Tabitha King

Tabitha King (née Tabitha Jane Spruce) (born March 24, 1949) is an American author and activist.

Tabitha King was born Tabitha Jane-Frances Spruce in Old Town, Maine. She was born to Raymond George and Sarah Jane White Spruce and is one of eight children.

Her primary education took place at St. Mary’s Grammar in Old Town, from which she graduated in 1963. She then attended John Bapst Memorial High School in Bangor until 1967, and earned her bachelor’s degree in history in 1971 from the University of Maine in Orono.

Family

Tabitha met her husband, author Stephen King, in college through her work-study job in the Fogler Library. They were married on January 2, 1971, and have three children together: Naomi Rachel, Joseph Hillstrom, and Owen Phillip. The latter two children have become authors in their own right.

Career

King has published seven novels, all of which were released in hardcover and paperback by Macmillan and New American Library. She has also published one work of non-fiction, which was published in paperback by Dendrite.

Social activism

King serves on several boards and committees in the state of Maine, including the board of directors of Shaw House (an adolescent homeless shelter in Bangor), the board of the Maine Public Broadcasting System, and the Bangor Public Library board.

She has previously served on the University of Maine Press board and for three years as a board member on the Maine Humanities Council.

In 1996, she served as chair of the campaign to renovate the Bangor Public Library, which raised over eight million dollars. This was the largest charitable campaign in history of Bangor as of March 2005.

In 1997, King served as co-chair of the campaign to raise funds for a former school building to permanently house Shaw House.

She currently serves as vice president of WZON/WKIT, as well as in the administration of two family philanthropic foundations.

Awards and recognition

In May 1987, King and her husband were awarded Honorary Doctorates of Humane Letters from their alma mater, University of Maine in Orono.

In 1998, King was the recipient of the first Annual Constance H. Carlson Public Humanities Prize from the Maine Humanities Council for her service to the advancement of the Humanities.

Bibliography

• 1981 Small World (Macmillan)
• 1983 Caretakers * (Macmillan)
• 1985 The Trap (also published as Wolves at the Door) * (Macmillan)
• 1988 Pearl * (New American Library)
• 1993 One on One * (Dutton)
• 1994 The Book of Reuben * (Dutton)
• 1994 Playing Like a Girl; Cindy Blodgett and the Lawrence Bulldogs Season of 93-94 (Dendrite)
• Article on Cindy Blodgett in The Boston Globe
• 1997 Survivor (William Abrahams, Dutton)
• 199? The Sky in the Water (unpublished)
• 199? The Devil's Only Friend (unpublished)
• 2006 ''Candles Burning - with Michael McDowell (Berkley)

Note: All novels marked with a * are set in Tabitha King's fictitious town, Nodd's Ridge.

Contributions and compilations

• Murderess Ink: The Better Half of the Mystery, Dilys Winn, ed., Bell, 1979
• Shadows, Volume 4, C. L. Grant, ed., Doubleday, 1981
• Midlife Confidential, ed. David Marsh et al, photographs by Tabitha King, Viking Penguin, 1994

References

External links

• Stephen & Tabitha King Foundation
• Joseph Hillstrom King
• Owen Phillip King