The house in Orrington, Maine, carries a $255,000 price tag. King and his family lived there for a year while he was a writer-in-residence at his alma mater, the University of Maine at Orono.
King said he did not remember the house number -- 664 River Road -- but recognized its picture in a real estate listing. The house has been featured in news stories, books, blogs and television shows.
“Don’t remember the number, but it was across the street from the store owned by the late, great Julio Desanctis,” King told the Bangor Daily News. “That’s actually where I wrote the book — in his storeroom.”
During King's stay at the four-bedroom, three-bathroom home, his daughter Naomi's cat, Smucky, was hit by a truck and died. The animal was buried in an informal pet cemetery on a hill behind the rental property, King said on his website.
“I can remember crossing the road and thinking that the cat had been killed in the road — and [thought] what if a kid died in that road,” King said on the website. “We had had this experience with [our son] 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,” the author said. “I knew immediately that it was a novel.”
“Pet Sematary” was published in 1983, and a movie version was released in 1989.
The aunt of Loran Dosen purchased the home, which was built in 1904, in 1991. When Dosen’s aunt died recently, Dosen’s parents, Lin and Joe Dosen, inherited the house. Loran Dosen said her aunt was interviewed for a Stephen King TV biography featured about living in the house.
“Some super fans have knocked on the door and asked to come inside,” Loran Dosen told the Bangor Daily News.
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