It was written while he was living in a trailer, on a portable typewriter that belonged to his wife Tabitha.
It began as a short story intended for Cavalier magazine, but King tossed the first three pages of his work in the garbage.
His wife fished the pages out of the garbage and encouraged him to finish the story. He followed her advice and expanded it into a novel.
King said, "I persisted because I was dry and had no better ideas. My considered opinion was that I had written the world's all-time loser."
Carrie is based on a composite of two girls Stephen King observed while attending grade school and high school.
The hardback sold a mere 13,000 copies. The paperback, released a year later, sold over 1 million copies in its first year.
In King's book, On Writing, he mentions that he wrote all of Carrie in only about two weeks.
