Stephen King: Uncollected, Unpublished - Revised & Expanded Edition (14 page)

The End of the Whole Mess
first appeared in
Omni
magazine for October 1986. King substantially rewrote it for
Nightmares and Dreamscapes
. As well as significant text changes, a number of facts, characters and even timelines changed in the new version.  

Everything’s Eventual
was initially published
in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction
for October 1997. Uniquely, it reappeared in text form as part of the computer game,
F13
³⁰
in January 1999 and then in the
Everything’s Eventual
collection of fourteen King stories released in 2002. There are a number of variations between the different forms of publication but not enough to represent anything more than variations within the one tale. There are some variations in characters and of one date (William Unger was asked to run for the US Senate four years later in the collected story). 

The story
Father’s Day
appears only in the graphic novel,
Creepshow
(1982) and the 1979 screenplay for the movie of the same name (reviewed in a later chapter). As a result of the publishing format there are differences between the two versions. 

The Fifth Quarter
is another story that exists in three distinct versions, one of those not published under King’s name. The
crime tale was first published in
Cavalier
magazine for April 1972, under the pseudonym John Swithen.
Other than Richard
Bachman,
Swithen is the only other pseudonym for King; and
The Fifth Quarter
is the only story for which the Swithen pseudonym was used. Interestingly, according to Bachman’s “death notice” in the
Castle Rock
newsletter for May 1985, Swithen was Bachman’s half-brother!
The Fifth Quarter
was republished in a new version and under King’s name in
The Twilight Zone Magazine
for February 1986 and in a yet another version in
Nightmares & Dreamscapes
(1993). In the latter versions John Swithen is mentioned, as a folksinger and writer.
 

The screenplays of
General
and the wrap-around parts of the
Cat’s Eye
script generally represent the same story but with significant enough textual differences for them to be declared as separate versions of the one story. The only form of publication of
General
was in a 1997 anthology of horror scripts,
Screamplays
, edited by Richard Chizmar. 

The Glass Floor
was King’s first professional sale but has never been included in one of his collections. The subject of a later chapter, it first appeared in
Startling Mystery Stories
magazine for Fall 1967. King allowed it to be reprinted in the Fall 1990 issue of
Weird Tales
. As to the revision for
Weird Tales
, King says in a foreword to the story:  

Darrell Schweitzer, the editor of
Weird Tales®,
invited me to make changes if I wanted to, but I decided that would probably be a bad idea. Except for two or three word-changes and the addition of a paragraph break (which was probably a typographical error in the first place), I’ve left the tale just as it was. If I really
did
start making changes, the result would be an entirely new story. 

Gramma
was originally published in
Weirdbook
magazine for Spring 1984; and was substantially revised for its publication in
Skeleton Crew
the following year. King corrected an error in that second version. On Page 6 of Weirdbook we read, “…after Gramma and Granpa had gotten married, way back in 1914 …” However, according to the implied timeline (the story is set in October 1980, Gramma was 83 and Granpa was three to four years younger than her) this means Granpa was born in 1900 or 1901 and would be 13 or 14 when he married, which is most unlikely. King deleted the reference to the marriage date in
Skeleton Crew
. 

Here There Be Tygers
was one of the first stories King published, appearing in
Ubris
magazine for Spring 1968. It was marginally revised for its inclusion in
Skeleton Crew
in 1985. There were some minor changes in character details and a small, new section was added to the later publication but these are not significant enough for the two forms to be regarded as anything other than variations. 

Home Delivery
, a zombie tale, was first published in an anthology,
The Book of the Dead
in 1989. King substantially rewrote the story for
Nightmares and Dreamscapes
(1993). These two forms therefore represent different versions. 

I Know What You Need
was first published in
Cosmopolitan
magazine for September 1976. It was republished with minor changes and the correction of an error in
Night Shift
(1978). In the
Cosmopolitan
version Ed Hamner reappears in Liz Rogan’s life no earlier than the October following Tony Lombard’s death, “A week passed, then two, then it was October.” On page 274 Alice says, “He even knew the right psychological moment to step back into your life last September.” This error was corrected in the
Night Shift
version with Alice referring to October. The changes in total are minor. King also adapted this story for his unproduced
Night Shift
screenplay, covered in a later chapter. 

I Was a Teenage Grave Robber
first appeared in partial form in the mimeographed “fanzine,”
Comics Review
over three issues in 1965 (the fourth and final part never appeared but subscribers were sent printed pages of the concluding material). It was republished with considerable textual differences (but little change to the story-line) in another fanzine,
Stories of Suspense
the following year with a new title,
In a Half-World of Terror
. The tale is reviewed in a later chapter. 

I’ve Got to Get Away
was a story in
People, Places and Things
, a collection of eighteen short stories self-published by Stephen King and his friend Chris Chesley as the “Triad Publishing Company” in 1960, and reprinted in 1963.
The Killer
, published in
Famous Monsters of Filmland
, #202 for Spring 1994, is an apparent re-write of
I’ve Got to Get Away
. Both stories are subject of later chapters. 

Another story with a very interesting publishing history is
In the Deathroom
. Its first two appearances were not in traditional mass-market books. The story was first released in the audiobook,
Blood and Smoke
(1999) and did not see print until its inclusion in a Book of the Month Club only publication,
Secret Windows:
Essays and Fiction of the Craft of Writing
in 2000. Its first mass-market publication was in
Everything’s Eventual
(2002). There were minor variations with each form of publication but not enough for any of the forms to be regarded as a separate version. 

It Grows on You
exists in three versions, one of those including further variations. The first publication of the story was in
Marshroots
for Fall, 1973. That version was republished in
Weird Tales
for Summer, 1991 with minor variations (it is interesting that King amended the
first
version of the tale
after
the second version had been published). There was a significant revision of the story for its publication in
Whispers
#17/18 for July 1982 and this represents the second version. A very major revision for its inclusion in
Nightmares and Dreamscapes
(1993) represents the third version. Importantly, in that last version
It Grows on You
becomes a Castle Rock story, earlier versions having been set in Harlow. An error was also corrected in this version. King has this to say about the revisions, prior to
Nightmares and Dreamscapes
, writing in 1982:
³¹
 

“It Grows on You” was originally written in 1973, rewritten in 1975 for publication in a small-circulation literature magazine called
Marshroots
. I’ve rewritten it for a third time for its real debut, here in
Whispers
. It’s one of the few stories from that period that I really love … 

The science fiction tale
The Jaunt
was originally published in
The Twilight Zone Magazine
for June 1981. In the
Notes
to
Skeleton Crew
King says, “This was originally for
Omni,
which quite rightly rejected it because the science was so wonky. It was Ben Bova’s idea to have the colonists in the story mining for water, and I have incorporated that in this version.” The
Skeleton Crew
version was published in 1985. As King himself noted, these two forms of publication are different versions.
 

Jumper
was originally published in a neighborhood newspaper put out by King’s older brother David, over three parts in the winter of 1959-60, technically making it and
Rush Call
the earliest published of King’s works. It was republished in
Secret Windows: Essays and Fiction on the Craft of Writing
in 2000. According to the editors, “The stories are transcribed without the benefit of copyediting. Only the spelling has been corrected.” 

L.T.’s Theory of Pets
was first published in the Limited Edition collection,
Six Stories
in 1997. It was republished in
Everything’s Eventual
(2002) with what appear to be two corrections of typographical errors but no other changes. 

The Lawnmower Man
appears in two versions, with one of those versions varying from one publication to the other. It was first published in
Cavalier
magazine for May 1975 and was republished in
Night Shift
(1978) with minor variations. A separate version appeared as a comic in Marvel Magazine Group’s
Bizarre Adventures
, Volume 1, Number 29 for October 1981. 

Penthouse
magazine for July 1976 carried the first appearance of
The Ledge
. There were six very minor updates for its inclusion in
Night Shift
(1978). King also adapted the story in the
Cat’s Eye
screenplay. 

A chapter of the
Lisey’s Story
was first published in an anthology,
McSweeney’s Enchanted Chamber of Astonishing Stories
, edited by Michael Chabon and released in November 2004, as
Lisey and the Madman
. This section was heavily revised for the final novel (see also the note about revision of the novel above).