In the foreword to each installment of the Dark Tower series, Stephen King cites another famous writer of fantasy as his (King's) inspiration. Which author is it?

The fantasy author Stephen King cites as an inspiration for The Dark Tower is J.R.R. Tolkien, especially The Lord of the Rings trilogy.

King’s series is not a straightforward imitation of Tolkien. It combines epic fantasy with horror, science fiction, Arthurian legend, and the atmosphere of classic American Westerns. The central character, Roland Deschain, is a gunslinger pursuing the mysterious Dark Tower across a vast, collapsing world known as Mid-World.

King has described Tolkien’s influence alongside Robert Browning’s poem “Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came” and Sergio Leone’s spaghetti Western films. Tolkien supplied the model of a large-scale quest involving mythic history, fellowship, sacrifice, and a world whose fate is tied to the hero’s journey. Leone helped inspire the series’ stark frontier mood and gunfighter imagery.

A common mix-up is treating Tolkien as the sole source of The Dark Tower. King’s forewords and introductions point to several influences, and Browning’s poem is especially important to the title and Roland’s name. The series eventually grew to eight novels, a related novella, and a children’s book, becoming one of King’s defining literary projects.