Book Review: On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft (2000)

The most haunting section of On Writing comes near the end. ''On Living: A Postscript'' recaps the June 1999 accident that nearly killed King. Walking along a Maine highway, the writer was struck by a van driven by Bryan Smith, a man with a spotty vehicular record who had been distracted by his pet rottweiler, Bullet. ''I look down and see something I don't like,'' King recalls. ''My lap now appears to be on sideways.'' Despite his myriad injuries — including four broken ribs and a shattered leg — he maintained his powers of observation. After a worker on a rescue helicopter reassured him, ''You're okay, Stephen,'' he notes, ''When you're badly hurt, everyone calls you by your first name, everyone is your pal.''

King had finished the first half of On Writing when this incident occurred. Completing the book was ''painfully difficult,'' he confesses, elaborating that ''because of my cataclysmically smashed hip, sitting was torture after 40 minutes or so.'' He suffered through this real-life horror story and survived to write about it. Long live the King. A-