1. Pet Sematary Was Inspired By The Death Of His Daughter's Cat
First published in 1983, Pet Sematary tells the story of the Creed family, and the nearby woods which houses a cemetery gifted (or perhaps cursed) with the ancient and mysterious powers of resurrection. The inspiration for this one is quite specific. Around 1979, King and his family lived in a place called Orrington in Maine, which bordered an extremely busy major truck route that was known for frequently killing cats and dogs. The route was so infamous for killing animals that the local kids created a cemetery for deceased pets in the middle of the nearby woods. One day, while King was serving as a writer-in-residence at the University Of Maine, his daughter's pet cat wandered out onto the road and was killed. When it came to trying to navigate the tragedy (and bury the deceased cat) King was faced with the difficult task of telling his young daughter. King wondered what it might be like he if could resurrect the pet in the nearby cemetery and could such a place be used to resurrect a human being?
"I can remember crossing the road, and thinking that the cat had been killed in the road and (I thought) what if a kid died in that road? And we had had this experience with Owen running toward the road, where I had just grabbed him and pulled him back. And the two things just came together on one side of this two-lane highway was the idea of what if the cat came back, and on the other side of the highway was what if the kid came back so that when I reached the other side, I had been galvanized by the idea, but not in any melodramatic way. I knew immediately that it was a novel."
It's amazing how such an expansive idea can stem from such a small, ordinary incident. Which of these Stephen King inspirations is your favourite? Share your own revelations below in the comments thread.
