Stephen King’s fortune – one of the richest writers in the world

How rich is Stephen King?

It wasn’t until the spring of 2015 that Stephen King hit the headlines for allegedly leaving his home in Maine to move to Florida, where local residents don’t have to pay income tax. At least that was what Governor Paul LePage had said. But King protested violently against this accusation, which was in no way accurate. While it is true that Stephen King and his wife own a vacation home in Florida, their primary residence is still in Maine, so the Kings pay their income tax there too. With an estimated Assets of 368 million euros It is of course not surprising that envious people keep popping up who spread exactly such untruths about one of the richest bestselling authors of all time.

During his career so far, he was able to more than 350 million copies of Stephen King’s books sold worldwide will. In addition, King has already won over 50 awards for his diverse literary works, some of which have even been filmed. In Germany, for example, Stephen King was honored with the German Fantastic Prize. In the list of the 50 richest authors in the world, the American is third. Only Candy Spelling and JK Rowling, the Harry Potter author who is now worth a billion US dollars, earned more from their books than Stephen King.

Many ups and downs lead Stephen King to an incredible fortune

Although Stephen King should at least have no more financial worries by now, his life was not without lows either. When Stephen King was only two years old, his father left his family. His mother barely managed to keep herself and her children afloat by doing odd jobs. In addition, as a child, little Stephen had to cope with the death of a friend who was very close to him and who was killed by a train. The current best-selling author brought along an enthusiasm for horror and fantasy stories early on and studied English at the University of Maine from 1966 to 1970. It was there that the American met his wife. Their marriage, from which three children emerged, some of whom have taken up the profession of writer themselves, has lasted since 1971. Tabitha King is also active as an author.

After graduating, Stephen King initially worked as an English teacher, although his income was not enough for his family back and forth. King did not give up writing, however, and continued to develop his ideas in what was admittedly limited free time. His wife Tabitha finally found one of his manuscripts and convinced her husband that he should definitely finish it. King did this too and was already able to celebrate commercial success with his first work “Carrie”, which was sold under the label “Doubleday”. In one fell swoop, Stephen King was richer by 400,000 US dollars, which was quite a hefty sum for the teacher, who had been poor up until then.

Setbacks and problems

But his Drug and alcohol addiction threatened to jeopardize his successes. In 1987, Stephen King was admitted to a rehab clinic. In 1991 more difficult times followed for the author. Not only were there plagiarism allegations, but King’s house was broken into. The burglar Eric Keene even managed to threaten King’s wife Tabitha. Stephen King must have endured severe fears of assaulted fans, which he then processed in his work “Love” in a literary way. 1999 was also a black year for the Kings. Because while Stephen King was unsuspecting walking on the street, a minibus hit him, the driver of which was drunk and distracted by his dog, and seriously injured the author. Fortunately, King was able to recover from this accident and continues to work as a writer. Not just over 100 short stories, but also more than 40 novels have already flowed from the pen of Stephen King. In addition, numerous scripts are on his cap. The bestseller “Carrie” was only remade in 2013, so Stephen King has not lost its relevance today.

Image sources:
Cover picture: Bruce Lemler / PR Photos
Stephen King in the Blue Shirt: Starfrenzy / Bigstock.com