Haunted Heart: The Life and Times of Stephen King [Hardcover]

Lisa Rogak (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 6, 2009

A fascinating look at the life of the author who created such modern classics as Carrie, IT, and The Shining.
One of the most prolific and popular authors in the world today, Stephen King has become part of pop culture history. But who is the man behind those tales of horror, grief, and the supernatural? Where do these ideas come from? And what drives him to keep writing at a breakneck pace after a thirty year career? In this unauthorized biography, Lisa Rogak reveals the troubled background and lifelong fears that inspire one of the twentieth century's most influential authors.
            King’s origins were inauspicious at best. His impoverished childhood in rural Maine and early marriage hardly spelled out the likelihood of a blossoming literary career. But his unflagging work ethic and a ceaseless flow of ideas put him on the path to success. It came in a flash, and the side effects of sudden stardom and seemingly unlimited wealth soon threatened to destroy his work and, worse, his life. But he survived and has since continued to write at a level of originality few authors could ever hope to match.
            Despite his dark and disturbing work, Stephen King has become revered by critics and his countless fans as an all-American voice more akin to Mark Twain than H. P. Lovecraft. Haunted Heart chronicles his story, revealing the character of a man who has created some of the most memorable---and frightening---stories found in literature today.

Stephen King on Stephen King:

“I’m afraid of everything.”

“As a kid, I worried about my sanity a lot."

“I am always interested in this idea that a lot of fiction writers write for their fathers because their fathers are gone.”

“Writing is an addiction for me.”

“I married her for her body, though she said I married her for her typewriter.”

“When you get into this business, they don’t tell you you’ll get cat bones in the mail.”

 “You have to be a little nuts to be a writer.”

“There’s always the urge to see somebody dead that isn’t you.”

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Though critical studies of his vast oeuvre abound, King—the bestselling author of the 20th century—has not been the subject of a book-length biography until this strictly serviceable study. Rogak (The Man Behind The Da Vinci Code) doesn't probe her subject or his work too deeply. Rather, she strings together the best-known facts of his life with workmanlike efficiency: his family's early abandonment by his father; the author's triumph over an impoverished childhood; his perseverance and prolificacy as a writer; his determination, despite his comfort with genre fiction, to be regarded as more than a horror writer; his struggles with alcohol and drugs; his generosity toward other writers; the accident that nearly killed him in 1999. Rogak structures her text primarily around the chronology of King's scores of books and their film adaptations. Though she interviewed some of King's friends and colleagues, much of the book is derived from secondary sources. Her text is repetitive and cliché-ridden, but the facts she marshals will serve King fans not familiar with his life. 8 pages of b&w photos. (Jan.)
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Review

Praise for A Boy Named Shel:

"Consulting many sources, among them Silverstein's friends; radio interviews; and newspaper, journal, and magazine articles, Rogak thoughtfully reconstructs the artist's life. ... An authoritative and accessible biography, absorbing from cover to cover."--Library Journal

"[A BOY NAMED SHEL] offers revealing anecdotes, complete with some dirty laundry, about the prolific children’s author and cartoonist."--Kirkus Reviews

"The strength of this biography is in leading readers back to Silverstein’s art, which is, after all, where he would have us find him."--School Library Journal

"Fascinating...A BOY NAMED SHEL is a revealing peak into the mind behind both 'Runny Babbit' and 'Freakin' at the Freakers Ball.'" --Albany Times Union

"A tribute to the unusual life of an extraordinary man."--The Daily Texan

"Lisa Rogak dives wholeheartedly into presenting the full story of media-shy Silverstein. She covers every step in his creative career, following his journey across media. Silverstein proved himself as a songwriter, a cartoonist, an author, a poet, a playwright and a screenwriter, and Rogak doesn’t miss a beat."--The Daily Californian

"Faithfully following Silverstein on his wandering and tracing his deft compartmentalizing, Rogak lifts the curtain, respectfully, on this cultural icon." --GO (AirTran Airways Inflight Magazine)

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books; First Edition edition (January 6, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312377320
• ISBN-13: 978-0312377328
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.2 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #814,290 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #11 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > People, A-Z > ( K ) > King, Stephen

More About the Author

I'm an independent journalist celebrating my 30th year of life as a full-time writer in 2011. In that time, I've written about everything from high-tech and cats to food and travel.

Writing has provided me with a fascinating, adventurous life. I wake up each morning looking forward to discovering what new things I'll learn that day. After all this time, it never ceases to amaze me that I have been able to make my living by indulging my curiosity and asking total strangers really nosy questions...

My recent books include And Nothing But the Truthiness: The Rise (And Further Rise) of Stephen Colbert, and The Dogs of War: The Courage, Love, and Loyalty of Military Working Dogs.

I also blog at BehindTheKnife.com about kitchen tools, food, and the secret lives of chefs.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Some proofing and editing, please....., February 8, 2009

By 

D. D. Montee - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Haunted Heart: The Life and Times of Stephen King (Hardcover)

Although there's some interesting anecdotal material here (however little that is really new), I was shocked at the clear lack of editing and proofreading in a book published by an established house like St. Martin's. A few examples: "And so, the general shape of Stephen King's life and creative gifts were (sic) cast" (p. 25). "A flurry of movies based on his books followed that fall, including GRAVEYARD SHIFT and IT" (p.132)--the Fall in question is 1984, and IT wasn't published in book form until 1986. But the worst aspect for the reader to wade through is the repetitiveness of the prose: for example, "Steve and Tabby had fallen into a comfortable rhythm of spending half the year in Maine and the other half in Florida" (p. 219); and then, less than 10 pages later: "As 2005 began, Steve and Tabby had fallen into a comfortable rhythm of spending half the year in Maine and the other half in Florida" (p. 226). It's a shame that so little care seems to have been spent by author, editors, or copyreaders on a book about a major author by a reputable publishing house priced at $25.95. Take the money and run, I suppose, and Mr. King (whose work and life deserves a more considered and considerate approach than is evident here) is exploited once again.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Will the real Stephen King please stand up?, February 16, 2009

By 

Sam Sattler (Spring, Texas) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Haunted Heart: The Life and Times of Stephen King (Hardcover)

In "Haunted Heart," her unauthorized Stephen King biography, Lisa Rogak presents a straightforward look into the major events of King's life, from his birth into an impoverished family to the multi-millionaire lifestyle he lives today. And despite how heavily the book depends on secondary sources, and all the media attention given to King for more than three decades now, even passionate Stephen King followers should come away from it with a better understanding of the man.

Any potential revelations in the book originate in Rogak's speculation about how King's childhood shaped him into the writer, and the man, he is today, not from the well-known facts about his youth and his career. Stephen King does not remember his father, a man who, as the story goes, went down to the corner one evening for a pack of cigarettes and never returned. King's mother never remarried and it was only by working multiple jobs when they came her way, and with substantial help from her sisters, that she was able to keep Steve and his brother together.

The resulting insecurity King felt as a child convinced him that the world is a dangerous place filled with countless scary things wholly deserving his fear. He admits that he fears most of them and that the only way he can escape those fears, even temporarily, is to write about them - something for which his fans should be grateful.

Rogak describes the depth of King's addiction to drugs and alcohol in great detail. However, the surprising thing is not King's alcoholism or past drug use, neither of which is much of a secret these days. Rather, the surprise is how productive King was during even the worst years of his addictions. To put it into perspective, consider that he has no memory of the exhaustive editing process he went through to finalize Cujo or the fact that he was almost constantly drunk or stoned during the entire time he directed his first motion picture but still managed to finish the project.

"Haunted Heart" does well in its chronological presentation of Stephen King's life, and Lisa Rogak's assessment of what made King into the superstar writer that he is today is an interesting, if not new, theory. Readers looking for the basic Stephen King story will not be disappointed but one has to wonder what King's take would be on all the speculation about what makes him tick. Unfortunately, without King's participation or response we will never know how close to the truth Rogak and others have managed to get.

Stephen King fans will appreciate Rogak's efforts but will, at the same time, wish that King had made himself available to her.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars `So who is Stephen King, really?', October 2, 2010

By 

J. Cameron-Smith "Expect the Unexpected" (ACT, Australia) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Haunted Heart: The Life and Times of Stephen King (Hardcover)

In her introduction to this unauthorised biography, Lisa Rogak recounts an anecdote about her trip to Bangor, Maine and a discussion she had with Stephen King's assistant, Marsha DeFillipo about the aim of book she was planning to write.
`For most of that half-hour conversation, the man himself hovered just outside the doorway, listening in on our conversation but never once stepping inside.'

This anecdote could be a summary for the book itself: Stephen King's presence within it is indirect and reflected, rather than direct and central. There's plenty of data here, mostly drawn from secondary sources but little insight or analysis. That doesn't mean that the data isn't useful (although based on events detailed in the book, the timeline is incomplete) simply that a third person biography of Stephen King has little new to add to what is already publicly available.

However, for those discovering Stephen King for the first time, this book contains a lot of useful information including a bibliography. I found the notes section frustrating: there is no reference within the text to the notes; the notes themselves contain page references back to the text. So, if you read the text without exploring the notes you would not have a clear picture of how (and from where) the information was gleaned. For those who have been avidly following Stephen King's career since `Carrie' was first published in 1974, it is unlikely that this book contains anything new.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith