Comedy, family and Bruce Springsteen: Stephen King shares a lighter side at the Englert

The man, the myth, the legend. The dad, the rock ‘n’ roller, the garbage puller. On Monday night, America’s most prolific horror writer, Stephen King, spoke to a sold-out house at The Englert Theatre. King selected Iowa City as one of only twelve stops on his tour for End of Watch (Scribner, 2016), the final book in the Bill Hodges trilogy.

Yet rather than reading from his latest novel, King revealed a remarkably and enchantingly comedic side of himself to the crowd, some of whom had waited in line since 9:00 a.m. and come from as far as Fargo, North Dakota. He boasted the accomplishments of his son and fellow horror author Joe Hill, as well the newly found internet fame of his pup Molly (aka the Thing of Evil). He reminisced on how his wife, Tabby, “pulled Carrie out of the trash bin with a sideways smile” which inevitably led to his first major novel sale with Doubleday. “First I thought, ‘Thank goodness. I can pay the light bill.’ With the initial $2000 advance, we bought a Ford Pinto. Hated it, the engine barely worked. That’s why it inspired Cujo.” Signet Classics later bought the rights for $400,000. “Again, I was just thankful I could pay the light bill.”

Raised by a single mother who adored horror and suspense novels, King attributed his skills to a combination of upbringing, support from his wife and skills that “can’t be taught but can be learned from writing a lot.” King, who never attended an MFA program, recalled one of the first book covers that sparked his career in horror. “I saw this smiling ghoul rising out of a tomb and thought, ‘That’s scary.’ I don’t know what this is, but I’m going to get after it.”

After a brief Q&A, King closed by recalling a dinner he once had with one of his idols, Bruce Springsteen. A teenage girl was having a birthday dinner with her parents at the same restaurant and upon seeing Springsteen and King at the bar, darted toward them “as if in a trance, I swear her feet didn’t even touch the floor.” As Springsteen reached for the pen in his pocket, she directed her attention solely to King: “I’ve read all of your books. Can I have an autograph?” King used Springsteen’s pen to sign for her.

“John Grisham once told me that we’re the most successful writers in a country that doesn’t read anymore. But to this girl, what mattered most to her were books. That was so powerful.”