by Rocky Wood
Untitled: King told www.TIME.com the following in November 200927:
(The Tommyknockers) was another case of a book I tried to write a long time ago. I had the idea of the guy stumbling over the flying saucer when I was a senior in college. I had 15 or 20 pages and I just stopped. I don’t remember why. I think it was probably like Under the Dome. The canvas was just too big. And so I quit. The pages went God knows where. Years later the idea recurred and I just got swept up by the concept.
Untitled: King told the Associated Press this in 1979:
For example, I’m working on a story now about a guy who goes to his small town’s restaurant every afternoon for coffee. One day he goes in and a different waitress takes his order. When he asks about the other waitress, the new one denies there ever was such as person. That’s a frightening situation. How does a person cope?
This story has not been mentioned elsewhere.28
Verona Beach was a piece of fiction King worked on in college. It apparently became the basis of The Talisman.
Sometime in the school year of 1963-64 King edited a satirical take-off of the high school newspaper he later edited, The Drum (two stories from that newspaper, Code Name: Mousetrap and The 43rd Dream are subject of a separate chapter of this book). The satire was titled The Village Vomit, King tells its sordid story in section 19 of the “C.V.” part of On Writing. In part he says:
One night – sick to death of Class Reports, Cheerleading Updates, and some lamebrain’s efforts to write a school poem – I created a satiric high school newspaper of my own when I should have been captioning photographs for The Drum. What resulted was a four-sheet which I called The Village Vomit. The boxed motto in the upper lefthand corner was not “All the News That’s Fit to Print” but “All the Shit That Will Stick.” That piece of dimwit humor got me into the only real trouble of my high school career.
No known copies of The Village Vomit, which included a number of articles, exist.
Douglas Winter quotes King in Stephen King: The Art of Darkness29 as saying, “I had a bad year in 1976 – it was a very depressing time. I started a book called Welcome to Clearwater, but it was busted.”
What Tricks Your Eye was King’s first attempt at the story that would become The Green Mile. He tells its story in the Introduction to the combined volume of that originally serialized novel. King developed the tale in 1992 or 1993. It has never been released in any form and it is now very unlikely that it will. The best we can hope for is that it will be deposited at the Fogler Library. In the story a man on death row develops an interest in magic tricks. Luke Coffey was a large black man awaiting his punishment at Evans Notch in 1932. As the date of his execution drew near he developed an interest in sleight-of-hand magic tricks and, as a result, was able to disappear from the prison. His story is told from the perspective of an old trusty who sold cigarettes and novelties from his cart.
13 The Lost Work of Stephen King, Stephen J. Spignesi, p.277-284
14 H.P. Lovecraft: Against the World, Against Life, Michel Houellebecq, p.10-13
15 Stephen King: The Art of Darkness, Douglas E. Winter, page xvi
16 Personal correspondence with Rocky Wood, 24 June 2008
17 Stephen King: The Art of Darkness, Douglas E. Winter, p.76
18 The Unseen King, Tyson Blue, p.76
19 Danse Macabre, section 16 of ‘The Last Waltz – Horror and Morality, Horror and Magic’
20 The Lost Work of Stephen King, Stephen J. Spignesi, p.200-201
21 Stephen King: The Art of Darkness, Douglas E. Winter, p.19
22 Ethelyn Flaws, husband of Oren (both are referred to in Song of Susannah), sister of Ruth Pillsbury King
23 The Stephen King Story, George Beahm, p.26
24 A pastiche is defined as, “A dramatic, literary, or musical piece openly imitating the previous works of other artists, often with satirical intent” (The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language)
25 Stephen King Collectibles: An Illustrated Price Guide, George Beahm, p. 17
26 Stephen King: The Art of Darkness, Douglas E. Winter, p.17
27 Part of an online only article, Stephen King on His 10 Longest Novels by Gilbert Cruz, published 9 November 2009. The printed article included slightly edited material from a telephone interview with King.
28 Associated Press article by Phil Thomas, published in a number of newspapers, including as His Imagination Can Scare Anyone in Register-Guard (Eugene, Oregon) for 5 April 1979.
29 Stephen King: The Art of Darkness, Douglas E. Winter, p.166
Variations and Versions in King’s Fiction
There has been little discussion over the years of King’s penchant for revising his fiction and this is quite surprising. The fact there are almost as many King works of fiction that have been revised for re-publication as those that have not should have lead to further discussion and interest than has been accorded.
Most authors publish a story once and that first (and only) version becomes the standard form of the work no matter how often it is reprinted or wherever it is republished.
In this matter King, as is often the case, is different. It is possible that no King work is ever truly “finished.” He often publishes a short story in a magazine and later reworks it for publication in one of his collections, such as Night Shift or even to include as parts of a novel.
These revisions range from relatively minor wording changes (for example, Battleground) to more significant rewrites (Children of the Corn), to total rewrites which will often include major character name changes and the transfer of a story-line to entire new towns or timelines (It Grows on You or Nona). Even novel-length works such as Eyes of the Dragon have been revised.
If a collector were to obtain each publication of every story it would be necessary to benchmark it against other publications. The next problem is determining whether changes are simply “Variations” (minor updates) or represent a whole new “Version” of the story.
The rule of thumb used for this publication is that where a work has been published and a later publication includes relatively minor variations (small text changes, no significant changes in Characters or Plot), these are classified as a “Variation”. In those cases there is only one substantive “Version” of that work. However, where the later publication includes relatively significant changes in Plot, Character, Location and so on, or a very significant rewrite of the text, that later work is a new “Version” of the tale.
Novels
To date, King has revised four novels; allowed “deleted scenes” to be published from one; marginally revised material for another; and added a fictional Foreword to certain editions of yet another.
An entirely fictional Foreword to Paperback Edition appears in certain Signet (US) mass market paperback editions of Dolores Claiborne, the first of which appeared in December 1993, the same year as the first edition hardback was published. It is noteworthy that this addition has never appeared in a UK-rights paperback.
King’s own imprint, Philtrum Press first published Eyes of the Dragon in 1984, in a Limited Edition of 1250. The mass-market edition, published in 1987, contains important differences in the text, including character changes. An entire chapter from the Limited was not included in the mass-market edition. The original title of the manuscript was The Napkins, which refers to Peter’s method of escape. King first wrote the story for his daughter, Naomi and relates this motivation in a short non-fiction piece, Why I Wrote the Eyes of the Dragon, which appeared in the Castle Rock newsletter for February 1987. The differences between the two publications clearly show that they are quite separate versions of the same tale.
The Green Mile is one of the best loved of King’s tales, by both readers and moviegoers in general. This is partly due to it being one of the best screen adaptations of a King story and that is almost entirely down to Frank Darabont, who wrote the screenplay and directed. The Green Mile was King’s first complete serialized novel. Published each month from M
arch until August 1996, it was later re-published in omnibus (1996) and hardback (2000) editions with minor updates, largely relating to certain errors. King had this to say in the combined edition, “I did change the moment where Percy Wetmore, bound in a straightjacket, raises one hand to wipe the sweat from his face.” The original Book Six, Coffey on the Mile, read:
I reached up, grabbed the end of the runner he’d worked loose, and gave it a hard yank. It made a loud peeling sound. Brutal winced. Percy yipped with pain and began rubbing his lips. He tried to speak, realized he couldn’t do it with a hand over his mouth, and lowered it.
The combined edition reads: “I reached up, grabbed the end of the runner he’d worked loose, and gave it a hard yank. It made a loud peeling sound. Brutal winced. Percy yipped with pain and his eyes watered.”
In the earlier chapter detailing King’s Realities it was noted that in 2003 he released a revised and expanded version of the first Dark Tower novel, The Gunslinger. In that case King’s major reasons for revision related to bringing the first volume of a seven volume epic into line with the mythology of the subsequent volumes; and to fixing the writing problems suffered by the young man who wrote the novels’ five parts over the period from 1970 to its initial publication as a Limited Edition in 1982.
The parts that made up the novel were first published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction during 1978, 1980 and 1981. There are notable differences between the original publications in the magazine and the subsequent Limited Edition published by Grant (1982), republished as a mass-market version by NAL (1988). While some of the at least 98 changes were apparently to improve the writing or to fix errors, others are substantive. Compare for instance Roland saying, “I trained David. I friended him,” in The Slow Mutants to, “I never trained David. I friended him,” in the original novel.
So, there are actually three versions of The Gunslinger – the combination of the five short stories, the “original” novel and the “revised and expanded” novel!
Editions of Cell released in January and February 2006 carried “an excerpt – in the author’s hand” of Lisey’s Story, from “Part One: Bool Hunt / Chapter One: Lisey and Amanda (Everything the Same).” This “excerpt” was slightly revised in the final edition of the novel (see also the note about revision of the Lisey and the Madman below).
In 2004 Centipede Press published a deluxe edition of ‘Salem’s Lot, which also included forty-nine pages of “Deleted Scenes” from the original manuscript. These scenes were included in a separate section after the original version, making the examination of the excised material a simple matter. The signed Limited was of 425 copies; an unsigned edition was released in 2005. The book also included Jerusalem’s Lot and One for the Road, as well as King’s 1999 Introduction to the Signet/Pocket edition of ‘Salem’s Lot, published in this instance as the Afterword. A trade version was published in November 2005.
Three key changes from the first draft of the novel to the final version are of interest. The town infested by vampires was not Jerusalem’s Lot, but Momson (Momson, Vermont appears separately in the final version; but Momson, Maine appears in certain of the “Deleted Scenes”); the head vampire’s name was Sarlinov, not Barlow; and Father Callahan killed himself with a knife when confronted by Sarlinov (King took some form of pity on the Father in the published novel, allowing him to leave town by bus after losing his faith and, therefore, also allowing his appearance nearly three decades later in another town under threat, Calla Bryn Sturgis of Wolves of the Calla).
Regarded by many as King’s masterpiece, The Stand was first published in 1978, although it had been severely edited for length by King’s publishers. Subsequent paperback editions used the original hardcover text for a period. The timeline of the events in this first version is 1980. US paperback editions of this original edition moved to a new timeline of 1985. The Signet edition of January 1980 was the first of these editions. In it King provides an Author’s Note, which concludes “minor revisions have been made for this Signet edition of this novel.” Most, if not all, overseas paperback editions used the original hardcover text until The Complete and Uncut edition was released. Books carrying this 1985 timeline form the second version of the tale.
In 1990 King arranged for the republication of the book as he had originally intended, in a Complete and Uncut edition, with a 1990 timeline; and this forms the third version. In addition to restoring most of the material cut from the original novel that version also included new material. King also penned two screenplay adaptations, an unproduced movie script and the produced mini-series script. These form the fourth and fifth versions of the tale! The two scripts are discussed in considerable detail in a later chapter.
Short Stories/Novellas/Screenplays
The major area for King’s revisions is of his short stories and novellas. This partly resulted from his updating of his earliest stories for collection in his mass market books; and partly from what appears to be a form of perfectionism – it seems Big Steve is never finished with a story and simply cannot resist a chance to make it better, or to change it to reflect his mood or the current point in his career (for instance, a number of stories were converted into Castle Rock tales on revision).
King has also adapted many of his stories for the screen. Some of these scripts were produced, others were not, but each resulted in a slightly different story from that adapted. So, here is a rather lengthy tour of Stephen King’s list of revised tales.
1408 was originally published in the audio book Blood and Smoke (1999). Its first text appearance was in Everything’s Eventual (2002). That publication contained a number of differences from the original audio version. They were relatively minor (for instance, one changed the name of a song and the other changed a name mentioned by Mike Enslin) and did not constitute a new version of the story.
All That You Love Will Be Carried Away was originally published in The New Yorker magazine for 29 January 2001. It was republished in Everything’s Eventual with minor variations (for example, the town of Hackberry Chalk, Texas became Hackberry, Texas).
The Ballad of the Flexible Bullet was first published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction for June 1984. King made minor revisions for its inclusion in Skeleton Crew the following year, including the correction of an error (in the magazine version Henry Wilson cut the power cable to his car radio but still managed to listen to it during the trip!)
Battleground was originally published in Cavalier for September 1972. For its publication in Night Shift (1978) there were very minor wording revisions. A new version of the story was included in the unproduced Night Shift screenplay.
Beachworld originally appeared in Weird Tales for Fall 1984 and was republished in Skeleton Crew the following year with minor wording variations and the deletion of a character (“Send Chang down. One of these boys is badly dehydrated.”)
The short story The Bear forms part of The Dark Tower III: The Wastelands. It was originally published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction for December 1990. When included in The Wastelands (1991) the story was significantly different from the earlier version (see the later chapter in this book, Stories Swallowed by Monsters for more detail).
Before the Play is the prologue deleted from The Shining. It was first published in Whispers magazine, #17/18 in August 1982. Two sections were deleted for a republication in the TV Guide issue for 26 April to 2 May 1997, which coincided with the debut of the mini-series version of The Shining that week. Full detail of the history of this tale and the changes appear in a later chapter. The two publications are really one version, with the second an “abridged” form.
Two parts of The Dark Tower IV: Wizard and Glass were initially published in 1996 in a free giveaway paperback that accompanied some copies of Desperation and The Regulators. They were Beneath the Demon Moon and The Falls of the Hounds. There were numerous variations in the text between the booklet and the subsequent novel.
Big Wheels: A Tale
of the Laundry Game (Milkman #2) is a story King developed from an aborted novel, The Milkman. It first appeared in an anthology, New Terrors 2 in 1980. King so substantially revised the story for its appearance in Skeleton Crew in 1985 that the two appearances are totally different versions of the tale.
The Bird and the Album was first published in A Fantasy Reader: The Seventh World Fantasy Convention Program Book on 30 October 1981. This short tale was published five years before it was included as part of the novel It. King substantially rewrote the piece for its inclusion in the novel. Full details of the story’s history and changes appear in a later chapter, Stories Swallowed by Monsters.
Blind Willie exists in three forms. First published in Antaeus for Autumn 1994, that version of the tale was republished in Six Stories (a Limited Edition collection issued by King’s own Philtrum Press imprint in 1997, but never released as a mass-market publication) with quite a number of minor revisions, including changing the name of a celebrity mentioned in passing (from O.J. Simpson to Michael Jackson!); and changing the first name of Willie Teale’s fake wife.
King then completely rewrote Blind Willie for its appearance in Hearts in Atlantis, to make the characters part of the storyline of that collection. Bill Teale became Bill Shearman (one of the boys who beat up Carol Gerber in Low Men in Yellow Coats) and, instead of “Blind Willie” Teale, Shearman posed as “Blind Willie” Garfield (he still had Bobby Garfield’s glove, which he used when begging). As a result there are two clear versions of the tale – the Antaeus version and the Hearts in Atlantis version.