Stephen King: Uncollected, Unpublished - Revised & Expanded Edition (15 page)

The only true stand alone Dark Tower short fiction piece is
The Little Sisters of Eluria
. It was originally published in an anthology,
Legends: Short Novels by the Masters of Modern Fantasy
in 1998. For inclusion in the 2002 collection
Everything’s Eventual
there were very minor revisions. Many of these were of style but there were a few of substance. 

The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill
is the title used in the graphic novel
Creepshow
for the story originally published as
Weeds
in
Cavalier
magazine for May 1976 and reprinted in
Nugget
magazine for April 1979. There are effectively three versions of this tale, when the screenplay for the
Creepshow
movie is taken into account. 

Low Men in Yellow Coats
is the Dark Tower related story that begins the collection
Hearts in Atlantis
. An excerpt from the story was published in
Family Circle
for 3 August 1999. There are three very minor wording variations between the two publications. 

An intriguing little tale,
The Luckey Quarter
appears in two distinct versions. It was first published in a national newspaper,
USA Weekend
for 30 June to 2 July 1995. King then significantly revised the story for its publication in the Limited
Six Stories
(1997). That version was reprinted in the mass-market collection,
Everything’s Eventual
in 2002. 

The darkly amusing story,
Lunch at the Gotham Café
, also has an interesting publishing history. It first appeared in an anthology,
Dark Love
in 1995 and won the Long Fiction Bram Stoker Award for 1995 from the Horror Writers Association. King then significantly revised the tale for its appearance in the Limited Edition,
Six Stories
in 1997. The first time the tale was practically available in mass-market form was as part of the audio book,
Blood and Smoke
, released in 1999, using the
Six Stories
version. The first mass-market text release was in the
Everything’s Eventual
collection in 2002. That publication included minor variations to the
Six Stories
version.  

King won the 1996 O. Henry Award for Best American Short Story and the 1994 World Fantasy Award for Best Short Fiction for
The Man in the Black Suit
. It was originally published in
The New Yorker
magazine for 31 October 1994 and republished with numerous minor revisions in
Six Stories
(1997). It was collected in
Everything’s Eventual
in 2002 and for that publication King made further minor revisions. As the revisions are indeed minor (for instance, there is a change of the year in which Gary wrote his story down in his diary) each form is nothing more than a variation. 

The Man Who Loved Flowers
was originally published in
Gallery
magazine for August 1977. When republished in
Night Shift
the following year there were five almost insignificant changes, four in style and one of substance, but barely that (the word “yoe” was changed to “yowl!”). 

The
Man Who Would Not Shake Hands
was first published in a 1981 anthology,
Shadows 4
. It was significantly revised, most of the changes relating to King’s updating of the story to link it with
The Breathing Method
as a “Club” story, for its publication in
Skeleton Crew
four years later. The original version also appears in
The Best of Shadows
, published after
Skeleton Crew
, in 1989. These are clearly two different versions of the same tale.
 

A story inspired by King’s work in an industrial laundry,
The Mangler
was originally published in
Cavalier
for December 1972. King rewrote it for
Night Shift
(1978). However, as few facts change (Hunton’s friend Mack Jackson becomes Mark, for instance) the two forms are variations, not versions. 

Memory
, a moving short story, first appeared in
Tin House
magazine for Summer 2006 and, in 2007, in the hardcover first edition of
Blaze
. It was revised for inclusion in the novel,
Duma Key
. 

One of King’s novellas,
The Mist
was first published in a 1980 anthology,
Dark Forces
, edited by King’s agent at the time, Kirby McCauley. King substantially rewrote it for
Skeleton Crew
(1985). In the
Notes
to that collection he says, “I never liked it much until the rewrite …” The two forms, while using the same characters, show substantial changes in storyline and must be considered as totally separate versions. 

The Monkey
was originally published in
Gallery
magazine for November 1980. King so significantly rewrote the story for its inclusion in
Skeleton Crew
in 1985 that they are clearly separate versions. 

The Monster in the Closet
was promoted as an “excerpt” from the novel
Cujo
when it appeared in the
Ladies Home Journal
for October 1981. However, the form of the story was
not
a direct excerpt, as it spanned a number of sections of the novel and there are some minor changes, as well as material added. More detail is included in the
Stories Swallowed by Monsters
chapter later in this book. 

Another story to appear first in
The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction
was
The Moving Finger
, in the December 1990 edition. It was so significantly revised in
Nightmares and Dreamscapes
(1993) as to represent two quite different versions of the same tale. 

A tale inspired by one of Tabitha King’s habits,
Mrs. Todd’s Shortcut
was first published in
Redbook
for May 1984. The story was updated with minor variations for
Skeleton Crew
(1985) but these were not significant enough to warrant a second version being declared. In the
Notes
to
Skeleton Crew
King describes the genesis of this story, “My wife is the real Mrs. Todd; the woman really
is
mad for a shortcut, and much of the one in this story really exists. She found it too. And Tabby really
does
seem to get younger sometimes…”  

The Whitney Museum originally published
My Pretty Pony
in 1988 as a Limited Edition. In October of that year it was released in a Limited Trade Hardback. King so substantially revised the tale for its inclusion in
Nightmares and Dreamscapes
in 1993 as to leave no doubt these are two separate versions of the same tale. 

The New Lieutenant’s Rap
has a unique history. Printed as a chapbook under King’s Philtrum Press imprint, the entire text is in King’s handwriting. It was provided to guests at a New York City party to celebrate King’s 25th anniversary in book publishing in April 1999. Marsha DeFilippo, King’s secretary, confirmed to the author of this book that copies were left at the party by guests who did not know what they were leaving behind! The story has never been published in the mass market and most likely will not be. Differing substantially from
Why We’re in Vietnam
, which appeared in
Hearts in Atlantis
later that year, it is effectively an earlier version of that story.
The New Lieutenant’s Rap
is reviewed in a later chapter. 

A vampire tale,
The Night Flier
was originally published in an anthology,
Prime Evil: New Stories by the Masters of Modern Horror
, in a Donald M Grant Limited Edition (April 1988) and a mass market hardback issued by NAL (June 1988). King significantly revised the story for
Nightmares and Dreamscapes
(1993) and they are clearly separate versions. For instance, in the earlier version King mentions himself, Johnny Smith and Jerusalem’s Lot but deleted these very important references from the collected version.  

King wrote a screenplay titled
Night Shift
that was never produced and is the subject of a later chapter in this book. The script included revised versions of
Strawberry Spring
,
I Know What You Need
and
Battleground
. 

Night Surf
is one of King’s earliest published stories and forms a prototype for his later masterpiece,
The Stand.
It was first published in the literary magazine,
Ubris
for Spring 1969 and contained King’s first use of the term “Captain Trips” to describe a worldwide superflu epidemic. He substantially revised the tale for its appearance in
Cavalier
for August 1974 and further minor revisions were made for
Night Shift
(1978). As a result there are two versions, the original
Ubris
and the revised
Cavalier/Night Shift
. 

The atmospheric tale
Nona
was originally published in the 1978 anthology,
Shadows
and was substantially revised for
Skeleton Crew
(1985). In the latter version it became a Castle Rock story while in the earlier it had been set in Blainesville, Maine, a town with the same geography as Castle Rock! Of perhaps most interest is that the original Ace Carmody (who dies in a car crash) becomes the infamous Castle Rock character Ace Merrill (he does not die in this tale) in the
Skeleton Crew
version. An error in the
Shadows
version was also corrected in the later publication.  

The short sequel to
‘Salem’s Lot
,
One for the Road
, was first published in
Maine
magazine for March/April 1977. King made very minor revisions before republishing it in
Night Shift
the following year, but these are no more than variations. It was later republished in an anthology,
Vampire Omnibus
(1995). There were very minor revisions (style only) in that publication but, almost uniquely, the story appeared under the title
Return to ‘Salem’s Lot
. 

King’s 1986 screenplay for the movie version of
Pet Sematary
is remarkably faithful to the novel but does include a number of factual changes in the storyline. The screenplay is certainly a version of the story and is covered in considerable detail in a later chapter. 

King originally provided
The Plant
as a Christmas gift to a limited number of people in 1982, 1983 and 1985. Published by his imprint, Philtrum Press as a serialized novel, he stopped writing the story after the 1985 episode. To worldwide publicity King returned to the tale
in 2000, updating the storyline and releasing it again as a serialized novel on the Internet through his official website,
www.stephenking.com
. After six parts,
The Plant
folded its leaves once more, with the story once again unfinished. The history of this unusual publishing venture is detailed in a later chapter.