The world outside of central Maine almost never got to know Stephen King. If not for his wife's diligence and her confidence in her husband, the book that launched a million pages might never have come into being. When his wife Tabitha rescued the start of the manuscript of "Carrie" from the trash and insisted her husband finish it, King was working as an English teacher and writing on the side. Tabitha's judgment was right, Carrie became a smash hit, and Stephen King is one of the world's most famous and most prolific authors. So what's the story behind the stories? Let's delve into his life ...
缅因州中部以外的人几乎都不认识斯蒂芬·金。如果不是因为妻子的努力和她对丈夫的信任，这本多达百万页的书可能永远不会问世。当他的妻子塔比莎把《嘉莉》手稿的开篇部分从垃圾桶里拿出来，并坚持让丈夫完成时，金还是一名英语老师，写作只是他的兼职。塔比莎的判断是正确的，《嘉莉》轰动一时，斯蒂芬·金也成为了最著名、最高产的作家之一。那么在这些故事背后又有什么故事呢？让我们一起深入了解他的生活……
Early Life
早年生活
Stephen King was born in Portland, Maine, the largest city of the mostly rural state that serves as the setting for so many of his famous stories. Stephen was the second son born to Nellie and Donald King, but the family of four soon became a family of three. When Stephen was only two years old, and his brother only four, their father went out, telling the family he was buying a pack of cigarettes. He never returned. King's mother worked several jobs, moving with the boys from Maine, going from state to state to find work and a place she could afford to live and raise two boys on her own. But Maine was home, and it's where the family eventually settled for good. When they moved back to Maine, the family didn't have indoor plumbing. And this was the 1960s. King's life growing up was a far cry from the wealth he has now. But King didn't see his childhood as exceptional or out of the ordinary. Though he does acknowledge he's always liked scary things.
斯蒂芬·金出生于缅因州波特兰市，它是以农村为主的缅因州最大的城市，他的许多故事正是以此地作为背景。斯蒂芬是内莉和唐纳德·金的次子，但四口之家不久就变成了三口。当时斯蒂芬只有2岁，哥哥只有4岁，他们的父亲说他要出去买一包烟，之后就再也没有回来。金的母亲做过好几份工作，还带着2个儿子从缅因州搬走了，从一个州到另一个州去找工作，也要找一个她能负担得起的地方来独自抚养2个男孩。但缅因州终究还是他们的家，一家人最终还是在那里定居。当他们搬回缅因州时，家里没有卫生间。当时已经是20世纪60年代了。金的成长过程中根本没有他现在这么有钱。但金并不认为自己的童年和其他人有什么两样。尽管他承认自己一直都喜欢恐怖的东西。
"My childhood was pretty ordinary, except from a very early age I wanted to be scared. I just did. I was scared afterward. I wanted a light on because I was scared. There was something in the closet. My imagination was very active even at a young age." Some have said that King might also be inspired to write such horrifying stories by a childhood event he doesn't even remember. "According to Mom, I had gone off to play at a neighbor's house - a house that was near a railroad line. About an hour after I left I came back (she said), as white as a ghost. I would not speak for the rest of the day; I would not tell her why I'd not waited to be picked up or phoned that I wanted to come home; I would not tell her why my chum's mom hadn't walked me back but had allowed me to come alone. It turned out that the kid I had been playing with had been run over by a freight train while playing on or crossing the tracks (years later, my mother told me they had picked up the pieces in a wicker basket)."
“我的童年平平无奇，除了从小就想受怕。我想开灯是因为我感到害怕。壁橱里是有东西的。我很小的时候想象力就很丰富。”有人说，金可能是因为一个他甚至不记得的童年事件而受到启发，写下了如此恐怖的故事。“据妈妈说，我是去邻居家玩了，那房子离铁路线很近。她说，我离开大约1小时后就回来了，脸色苍白得像鬼一样。在那天剩下的时间里，我都不说话；我也不告诉她为什么我不等着别人接我或打电话说我想回家；我不会告诉她为什么我朋友的妈妈没有送我回去，而是让我一个人回来。原来，和我一起玩的那个孩子，在轨道上玩耍还是穿越铁轨时，被一列货车碾过。（几年后，我母亲告诉我，他们是在柳条筐里发现碎片的）”
As traumatic as that event must have been, it was not the only explanation for King's vivid imagination. Friends of the King tell stories about how the family was known for their attention to literature. If their mother couldn't find - or couldn't afford - a babysitter, she'd leave her sons alone with the expectation they would read aloud to each other. King's love of stories and the written word was fostered from an early age. And, the tradition stuck - King and his wife Tabitha also made their own kids read aloud to each other, and to them. He'd even record them on cassettes to make the family their own collection of audiobooks.
尽管那件事给人造成了精神创伤，但这并不是金生动想象力的唯一解释。金的朋友们讲述了他们家是多么注重文学，大家都知道这一点。如果他们的母亲找不到或者负担不起保姆，她就让儿子们自己待着，并希望他们能大声朗读给对方听。金对故事和文字的热爱是从小培养起来的。而且，这个传统变得根深蒂固——金和他的妻子塔比莎也让自己的孩子大声朗读给对方和他们两人听。他甚至会录在磁带上，制作自己家的有声读物。
Growing up, King also wrote material for his brother's newsletter. Called "Dave's Rag," they made copies on a mimeograph machine and distributed it to their friends. But King was soon able to move beyond just writing for his sibling's newsletter. In 1965, when he was still in high school, King was published in Comics Review. The story was right in line with the frightening plots we all know King for today. King had been working as a gravedigger to earn money as a teenager. The job inspired him to write a story called "I Was A Teenage Grave Robber," and its publication was his first taste of published success. The only downside - he didn't get paid for the work. His first paid published work didn't come until he was in college and earned $35 for a story called "The Glass Floor."
长大后的金也为他哥哥的通讯稿撰写材料。他们在油印机上印刷《戴夫的破布》，然后把它分发给他们的朋友。但不久后，金就不只是帮哥哥写通讯稿这么简单了。1965年，当时金还在读高中，就已经在《漫画评论》上发表文章了。这个故事与我们今天都知道的可怕情节一模一样。金在十几岁的时候一直做掘墓人来挣钱。这份工作启发他写了一个名为《我是个十几岁的盗墓贼》的故事，凭借此作，他第一次尝到成功出版的滋味。唯一的缺点是他没有得到报酬。他的第一部有偿出版作品是在他上大学的时候出版的，他凭借一篇名为《玻璃地板》的故事挣了35美元。
King graduated from Lisbon Falls High School, the high school in the town that later became the setting for portions of the book "11/22/63." Lisbon Falls was a milltown, and King spent time working in the town's mill when he was a teenager.
金毕业于里斯本高中，这所位于镇里的高中后来成为《11/22/63》一书的创作背景。里斯本曾是工业城，金在十几岁的时候就在镇上的工厂里工作过。
评论
打印
