American author

Tabitha Jane King (née Spruce, born March 24, 1949) is an American author.

Contents

• 1 Early life
• 2 Career
• 3 Social activism
• 4 Reception
• 5 Awards and recognition
• 6 Personal life
• 7 Bibliography
  • 7.1 Novels
  • 7.2 Nonfiction
  • 7.3 Short stories
  • 7.4 Poetry
  • 7.5 Teleplay
  • 7.6 Contributions and compilations
• 8 References
• 9 Further reading
• 10 External links

Early life

Tabitha King is the third eldest daughter of Sarah Jane Spruce (née White; December 7, 1923 – April 14, 2007) and Raymond George Spruce (December 29, 1923 – May 29, 2014). King attended college at the University of Maine, where she met her husband Stephen King through her work-study job in the Raymond H. Fogler Library.

Career

As of 2006, King had published eight novels and two works of non-fiction. She published her first novel, Small World, through Signet Books in 1981, and in 2006, Candles Burning was published through Berkley Books. Candles Burning was written predominantly by Michael McDowell, who died in 1999, and the McDowell family requested that King finish the work.

Social activism

King has served on several boards and committees in the state of Maine, such as the Bangor Public Library board. She also served on the board of the Maine Public Broadcasting System until 1994. In 1998 she received the inaugural Constance H. Carlson Public Humanities Prize, the Maine Humanities Council's highest award, for her work with literacy for the state of Maine.

She currently serves as vice president of WZON/WZLO/WKIT radio stations as well as in the administration of two family philanthropic foundations.

Reception

Reception to King's work has ranged from negative to positive. Pearl received positive mentions from the Los Angeles Times and the Bangor Daily News, while the Chicago Tribune panned Survivor. The Arizona Daily Star criticized One on One, calling King "a hack", whereas Entertainment Weekly, Time, and the Rocky Mountain News gave the novel positive reviews. Caretakers received positive praise by The New York Times, while Bookreporter.com wrote that some readers might be disappointed by the changes made to McDowell's Candles Burning.

Awards and recognition

• Honorary Doctorates of Humane Letters, University of Maine in Orono (May 1987)
• Dowd Achievement Award (1992)
• Constance H. Carlson Public Humanities Prize (1998)

Personal life

She and Stephen King married on January 7, 1971. King had her first child, Naomi Rachel King, in 1970. She gave birth to writer Joseph King in 1972 and Owen King in 1977.

Bibliography

Novels

• (1981) Small World
• (1983) Caretakers *
• (1985) The Trap (also published as Wolves at the Door) *
• (1988) Pearl *
• (1993) One on One *
• (1994) The Book of Reuben *
• (1997) Survivor
• (2006) Candles Burning (with Michael McDowell)

Entries marked with an asterisk are set in King's fictional community of Nodd's Ridge.

Nonfiction

• (1994) Playing Like a Girl; Cindy Blodgett and the Lawrence Bulldogs Season of 93-94
• (1994) Mid-life Confidential: The Rock Bottom Remainders Tour America with Three Chords and an At*ude
  • Written by all of the Rock Bottom Remainders with photos by Tabitha King

Short stories

• (1981) The Blue Chair
• (1985) The Demonstration
• (1986) Road Kill
• (1998) Djinn and Tonic
• (2002) The Woman's Room
• (2011) Archie Smith, Boy Wonder

Poetry

• (1967) A Gradual Canticle for Augustine
• (1967) Elegy for Ike
• (1968) Note 1 from Herodotus
• (1970) Nonsong
• (1971) The Last Vampire: A Baroque Fugue

Teleplay

• (2004) "The P*ion of Reverend Jimmy" (episode of Kingdom Hospital co-written with Stephen King)

Contributions and compilations

• Murderess Ink: The Better Half of the Mystery, Dilys Winn, ed., Bell, 1979
• Shadows, Volume 4, C. L. Grant, ed., Doubleday, 1981
• Midlife Confidential, ed. David Marsh et al., photographs by Tabitha King, Viking Penguin, 1994

References

Further reading

• Mcaleer, Patrick. The Writing Family of Stephen King: A Critical Study of the Fiction of Tabitha King, Joe Hill and Owen King. McFarland. 2011.

External links

• Tabitha King at IMDb
• Tabitha King at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
• Stephen & Tabitha King Foundation
• Joseph Hillstrom King
• Owen Phillip King

Short fiction
collections

• Night Shift:(1978)
• Different Seasons:(1982)
• Skeleton Crew:(1985)
• Four Past Midnight:(1990)
• Nightmares & Dreamscapes:(1993)
• Hearts in Atlantis:(1999)
• Everything's Eventual:(2002)
• Just After Sunset:(2008)
• Full Dark, No Stars:(2010)
• The Bazaar of Bad Dreams:(2015)
• If It Bleeds:(2020)

Non-fiction

• Danse Macabre:(1981)
• Nightmares in the Sky:(1988)
• On Writing:(2000)
• Secret Windows:(2000)
• Faithful:(2004)
• "Guns":(2013)

Screenplays

• Creepshow:(1982)
• Cat's Eye:(1985)
• Silver Bullet:(1985)
• Maximum Overdrive:(1986; also director)
• Pet Sematary:(1989)
• Sleepwalkers:(1992)
• A Good Marriage:(2014)
• Cell:(2016)

Teleplays

• "Sorry, Right Number" (1987)
• Golden Years (1991)
• The Stand (1994)
• The Shining (1997)
• "Chinga" (1998)
• Storm of the Century (1999)
• Rose Red (2002)
• Kingdom Hospital (2004)
• Desperation (2006)
• "Heads Will Roll" (2014)
• The Stand (2020–21)
• Lisey's Story (2021)

Comics

• Heroes for Hope (1985)
• American Vampire (2010)

Musical
collaborations

• Michael Jackson's Ghosts (1997)
• Black Ribbons (2010)
• Ghost Brothers of Darkland County (2012)

Anthologies
edited

• The Best American Short Stories 2007 (2007)
• Six Scary Stories (2016)
• Flight or Fright (2018)

Worlds and
concepts

• Dollar Baby
• Fictional locations in Maine
  • Castle Rock
  • Derry
  • Jerusalem's Lot
  • Shawshank State Prison
• Multiverse
  • All-World

Family

• Tabitha King (wife)
• Joe Hill (son)
• Owen King (son)

Related

• List of adaptations
• Bibliography of works on Stephen King
• Raymond H. Fogler Library archives
• Rock Bottom Remainders
• Philtrum Press
• Six Stories
• Stephen King Goes to the Movies
• Charlie the Choo-Choo
• Hearts in Suspension
• The Secretary of Dreams
• Castle Rock Entertainment

• Category