by George Beahm
The Green Mile [2]: The Mouse on the Mile (April)
The Green Mile [3]: Coffey’s Hands (May)
The Green Mile [4]: The Bad Death of Eduard Delacroix (June)
The Green Mile [5]: The Night Journey (July)
The Green Mile [6]: Coffey on the Mile (Signet, August)
The six installments were subsequently published in 1997 as The Green Mile: The Complete Serial Novel.
Desperation (Donald M. Grant, Publisher, limited edition and trade edition; Viking Press, trade hardback edition, September 24). A “twinner” novel with The Regulators, released simultaneously in a well-synchronized national one-day rollout.
The Regulators, by Richard Bachman (Dutton, limited edition and trade hardback edition, September 24).
Desperation / The Regulators box set (Hodder and Stoughton, United Kingdom, limited edition).
Visual Adaptation
Thinner, directed by Tom Holland, is released (October 25).
1997
SK starts looking around for a new publisher; his business manager, Arthur B. Greene, becomes actively involved and lays the groundwork. SK’s ambitious new novel, Bag of Bones, is the inducement.
A high school shooting (in West Paducah, Kentucky) reveals a copy of Rage in the boy’s locker. SK immediately contacts his publisher and tells them to pull the book. He said, “It’s almost a blueprint in terms of saying, ‘This is how it could be done.’ And when it started to happen, I said, ‘That’s it for me, that book’s off the market’” (BBC, December 19, 1999).
Recognition
Desperation wins a Horror Guild Award and a Hugo Award.
Published
The Green Mile: The Complete Serial Novel (Plume, trade paperback, May).
Six Stories (Philtrum Press, limited edition, trade paperback).
The Dark Tower [4]: Wizard and Glass (Donald M. Grant, Publisher, limited edition and trade hardback edition, November 4; Hodder and Stoughton, United Kingdom, limited edition).
Visual Adaptations
The Shining (TV), directed by Mick Garris (April 27)
The Quicksilver Highway (TV), directed by Mick Garris (May 13)
The Night Flier, directed by Mark Pavia (November 15)
1998
New Englanders stoically endure an ice storm that hits Maine hard. The Kings decide it’s time to consider spending winters down south in Florida and begin visiting Sarasota, on the west coast of Florida.
Recognition
Bag of Bones wins a Bram Stoker Award from the Horror Writers Association.
Published
Bag of Bones: A Novel (Scribner, trade edition, September). It is the first book published by Scribner after King left Doubleday.
Visual Adaptation
Apt Pupil, directed by Brian Singer, is released (October 23).
1999
SK, while on a daily walk in Bridgton, is hit by a minivan and severely injured (4:30 p.m., on June 19). He’s taken to North Cumberland Memorial Hospital (Bridgton) and stabilized for a helicopter flight to Central Maine Medical Center (Lewiston). Bryan Smith, the reckless driver, remarked, “Here it is my bad luck to hit the bestselling writer in the world” (NPR, interview with Stephen King, “The Craft of Writing ‘Horror’ Stories,” July 2, 2010). Smith’s driving record proves to be execrable. SK returns home, having lost forty pounds.
Recognition
Bag of Bones wins a British Fantasy Society Award and a Hugo Award.
Published
Storm of the Century (Pocket Books, trade paperback edition. February), an illustrated screenplay.
The New Lieutenant’s Rap (Philtrum Press, limited edition chapbook, April), a heavily revised version of a short story, “Why We’re in Vietnam.” Not for sale, it was given out as a keepsake at a publishing party on April 6, 1999, in New York City at Tavern on the Green, to celebrate twenty-five years of King in print.
The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon: A Novel (Scribner, trade hardback edition, April 6).
Hearts in Atlantis: New Fiction (Scribner, trade hardback edition, September). Two alternate titles considered but not used included Why We Were …, and Why We’re in Vietnam. (“Squad D,” a short story about a haunted veteran, was solicited by Harlan Ellison for The Last Dangerous Visions, which remains unpublished. Ellison has asked King for a rewrite.)
Visual Adaptations
Storm of the Century (TV miniseries), directed by Craig R. Baxley (February 14–18)
The Green Mile, directed by Frank Darabont (December 10)
2000
Recognition
Hearts in Atlantis wins a Deutscher Phantastik Preis Award.
On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft wins a Bram Stoker Award from the Horror Writers Association.
Published
The Green Mile: The Complete Serial Novel (Scribner, trade hardback).
The Plant: Zenith Rising (Philtrum Press).
On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft (Scribner, trade hardback edition, October).
Secret Windows: Essays and Fiction on the Craft of Writing (Book-of-the-Month Club, October).
Riding the Bullet (Scribner/Philtrum Press), simultaneously offered for free and for sale online at $2.50, is downloaded four hundred thousand times in a twenty-four-hour period, attesting to SK’s brand name appeal. (It is currently available on Amazon for the Kindle.)
The Plant, parts 1–6, available from Philtrum Press directly from the King Web site, downloadable for free as two PDF files (parts 1-3, 4-6); it’s an unfinished epistolary novel.
Visual Adaptation
Trucks (TV) is released (December 26).
2001
SK files a lawsuit against Commercial Union York Insurance that paid his medical claims under his policy, saying they refused to honor the $10 million umbrella policy; he sues for $10 million. It’s settled out of court for $750,000, which SK donates to Central Maine Medical Center, where he was taken after the accident.
The Kings pay $8.9 million for a large estate home at Casey Key, Florida, near Sarasota. The house is 7,500 square feet, on the waterfront, and accessible only by a residential road that terminates at its north end.
Recognition
“Riding the Bullet” wins a Horror Guild award.
On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft wins a Horror Guild Award and a Hugo Award.
Published
Dreamcatcher: A Novel (Scribner, trade edition, March). Original title: Cancer.
The Black House: A Novel, cowritten with Peter Straub (Random House, trade edition, September 15), a sequel to The Talisman (1984).
Visual Adaptation
Hearts in Atlantis is released (September 28).
2002
SK establishes the Wavedancer Foundation in the wake of audiobook reader Frank Muller’s motorcycle accident, which leaves Muller financially devastated and physically wrecked. The foundation exists to help freelance artists of all disciplines who suffer unexpected financial catastrophe, typically in the wake of a health-related issue.
Recognition
Black House wins a Horror Guild award.
SK receives a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Horror Writers Association.
Published
Black House (Donald M. Grant, Publisher, limited edition and a trade hardback edition boxed in a slipcase with a trade hardback edition of The Talisman).
Everything’s Eventual: 14 Dark Tales (Simon and Schuster, trade hardback edition, March). Original title: One Headlight.
From a Buick 8: A Novel (Cemetery Dance, limited edition, trade hardback edition; Scribner, trade hardback edition, September 24).
Visual Adaptation
Rose Red is released (January 27).
2003
SK begins writing a pop culture column for Entertainment Weekly, “The Pop of King” (July). The column runs for eight years, ending in January 2011. King reflected in the last column, “It’s time for Uncle Stevie to grab his walking cane, put on his traveling shoes, and head on down the road.”
SK is stricken with double pneumonia, a complication from The Accident, in which a collapsed lung caused an infection, and stays in the hospital for nearly a month (November 23). He undergoes a thoracotomy, and when he returns home, he’s down to 160 pounds. Returning home, his office, undergoing renovation, looks abandoned, left behind, as if its owner had passed on. It inspires a novel, Lisey’s Story (October 24).
Recognition
Stephen receives the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters from the National Book Foundation (November 19).
Black House wins a Deutscher Phantastik Preis Award.
From A Buick 8 wins a Horror Guild Award.
Everything’s Eventual wins a Horror Guild Award.
SK receives a Living Legends Award from the International Horror Guild.
Published:
The Dark Tower [1]: The Gunslinger (Viking Press, trade hardback edition, June).
The Dark Tower [2]: The Drawing of the Three (Viking Press, trade hardback edition, June).
The Dark Tower [3]: The Waste Lands (Viking Press, trade hardback edition, June).
The Dark Tower [4]: Wizard and Glass (Viking Press, trade hardback edition, June).
The Dark Tower [5]: Wolves of the Calla (Donald M. Grant, Publisher, limited edition and trade hardback edition; Viking Press, trade hardback edition, November). Original title: The Dark Tower: The Crawling Shadow.
Visual Adaptations
Dreamcatcher, directed by Lawrence Kasdan (March 6)
The Diary of Ellen Rimbauer (TV), directed by Craig R. Baxley (May 12)
2004
The Red Sox win the World Series. The Curse of the Bambino is lifted. SK and Stewart O’Nan are gobsmacked (October 27).
Recognition
SK wins a Lifetime Achievement Award from the World Fantasy Convention.
SK is selected as the International Author of the Year and also wins for Best International Web site, from Deutscher Phantastik Preis.
Published
The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon (abridged text, a paper-engineered pop-up book for children, from Little Simon Publishing, limited edition, and trade hardback edition, January 1).
The Dark Tower [6]: Song of Susannah (Donald M. Grant, Publisher, limited edition and trade hardback edition; Viking Press, trade hardback edition, June).
The Dark Tower [7]: The Dark Tower (Donald M. Grant, Publisher, limited edition, and trade hardback edition; Viking Press, trade hardback edition, September).
’Salem’s Lot (Centipede Press, limited edition, trade edition, October), with fifty additional pages of text from the novel.
Faithful: Two Diehard Boston Red Sox Fans Chronicle the 2004 Season, cowritten with Stewart O’Nan (Scribner, December 2).
Visual Adaptations
Kingdom Hospital (TV), directed by Craig R. Baxley (March 3)
Secret Window, directed by David Koepp (March 12)
’Salem’s Lot (TV), directed by Mikael Salamon (June 2)
Riding the Bullet, directed by Mick Garris (October 15)
2005
Owen King publishes his first book, We’re All in This Together (Bloomsbury, June).
Joe Hill King publishes his first book, 20th Century Ghosts (PS Publishing, October).
Recognition
Faithful, written with Stewart O’Nan, wins a Quill Award.
The Dark Tower [7]: The Dark Tower wins a British Fantasy Society Award and a Deutscher Phantastik Preis Award.
Published
The Colorado Kid (Dorchester Publishing and Winterfall, Hard Case Crime imprint, mass market paperback edition, October).
’Salem’s Lot: Illustrated Edition (Doubleday, trade hardback edition, November).
Published about King
Stephen King: Uncollected, Unpublished (Cemetery Dance, 2005), by Rocky Wood, with David Rawsthorne and Norma Blackburn. This was Rocky Wood’s first book on SK.
2006
Recognition
Lisey’s Story wins a Bram Stoker Award from the Horror Writers Association.
Published
Cell (Scribner, trade hardback edition, January).
Nightmares and Dreamscapes (Viking Press, trade hardback edition, July 12), an anthology. The stand-out piece is the nonfiction essay, “Head Down” (from the New Yorker); “Dolan’s Cadillac” makes its first appearance in a trade edition.
The publication of “The Man in the Black Suit” for the Halloween issue of The New Yorker (October 31) irks SK: “I don’t want to bite the hand that feeds me, and I’m grateful for the exposure, but it’s still a little bit like being a prostitute and being put at the head of a float on National Whore’s Day” (Fangoria magazine).
Lisey’s Story (Scribner, trade hardback edition, October; 1.1 million first printing). Original title: Lisey Landon.
Secretary of Dreams, Volume 1 (Cemetery Dance, signed limited edition, December), illustrated by Maine artist Glenn Chadbourne.
Visual Adaptation
Desperation, directed by Mick Garris, is released (May 23).
2007
Joe Hill’s first novel, Heart-Shaped Box, named after a Nirvana song, is published (February 13); he comes out of the shadows and admits he’s Stephen King’s son. Like his father’s admission to being Bachman, Joe Hill found further denials useless: The family resemblance—physically and in his fiction—is undeniable.
SK’s mother-in-law, Sarah Jane White Spruce, dies (April 14); she was SK’s Red Sox buddy in the family.
The Kings buy a second house on Casey Key for $2.2 million, for visiting family and friends.
In Bangor, the Kings buy the house next door for $750,000, historically known as the Charles P. Brown House.
SK is the guest editor for Best American Short Stories 2007, aided by editor Heidi Pitlor.
Recognition
SK receives a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Canadian Booksellers Association.
SK receives a Grand Master Award from the Mystery Writers of America.
Published
Blaze, by Richard Bachman (Scribner, trade hardback edition, June 12).
The Colorado Kid (PS Publishing, limited editions with art, variously, by Glenn Chadbourne, J. K. Potter, or Edward Miller; trade hardback edition).
The Green Mile (Subterranean Press, limited edition and trade hardback edition).
Best American Short Stories 2007, edited by SK (trade hardback edition, October).
Visual Adaptations
1408 directed by Mikael Håfström (June 12)
The Mist, directed by Frank Darabont (November 21)
2008
Published
Duma Key (Scribner, trade hardback edition, January).
Just After Sunset (Scribner, trade hardback edition, November).
“Stephen King’s N.” (twenty-five installments serialized online; subsequently issued as a bound-in CD in the “Collector’s Set” of Just After Sunset, 2008).
2009
Recognition
“Just After Sunset” wins an Alex Award.
Duma Key wins a Black Quill Award and a Bram Stoker Award from the Horror Writers Association.
Just After Sunset wins a Bram Stoker Award from the Horror Writers Association.
Published
Stephen King Goes to the Movies (Plume, trade edition in mass market paperback, January; Subterranean Press, a limited edition but not signed or numbered, April), a collection.
The Little Sisters of Eluria (Donald M. Grant, Publisher, limited edition and trade hardback edition).
Under the Dome (Scribner, trade hardback edition, November).
Published on King
Stephen King’s The Dark Tower: The Complete Concordance (Cemetery Dance Publications, limited edition of 2000 copies, 2009), by Robin Furth. The first concordance to the Dark Tower series; rigorously researched and definitive.
2010
Joe Hill publishes Horns (William Morrow, trade hardback, February 16).
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Blockade Billy (Cemetery Dance, limited edition and trade hardback edition; Scribner, trade hardback edition, May).
The Secretary of Dreams, Volume 2, illustrated by Glenn Chadbourne (Cemetery Dance, limited edition and trade edition, October).
Full Dark, No Stars (Scribner, trade hardback edition, November), a collection.
2011
Published
Mile 81 (e-book, Simon and Schuster Digital, September 1), an excerpt from 11/22/63.
11/22/63 (Scribner, trade hardback edition, November).
Visual Adaptation
Bag of Bones (TV), directed by Mick Garris, is released (December 11).
2012
Published
The Dark Tower [4.5]: The Wind Through the Keyhole, illustrated by Jae Lee (Donald M. Grant, Publisher, limited edition and trade hardback edition, February 21; Scribner, trade hardback edition, April 24).
A Face in the Crowd, written with Stewart O’Nan (e-book, Simon and Schuster Digital, August 21).
Visual Adaptation
Mercy, a film based on the short story “Gramma,” is released (December 14).
Live Performance
Ghost Brothers of Darkland County (theater production), with John Mellencamp, and music directed by T Bone Burnett. (CD and DVD edition, with liner notes, from Concord Music Group.)
2013
Owen King publishes Double Feature (Scribner, trade hardback, March 19).
Joe Hill King publishes NOS4A2 (William Morrow, trade hardback, April 30).
Published
Guns (Amazon, for Kindle, January).
Joyland (Dorchester Publishing, Hard Case Crime imprint, limited edition and trade hardback edition for the United Kingdom, June; U.S. edition from Hard Case Crime was originally published in paperback only).
Ghost Brothers of Darkland County (Concord Music Group, June 4), packaged with 2 CDs, 1 DVD, and a trade paperback of the libretto (theater production dialogue).
The Dark Man (Cemetery Dance, limited edition and trade hardback edition, July).
Doctor Sleep (Cemetery Dance, limited edition and trade edition; Scribner, trade hardback edition, September).
The Shining (Subterranean Press, limited edition and trade hardback edition).
Visual Adaptation
The first episode of the TV series Under the Dome aired on June 24; the third season is to air in 2015.
2014
Published
Mr. Mercedes (Scribner, trade hardback edition, June).