In what year was Stephen King born?

Stephen King was born in 1947, on September 21, in Portland, Maine.

King grew up under difficult circumstances after his father left the family when Stephen was very young. His mother raised him and his older brother, David, while the family moved among several states and sometimes depended on relatives for support. Those early experiences helped shape the observant, anxious perspective that later became a hallmark of his fiction.

King studied at the University of Maine, where he earned a bachelor's degree in English in 1970. Before becoming a full-time writer, he worked as a teacher and wrote stories for magazines. His breakthrough arrived with Carrie, published in 1974, when King was 26 years old.

A common mix-up is confusing King's birth year with the publication dates of his early novels. He was born decades before major works such as The Shining, published in 1977, and It, published in 1986. His birthplace is also sometimes listed simply as Maine, but the specific city is Portland.