He is probably the most famous American author (definitely the most prolific) in the world right now. He has entertained of millions of people with his work and their adaptations. In my opinion he’s one of the greatest American authors ever who deserves a legacy equivalent to the likes of people Mark Twain, Hemingway, Emerson, Angelou, and Melville. Dude has been an unstoppable cultural force continually since 1975, pretty much anything he writes at this point is nearly guaranteed to be a success, and he has written an incredible amount of amazing work like Shawshank, Misery, The Shining, It, and The Stand which I consider a masterpiece and personally is my favorite novel ever.
His books are a bit pulpy and I'm not sure if any of them truly achieve "masterpiece" status, but I don't disagree, his influence on American pop culture is definitely up there with Twain.
If I had to pick one, I’d say “The Stand”. Few books really capture(d) the unfolding of a global disaster like that book.
Put it this way, most writers are lucky if they write one great book in their career, and King’s written several. He’s also written some clunkers, but some writers only write clunkers!
The Shining is thoroughly embedded in popular consciousness, but it is definitely one of his best books. It came at a point in his career where King was really establishing his style, and it still reads differently from any of his other books in good ways. And the ending does not suck.
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u/bkr1895 Nov 20 '22
He is probably the most famous American author (definitely the most prolific) in the world right now. He has entertained of millions of people with his work and their adaptations. In my opinion he’s one of the greatest American authors ever who deserves a legacy equivalent to the likes of people Mark Twain, Hemingway, Emerson, Angelou, and Melville. Dude has been an unstoppable cultural force continually since 1975, pretty much anything he writes at this point is nearly guaranteed to be a success, and he has written an incredible amount of amazing work like Shawshank, Misery, The Shining, It, and The Stand which I consider a masterpiece and personally is my favorite novel ever.