Stephen King has joined the information superhighway by launching his own website. The cybersavvy move was prompted by the author's frustration with half-truths and rumors that had taken root on the Internet, some of the more persistent being that King has retired and that he hosts a haunted house every Halloween. We surfed onto King's "official Web presence" to see if King's true story is a page turner or pulp nonfiction -- and even added a few facts you won't find on his site.

King likes to grow a beard that he wears "between the end of the World Series and the opening of baseball practice in Florida."

King made $40 million in 1998 alone, ranking No. 31 on Forbes magazine's top 40 entertainers' list. Nicolas Cage was No. 32.

In 1988 King joined Alcoholics Anonymous and admits that cocaine was once a problem for him.

Fans are given a "lifetime limit" of two autographs from the author.

He and his wife, author Tabitha King, own a radio station named WZON -- the Sports Zone in Bangor, Maine.

Hugh Lofting's Dr. Doolittle books, the cuddly children's tales about a doctor who can talk to the animals, inspired King to become a writer. He doesn't say if they caused him to write "Cujo" or "Pet Sematary."

When he couldn't find work as a teacher, King became a laborer in an industrial laundry. His short story about a people-eating steam machine and folder at an industrial laundry became the basis for the movie "The Mangler."

King was deemed 4-F by the draft board due to high blood pressure, flat feet, punctured ear drums, and limited vision. He protested the Vietnam war on the grounds that it was unconstitutional.

A large portion of the fan mail King receives consists of religious pamphlets and letters from people who want to let him know they are praying for his soul. He has reserved one entire four-drawer file cabinet for correspondence from people deemed "disturbed or disturbing."