Stephen King and his wife pledge $3m to Maine library

Libraries can be scary places in Stephen King novels – such as the terrifying appearance of Pennywise the clown in Derry's library in his novel It – but they appear to hold a special spot in the horror writer's heart, after he and his wife Tabitha pledged to donate $3m (£1.9m) to their local branch in Bangor, Maine.

Barbara McDade, director of Bangor Public Library, told the Bangor Daily News that Stephen and Tabitha King had offered to pay one third of the $9m (£5.9m) the library is looking to raise for refurbishment, as long as the remaining $6m (£3.9m) is raised. "They have just been wonderful supporters of the library," said McDade.

The Kings previously donated $2.5m (£1.6m) towards a new wing for the library in the 90s, said McDade, and "also replaced our front marble steps [six or seven years ago], which were worn to the point where they were dangerous".

In a note to his short story The Library Policeman, King writes of how he "loved the library as a kid – why not? It was the only place a relatively poor kid like me could get all the books he wanted". But the author also admits how he "had also feared it".

"I feared becoming lost in the dark stacks, I feared being forgotten in a dark corner of the reading room and ending up locked in for the night, I feared the old librarian with the blue hair and the cat's-eye glasses and the almost lipless mouth who would pinch the backs of your hands with her long, pale fingers and hiss 'Shhh!' if you forgot where you were and started to talk too loud," he writes. "And yes, I feared the Library Police."

In 2011, King donated up to $70,000 (£46,000) for fuel assistance for low-income residents of Maine, saying that "this economy is terrible and Tabitha and I both worry so much about Bangor because it truly is a working-class town and we are always looking for ways to help, and right now this is a great need".