Early 1980s
Bibliography
(including the books written under his various pseudonyms).
Stephen King
Brief Bio:Stephen King was born Sept. 21, 1947 in Portland, Maine. He attended the University of Maine, graduating in 1970 with a B.A. in English. Following graduation, he worked in a laundry and in 1971, taught at at Hamden Public High School. He married Tabitha Spruce in 1971. Meanwhile he wrote in his free time. His first novel, Carrie, came out in 1973 and was made into a movie in 1976.
An interesting side note about Stephen King web sites is that there are dozens and dozens by serious fans. For example, there are more than forty Stephen King sites at Geocities alone. However, most of the sites lack any real depth or breadth. Indeed, in my years searching the web, I have rarely run into so many useless pages. The pattern seems to be that someone will come up with the idea to have a web page devoted to this prolific horror hero. A photo, a partial list of books and very brief biographical information will be uploaded. Links will be made to similar sites and there the web site management ends. And some of the Stephen King web sites are downright different. One of my favorites is the Stephen Kings Page, where people whose name is Stephen King congregate.
However, there are some better sites out there. They include:
The Stephen King
FAQ
ABC's Nightline What's
Behind the Obsession With the Dark Side? (aired Dec. 10, 1997)
There is a newsgroup, alt.books.stephen-king
and mailing lists such as SKEMERS
and the Stephen King Mailing List (email Carianne at SKingList@aol.com).
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