Until her retirement in 2002, her column in National Review, "The Misanthrope's Corner", was known for "serving up a smorgasbord of curmudgeonly critiques about rubes and all else bothersome to the Queen of Mean", as the magazine put it.

In many of her writings, King often referred to the comical contradictions between the material reality of her lower middle class upbringing and the snobbish behavior of her grandmother.

[3] In 1957, King received her BA in history from American University in Washington D.C., where she was inducted into Phi Alpha Theta.

[6] In Confessions, King says she had relationships with both men and women during college: one woman she fell in love with was killed in a car crash.

"[8] King later expressed regret at revealing her bisexuality, saying she did not want to be part of the "gay liberation movement" and embraced the concepts of "spinsterhood" and "the old maid.

[10] Ivins publicly acknowledged and apologized for her error in an exchange of letters in the next issue of that magazine, which may be found quoted in an account of the controversy.

[11][12] King, who lived in Fredericksburg, Virginia in the later years of her life, retired in 2002 (at which time National Review published an anthology of her columns titled STET, Damnit!