I'm not sure what is so unusual about King's success. Many successful people have questionable pasts or have overcome adversity to get where they are. Think about Fitzgerald, Poe, Hemingway...Poe used opium, and Fitz and Hemingway drank like fish. All 3 put out some of the most well-written and memorable literature of their times (and beyond)--and King has, too. In fact, King was actually quite successful right smack in the middle of his drug/alcohol problems. In his memoir, On Writing, he tells how he drank quite heavily in his years as a laundry worker and beyond. He also tells how he barely remembers writing Cujo, and how many of his early novels were metaphors for his own addictions and unhappiness (read Misery and decide just what Annie Wilkes represents--LOL). I do not mean to imply that King should have kept on drinking, etc., or that writers can't write without being under the influence of something, but those were the novels that put him on the map. I see a definite difference in his more recent work, for example Dreamcatcher, Insomnia, Hearts in Atlantis--nothing I can really describe well here, but I feel it somehow--but they are still great books, and I've read/re-read his stuff over and over. The accident was horrific, but I'm glad he has recovered fairly well. The world, to me, would be much worse off if he wasn't in it.

I agree

If you would like to discuss King, there is a great forum dedicated to him.

http://thetowerlibrary.proboards.com/index.cgi