Stephen King Chides Governor LePage

In his weekly radio program, Maine governor LePage suggested that Stephen King left Maine because of the states income tax.

Meanwhile, remember who introduced the income tax here in Maine. Well, today former Governor Ken Curtis lives in Florida where there is zero income tax. Stephen King and Roxanne Quimby have moved away, as well.

Stephen King issued this response to Goernor LePage:

 "Governor LePage is full of the stuff that makes the grass grow green. Tabby and I pay every cent of our Maine state income taxes, and are glad to do it. We feel, as Governor LePage apparently does not, that much is owed from those to whom much has been given. We see our taxes as a way of paying back the state that has given us so much. State taxes pay for state services. There's just no way aRound it. Governor LePage needs to remember there ain't no free lunch."

Now it makes me wonder if the Republican Governor knows anything at all about Stephen King and politics.  Did he really think King, who has openly said he should pay more taxes, would leave the state because of taxes?

Amy Fried at Bangor Daily News points out that Stephen King has not left the state.  She writes:

 I live in Bangor and frequently walk past his house on West Broadway. There are often cars in the driveway with Maine plates. I sometimes see Stephen or Tabitha in Bangor. 

The Kings vote in Bangor. I’ve looked up their donations to federal candidates and they’re listed as Maine residents. 

Besides the Bangor home, they also own a home in western Maine. Plus there’s a house in Florida.

Down East Pulls Back The Curtain On Stephen King Circa 1977

10,000 Magazines, #9,998
Down East, The Magazine Of Maine, November 1977
First published: September 13, 2012

Do you remember 1977?  I was four.  The magazine is fun because it reads like a home town paper of sorts.  Very professional and fun, it is full of local ads and happenings throughout Maine.

One reason I love the old magazines is because they capture a particular moment in time.  Prices, fashion and ads are all frozen in a 100 page time capsule.  It is strange to see ads that require you to write in – no websites advertised here!

The November, 1977 issue of Down East had an interesting article by Lois Lowry titled, “King of the Occult.”

With a picture of a young Stephen King sitting on the hood of his Cadillac, the caption reads, “Stephen King has written three best-selling horror novels that have made him a millionaire at thirty.  Now friends and critics wait to see if he can do it again.”

Lowry takes time to discuss King’s mother in some detail, “He called his mother Ma.  She brought him broken cookies from the bakery where she worked at night while he was sleeping; and told him, with a fervor that came from a combination of resolute fundamentalism and the staunch New England belief that grit and stubbornness bear fruit like aple trees in rocky soil, that he would someday be a success.”

She also discusses his reception in Maine:

“Maine natives are not effusive people; nor are they likely to look kindly on a blue-jeaned upstart who has written of their home territory in allegories heavy withe vil and permeated with the violent bizarre, and occult.  Nevertheless, they come clutching their books, to get a glimpse and the signature of the man who has prodded at the perimeters of their lives with his perceptions and  his pen.”

Now that’s interesting, since of the three books King had published up to that point, only two of them were set in Maine.  The Shining was set in Colorado.  Also, Carrie is not heavy on the Maine setting.  But Salem’s lot overshadowed all other works when it came to location.  The novel told what a small Maine town would be like if it was taken over by vampires.  But the novel wasn’t just a blood and guts horror novel, it told the story of a small town, and that is what really drives the story.  It is appropriate that the story bears the towns name.  Lowry writes, “Country life suits Stephen King.”

At the time of the article, King lived in Bridgton, Maine.  Lowry describes it:

“To meet him there, in a spacious, toy-strewn house filled with the high voices of children and the sunshine that reflects brilliantly from Long Lake, it is hard to believe that murderous creatures are brewing in his brain like newts in a cauldron.  It’s a placid, unostentatious kind of country living that reveals nothing of the lurking horrors of the mind that made it possible. 

It’s a hard house to find.  A visitor must know the landmarks, the right turn to make in the narrow, winding road that runs along the lake.”

Later in the article, Lowry says that the house Is for sale. King was headed to England, where the  filming of The Shining, starring Jack Nicholson, would be done.

(Check out the Down East article, “Stephen King Doesn’t Live In Bridgton Anymore”)

The article traces the story we now know pretty well – but never really get tired of – of King rising from nothing to becoming a best selling author.  The article also, almost off-handedly remarks that Stanley Kubrick has bought the rights for The Shining.  We all know how that came out!

I like these lines:

“Smile.  Wince.  Reach for a cigarette.  An asprin.  Turn on some country music and hum.  Tease Tabby.   Scold little Joe for riding his plastic Batmobile around the living room too noisily.  Stoke the yellow cat named Carrie.  Diaper the new baby who smiles in the sunny bedroom.  Downstairs, the typewriter waits.  The terrors and spooks   and nameless, faceless creatures are all down there in the study, waiting to be written.  And the public waits, the critics wiat, to see if he can do it again.”

See, the fun of this article is that we already know – yes he can do it again!  The people who inhabit the distant world of 1977 don’t even know about The Stand, The Shawshank Redemption, The Dead Zone or. . . the Dark Tower!

*** And wait a minute, did the article just reveal he had a cat named Carrie?  What's wrong with Church?  Church is a good name for a cat.

The article also discusses the issue of genre and typecasting.  “Shelly and Toker wrote successful horror.  So does King.  But what is it that distinguishes good horror from the old Tales From the Crypt” that you read with the kind of gleeful fear when you were a kid?”  For my money, and a lot of people’s I would venture to guess, we like King’s gleeful joy as he leads us through his stories.  Lowry quotes King, “All I am is the phosphorescent ghost at the funhouse.   I’m the guy who jumps out and yells ‘Boo!’”

Lowry rightly accesses King’s strength is his ability to combine the real and imaginary worlds.  Thus he takes issues we know and understand – alcoholism, small towns, little boys and mixes  them with freak-a-zoid things like vampires and haunted hotels.  King also says, “People grow up, and their need for fantasy remains.  You’re made a child again, through fear, and that’s a normal desire.”

About the fans, King had an easier time of it back in 1977 than he would through the 80's and beyond.  But still, even by then, the fans were starting to encroach on King’s personal life.   The article says,

King appreciates his fans, answers the letters they write him, and carries in his wallet a photograph of a young girl from the Southwest because she sent a note that touched him.  But he’s had his phone number changed, and the local operator tells countless people every day, “No, I’m sorry, we are not permitted to disclose that number,” because strangers call from all parts of the country to ask for money, interviews, help in finding a publisher for the 800-page novel they’ve written about werewolves, or advice on how to do away with the demonic neighbor who has caused their vegetables to succumb to root rot. 

Sometimes he opens his eyes wide behind the horn-rimmed glasses and realizes that Tabby is at home on the edge of the lake witht eh kids, listening to music, and he’s on a plane to at own whose name he has temporarily forgotten, to sign his name for people he’s never met, and to be interviewed for a magazine that will make him sound glamorous and oracular and start the stream of phone calls and unwanted guests all over again.”

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Here's a page my beloved mother-in-law scanned. . . and I have no idea why!  but I love that lady.

A Stephen King Vacation

Want to take a literary vacation?  I'd love to!  Check  out shortlist.com's article, A Literary Travel Guide To The USA.  It includes such legends at John Steinbeck, Pacific Grove, CA, Jack London, Glen Ellen, CA, William Faulkner – Oxford, MS, Harriet Beecher Stowe - Hartford, CT, Mark Twain, Hartford, CT, Cormac McCarthy – Knoxville, TN, Ernest Hemingway – New Orleans.  (Yeah,  they missed Poe, Baltimore)  But they didn't miss Stephen King.

The article advises trip goers to visit Bangor for a taste of King's literary Derry.  The added bonus is that Bangor is King's home town.  How often he's still in residence there I have no idea; but somehow I get the feeling he spends a lot of time in Florida these days.

Shortlist offers as a "Must-see" the Mount Hope Cemetery, which was an inspiration for  Pet Sematary and was used as a filming location for the movie.  Of course, there is also the Thmoas Hill Standpipe from IT.

The shortlist article also gives suggestions on where to stay.  Since the Stanley Hotle is clear out in Colorado, and King is not offering his  house up on Airbnb, the article suggests The Hilton Garden Inn,

boasting a an eerily similar entrance and interior as bucolically grand. Don’t be upset at the lack of bloodless elevators and ghoulish staff, mind - king rooms are available.

King rooms are available? That would be cool -- but it just means suites. Man, now I'm wishing for a Stephen King themed hotel.  COME ON AMERICA!

Looking For King's Yellow House

Check out this amusing post by Erin Donovan, in which she goes looking for Stephen King's house -- and finds it.  Turns out, King's house is a yellow Victorian mansion.  Right?  Yellow?

A simple, yellow Victorian house. It had a nicely landscaped front yard and a rocking chair on the porch. There were no Komodo dragons. There was no holding tower. No fog encircling only this house despite clear skies elsewhere. There were no tormented screams echoing from the upper windows. There were no medieval weapons or antique masonry tools lying around. And I didn’t see even one minotaur. As we were pulling away, I saw something strange. Something out of place. 

There were colorful paper tulips pasted to each window.

Gotta read it. bangordailynews.com

Stephen King’s Scary House

This is reposted from house-crazy.com with permission.

image: flicker.com/ (by: Madeleine_H – Madeleine Holland)

Why wouldn’t the king of horror have the creepiest house in New England?

There’s a gazillion pictures of the exterior of writer Stephen King’s house on the Internet (driving by his house is somewhat of a pilgrimage for horror novel fans). But there are few, if any, of the interior. Stephen King and his wife Tabitha (who is also a writer) would like to keep it that way as they value their privacy behind the batty gates.

image: downeastdilettante.wordpress.com (via Bangor Daily News)

Nonetheless, being the curious house-peeper that I am, I decided to do a little digging to see what I could find out about the house’s history.

image from: commons.wikimedia.org (by: Blaine Puckett)

The King manor was built in the mid-nineteenth century. Official records state the year 1870 but I found one account that claims the house was built as early as 1858.

The home is located in Bangor, Maine and the address is widely available on the Internet for curious fans and dedicated stalkers. The poor King family has in fact been dogged by stalkers and I read that they have to employ bodyguards to keep people at bay.

The King’s (Stephen, Tabitha and their three children) purchased this home in 1980, after living for a year in Boulder, Colorado – where King famously wrote The Shining. The house in Bangor was intended as a second home but soon became the King’s primary residence.

image: flickr.com (by: By MERealtah – Denise Reed)

The King’s now own two other homes including one in Lovell, Maine and one in Sarasota, Florida where they spend the winter. But it is the historic house in Bangor that attracts the most attention.

This might have something to do with the creepy appearance of the house – in line with the home owner’s notorious obsession with all things dark and ominous.

Mr. King added spiders to the fence (inside the spiderwebs at the center of the gates) and bats to the top of the gateposts.  He later regretted adding this detail, as it makes tourists even more likely to stop and take photographs. - from: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ashorriblyitryii/

image: flickr.com (by: By The Facey Family – Blake Facey)

I’ve read in the past that the King family used to go all out for Halloween at the house in Bangor. It would not be hard to dress this morbidly Victorian home for a night of Halloween fun. 

Unfortunately, things got out of hand and too many people  began showing up at the King house on Halloween (one year as many as 1400!) so the tradition was halted.

In recent years, the King’s have resorted to taking out ads in the local newspaper announcing that they would not be at their house on Halloween, so please stay away.

image: flickr.com (by: By cliff1066™ Cliff)

Anyway, back to the house’s early history…

One account I read stated that the house was built at a cost of $7000 – mind you, this was a decent sum of money back in the mid-nineteenth century.

The structure is set on just over one acre of land and was built to resemble an Italian Villa. The original part of the house was built from wood and had only one tower (the tower on the right).

image from: flickr.com (by: wonder_al Al)

The multi-sided tower on the left hand side of the house was added in 1895. The large front porch was later added in 1912.

image: flickr.com (by: The GC Four)

The house today is much bigger than it appears from the street. It clocks in at 4,952 square feet according to zillow.com, and it has 5 bedrooms and 6 bathrooms. The home is technically zoned “multi-family” though I could not find any record of when the home was last used as a multi-family dwelling.

The modern reincarnation of the house features an attached barn which has an indoor swimming pool. There is also a 3 car garage and Stephen King’s writing studio is located at the rear of the house.

Here’s an aerial shot of the estate from Virtualglobetrotting.com:

image from: virtualglobetrotting.com

In 2011 the county tax assessor valued the King home in Bangor Maine at $1,188,900. I found two nearby homes currently for sale on the same street for $425,000 (see here) and $299,000 (see here).

Unfortunately for the Kings, this beautiful (slightly creepy) home has been a magnet for adoring fans, crazies, and house lovers alike. It is probably one of the most photographed private homes in America.

In fact, when I looked at the Google street view, there were people ogling in front of the house in the image captured by one of Google’s famous roving photo cars!

Screen shot of Google maps street view of Stephen King’s house

The King’s clearly cherish this house and I hope they never change the spooky spider web/bat gate – it just makes the house grin with glee - in my opinion anyway.

image from: commons.wikimedia.org (Julia Ess – Creative Commons)

~~~

Sources:

Stephen King’s official website
Wikipedia Stephen King page
Flickr Stephen King photos
Stephen King’s  house on Trulia.com
Stephen King’s house on Zillow.com

Halloween Rendition Of King House

source: www.flickr.com

Other Halloween Pics:

Jon Ferguson: The King And I

I really enjoyed Jon Ferguson's light hearted "The King and I."  It was posted at Lacaster Online and is reprinted here with permission.  Enjoy.  Laugh a lot, I did.

The King And I
by Jon Ferguson

My expectations were absurdly high when we visited Stephen King's house in Bangor, Maine, last month.


I wanted more than to stand on the sidewalk and stare at the spiders, bats and dragon woven into the wrought-iron fence that encircles his handsome home.

I wanted more than to have my picture taken next to the golden "K" that adds a splash of color to the black fence.

I wanted more than to wonder if King was inside the house, concocting a tale of horror that would someday keep me awake at night.

What I wanted was some face time.

That's why I wore my baseball cap with the Rolling Stones' lip-and-tongue logo.

I figured King would spot me from an upstairs window, recognize a kindred spirit and come outside for a chat. And he'd probably be wearing a Boston Red Sox cap.

A LOT IN COMMON:

King and I, you see, have a lot in common. We're both baseball fans, we both love rock music and we both have a taste for horror stories: He writes 'em and I read 'em.

And I've read a lot of 'em. A quick count shows I've paged through 29 novels he wrote under his own name, seven novels he wrote under the pseudonym Richard Bachman, two novels he co-wrote with Peter Straub, eight collections of short stories and a memoir.

I don't remember which of King's books I read first, but it was either "Salem's Lot," a novel about vampires and the "sucking sounds" they make, or "Night Shift," a collection of stories, including one about a man who starts growing eyeballs on parts of his body where they do not belong. Creepy stuff.

I do remember that he immediately won me over. After devouring those two books, I bought "Carrie," his first novel, and then eagerly awaited the publication of new books.

Happily, the wait between books was never long because King has been nothing if not prolific. Not everything he's written has been great, or even good, but he's as durable a storyteller as there is in popular fiction.

And King is a good writer, though he doesn't get the respect he deserves because of the genre he inhabits. His prose is clean, he creates believable characters, he can plot with the best of them, he has a wicked imagination and, when everything is working in perfect synchronization, he can scare the absolute bejesus out of you.

I vividly remember reading "The Shining," arguably his best book.

I was living by myself in a second-floor apartment on East Orange Street in Lancaster city. It was 2 or 3 in the morning and I was reading in my dimly lit bedroom, deeply engrossed in the novel as King unspooled his story about the Overlook Hotel.

There's a section in the book that involves the sound of a shower curtain in a bathroom being pulled back, revealing something unspeakable in the bathtub.

At that moment I realized I really needed to go to the bathroom. I put the book down, glanced around the darkened room, listened for the sound of a shower curtain and realized there was no way I was going into the bathroom.

There was a window in the bedroom that looked out on a deserted parking lot. I opened the window, hoisted the screen, made sure nobody was below and relieved myself.

I crept back into bed and finished the book.

I wanted to tell King that story when we visited his house. I think he'd appreciate it.

But the writer never did make an appearance. We milled around for a few more minutes, took some pictures and headed to the car.

Reaching for the door handle, I glanced over my shoulder and thought the curtain in a second-floor window shifted slightly. I squinted and spotted a single malevolent eye peering around the parted curtain.

We skedaddled.

jferguson@lnpnews.com

A Lotta House

picture: http://www.celebritydetective.com/Celebrity_Homes_Stephen-King-house.html
.

This is interesting. Rob Bear has an article posted at curbed.com titled, "Stephen King, Clancy, and Other Pop Authors Living The High Life." It is a long shot from the spooky lookin' Victorian mansion in Bangor. Honestly, I am much more interested in King's writing than his home!

.

Anyway, here's what Bear wrote about King:

.

Visitors to Bangor, Me., often marvel at Stephen King's modest—and macabre—red Victorian, but that's just half his real estate story. In addition to the Maine home with wrought iron gargoyles, King enjoys a beachcomber lifestyle on Casey Key, off Sarasota, Fla. King purchased this beachfront property in 2001 for an undisclosed sum, but it's now worth an estimated $10M. That's just a drop in the bucket for the former schoolteacher, who took in roughly $34M last year alone.

.

http://curbed.com/archives/2011/02/18/pop-authors-living-the-high-life-off-your-beach-read-1.php

King's Other House ?

"Ming the Merciless" at a blog titled Bangor Daily Photo says she's found King's "real house." Is it? Well, I don't know; since I don't live near Bangor! However, Ming's blog seems pretty credible to me. Maybe I'm posting an already well known fact.

.

I beleive it is, though, because if you look close on the window to the left you will spot a ghost picking his nose.

.

Ming writes: "This is the house where Stephen King and his family (supposedly) really live. From what I heard, the reason he does not live in the original house anymore is because fans have come up and rung his door bells once too many times."

.

http://bangordailyphoto.blogspot.com/2009/08/stephen-kings-other-house.html