Stephen King

Stephen King grew up largely in Maine, where his family moved to Durham when he was 11, and he was teaching school when his debut novel, Carrie (1974), established him in horror. He has said the book came from two unrelated ideas, adolescent cruelty and telekinesis, coming together. 'Salem's Lot (1975), The Shining (1977) and The Stand (1978) followed within four years, and much of his fiction since has been set in invented Maine towns such as Castle Rock.

His range is wider than his label. Different Seasons (1982), four novellas with a more dramatic than horrific bent, was his first major departure from the genre, and he has also written crime, science fiction and fantasy, roughly 200 short stories, books under the pseudonym Richard Bachman, and the craft memoir On Writing (2000). He has co-written with Peter Straub and with his sons Joe Hill and Owen King. Honors include the National Book Foundation's Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters (2003) and the National Medal of Arts (2014). Films from his work range from Carrie and The Shining to Stand by Me, Misery, The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile.

Start with The Shining (1977) or Misery (1987). Both are horror novels that stay close to a few characters, and both are far shorter than his epics. The Shining shows his supernatural side; Misery, about the novelist Paul Sheldon and his self-proclaimed number-one fan, Annie Wilkes, shows what he can do with no supernatural element at all.

If those work, take on the big ones: The Stand, about a weaponized influenza pandemic and its aftermath, and It, in which seven children are terrorized by an evil entity called It. For a non-horror entry, 11/22/63 (2011) follows a time traveler trying to stop the Kennedy assassination. Hold off on The Dark Tower until you have read several of these; it ties into many of his other novels.