.
All through his college career, Stephen published many stories in college literature .
magazines, but he had to make his milk money by working part time in the university's .
library. While working in the library, he met a student by the name of Tabitha Jane .
Spruce. After an awkward courtship, they were eventually married in January, 1971, .
seven months after Stephen was graduated with a Bachelor's Degree in English which .
would enable him to teach. Unable to find a teaching gig right off, he worked as a day .
laborer in an industrial laundry, while Tabitha worked as a waitress. While writing at .
night, he sold several stories to men's magazines such as Cavalier, and refined his novel .
Getting It On, which he presented to Doubleday, a large New York publisher. Even .
though they did not publish the book, Stephen managed to find a teaching job at .
Hampden Academy, a high school near Hermon, Maine, in the fall of 1971.
After his first two efforts at a novel were rejected, Stephen became frustrated and .
supposedly threw away his next manuscript. But as luck would have it, Tabitha, rescued .
it and persuaded him to continue and in 1974, Doubleday published Carrie, which .
became a bestseller and a hit 1976 movie, directed by Brian De Palma and starring Sissy .
Spacek. The money the paperback rights were drawing in proved to be enough for .
Stephen to quit teaching and embark on a full time writing career.
After having lived in, as well as, around Bangor since their marriage, the Kings .
moved their growing family to southern Maine because of Stephen's mother's .
deteriorating health at the end of the summer of 1973. Renting a summer home on .
Sebago Lake in North Windham for the winter, Stephen wrote his next-published novel, .
Salem's Lot, in a small room in the garage. During this time, Stephen's mother died of .
cancer at the age of 59.
In the fall of 1974, the Kings left Maine for Boulder, Colorado. They lived there .
