Stephen King

Stephen King is one of the most popular novelists of recent times: a man whose immense commercial success has had a profound impact not only upon the horror genre but also upon popular culture during the latter half of the twentieth century. The cultural pre-eminence which King so rapidly achieved – he is, in his own words, “America’s favourite bogeyman” – has tended to overshadow his works themselves: such immense commercial popularity can sour critical perceptions. The key to King’s success lies in his ability to reconfigure some of the horror genre’s most hoary old clichés – such as the trope of the disturbed outsider (Carrie), the traditional vampire story (Salem’s Lot<