Tabitha King
American author (born 1949)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Tabitha "Tabby" Jane King (née Spruce, born March 24, 1949) is an American author.[1][2][3]
March 24, 1949
Tabitha King | |
|---|---|
| Born | Tabitha Jane Spruce March 24, 1949 Old Town, Maine, U.S. |
| Occupation | Author |
| Alma mater | University of Maine |
| Genre | |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 3, including Joe and Owen |
Early life
Born in Old Town, Maine, Tabitha King is the third eldest daughter of Sarah Jane née White (December 7, 1923 – April 14, 2007)[4] and Raymond George Spruce (December 29, 1923 – May 29, 2014).[5] She attended John Bapst Memorial High School in Bangor, Maine[6] before enrolling at the University of Maine in Orono where she met her husband Stephen King through her work-study job in the Raymond H. Fogler Library.
Career
As of 2006, King had published eight novels and two works of non-fiction.[7][8] She published her first novel, Small World, through Signet Books in 1981[9] and in 2006, Candles Burning was published by Berkley Books.[10][11] The paperback rights for Small World were bought by New American Library for $165,000.[12][13] Candles Burning was written predominantly by Michael McDowell, who died in 1999, and the McDowell family requested that King finish the work.[14]
In 2023, she was the executive producer of the independent horror film The Sudbury Devil.[15]
Reception
Reception to King's work has ranged from negative to positive.[16][17][18] Pearl received positive mentions from the Los Angeles Times and the Bangor Daily News,[19][20] while the Chicago Tribune panned Survivor.[21] The Arizona Daily Star criticized One on One, calling King "a hack",[22] whereas Entertainment Weekly, Time, and the Rocky Mountain News gave the novel positive reviews.[23][24][25] Caretakers was lauded by The New York Times for its characterization of its protagonists.[26] In 2006, King completed and published Michael McDowell's final novel, Candles Burning, to mixed reviews. Bookreporter.com wrote that some readers might be disappointed by the changes King made to McDowell's original.[27]
Awards and recognition
- Honorary Doctorates of Humane Letters, University of Maine (May 1987)[28]
- Dowd Achievement Award (1992)[29]
- Constance H. Carlson Public Humanities Prize (1998)[30][31]
Social activism
King has served on several boards and committees in the state of Maine including the Bangor Public Library board.[32] She also served on the board of the Maine Public Broadcasting System until 1994.[33] In 1998 she received the inaugural Constance H. Carlson Public Humanities Prize, the Maine Humanities Council's highest award, for her work with literacy for the state of Maine.[30] In 2019, Tabitha and Stephen King donated $1.25 million to the New England Historic Genealogical Society.[34]
She serves as vice president of WZON/WZLO/WKIT radio stations, as well as in the administration of two family philanthropic foundations.[32] The Stephen and Tabitha King Foundation, chaired by her and her husband, ranks sixth among Maine charities in terms of average annual giving, with over $2.8 million in grants per year, according to The Grantsmanship Center.[35]
Personal life
Tabitha and Stephen King married on January 2, 1971.[36][37][38][39] They have a daughter, Naomi, and two sons, Joe Hill (Joseph Hillström King) and Owen King, who are both writers.[40]
Partnership with Stephen King
Prior to her husband's commercial success, Tabitha worked extra shifts at Dunkin' Donuts so that Stephen could write full-time.[13] As Stephen recalled the origin of his debut novel, Carrie: "Two unrelated ideas, adolescent cruelty and telekinesis, came together." It began as a short story intended for Cavalier; Stephen tossed the first three pages in the trash but Tabitha recovered them, saying she wanted to know what happened next. He followed her advice and expanded it into a novel.[41] She told him: "You've got something here. I really think you do."[42]
That began a practice that continues today: Tabitha and Stephen review each other's drafts and also those of their two sons.[13]
Bibliography
Novels
| Year | Title | Publisher | ISBN | Pages | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1981 | Small World | Signet Books | 9780451114082 | 312 | |
| 1983 | Caretakers | Scribner's | 9780025631502 | 274 | First novel set in King's fictional community of Nodd's Ridge |
| 1986 | The Trap | 9780451160300 | 352 | Also published as Wolves at the Door; second novel set in Nodd's Ridge | |
| 1988 | Pearl | Signet Books | 9780451162625 | 368 | Third novel set in Nodd's Ridge |
| 1993 | One on One | 9780451179814 | 528 | Fourth novel set in Nodd's Ridge | |
| 1994 | The Book of Reuben | 9780451179999 | 432 | Fifth and last novel set in King's fictional community of Nodd's Ridge | |
| 1997 | Survivor | 9780451190901 | 496 | ||
| 2006 | Candles Burning | Berkley Publishing Group | 9780425210284 | 423 | With Michael McDowell, King continued her writing after McDowell's death in 1999[43] |
Nonfiction
| Year | Title | Publisher | ISBN | Pages | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1994 | Playing Like a Girl; Cindy Blodgett and the Lawrence Bulldogs Season of 93-94 | Dendrite Corporation | N/A | 42 | The work is about basketball player Cindy Blodgett during her time at Lawrence High School.[44] |
| Mid-life Confidential: The Rock Bottom Remainders Tour America with Three Chords and an Attitude | Berkley Publishing Group | 9780452274594 | 222 | Written by all of the Rock Bottom Remainders with photos by Tabitha King[45] |
Short stories
- The Blue Chair (1981)
- The Demonstration (1985)
- Road Kill (1986)
- Djinn and Tonic (1998)
- The Women's Room (2002)
- Archie Smith, Boy Wonder (2011)
Poetry
Teleplay
- "The Passion of Reverend Jimmy"[a] (2004)
Contributions and compilations
- Murderess Ink: The Better Half of the Mystery, Dilys Winn, ed., Bell, 1979
- Shadows, Volume 4, C. L. Grant, ed., Doubleday, 1981
- Midlife Confidential, ed. David Marsh et al., photographs by Tabitha King, Viking Penguin, 1994
Notes
- episode of Kingdom Hospital, co-written with Stephen King