Stephen King: Uncollected, Unpublished - Revised & Expanded Edition

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Stephen King: Uncollected, Unpublished - Revised & Expanded Edition Page 45

by Rocky Wood


  The barbering college Coombs and McFarland attended in Zanesville, Ohio was formally known by the rather grand title of the Zanesville College of Barbering and Tonsorial Design. A 45 chair barber shop, most of Zanesville’s working class had its hair done there. Interestingly, Zanesville is also mentioned in Golden Years. In that screenplay Harlan and Gina Williams and Terry Spann came across an accident on Route 17 West near Zanesville, Ohio.

  There are no other links from this story to King’s other fictional works. The piece has the standard King trademarks of interesting character back-story, an imminent sense of doom early in the tale, and the creation of empathy with lead character. It is therefore disappointing we do not have access to more of the work, let alone a completed story.

  We are left with many questions. Is Coombs also McFarland and McFerry? If so, was Coombs’ time in Boston the fantasy, or is it the McF’s time in Blood that is imaginary? Does the “nest egg” exist and if so what will be its significance? What happened on the night in March 1989 that Coombs was so worried McFarland would remember? While again it is most unlikely King would ever complete this story there seems little doubt it would be fascinating if he did.

  Overall, this Journal provides wonderful insights into King’s writing. His clear and loving use of his own past in Movie Show, the relatively unusual detour into fantasy in Muffe, the continuing fascination with psychiatric assessment in both The Evaluation and Chip Coombs and the sense of deep, underlying secrets in the latter all remind us that King has a wonderfully fertile mind. Each of these stories, if completed, would add great value to King’s published body of work. We are reminded, yet again, that there must be dozens or even hundreds of other story ideas, either partly developed or just sitting in the great writer’s mind. As the years go by we can only hope that some of these ideas and storylines will escape onto the page and hopefully see the published light of day.

  Stories Swallowed by Monsters

  Throughout his career King has published short stories that later appeared in rewritten form in a novel or novella. One could argue the hidden monsters of the future had swallowed up these minnows.

  This chapter reviews the eleven stories that appeared in substantially different form in later novels or novellas.

  There appear to a variety of reasons as to why these stories appeared later in revised form. The Bear, Calla Bryn Sturgis and The Tale of Gray Dick were virtual teasers for upcoming Dark Tower novels and the changes appear to be a combination of editing and intentionally avoiding giving away important plot points of the novels.

  The Bird and the Album was an early version of an incident later used in It, while The Monster in the Closet was a true excerpt from Cujo but had been edited for its particular publication. The Revelations of ‘Becka Paulson, The Revenge of Lardass Hogan and Stud City were all genuine stand-alone short stories that King later rewrote for inclusion in The Tommyknockers and The Body, the latter two under the pseudonym of Gordon Lachance.

  These stories deserve review, as it is certain they will never be published in these original forms in a King collection as they already appear in an amended form in the novels.

  The Bear (1990)

  The Bear forms part of the 1991 novel The Dark Tower III: The Wastelands but was originally published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction for December 1990 (a “Special Stephen King issue”). That magazine also included the first appearance of King’s short story The Moving Finger, a King bibliography by his assistant Marsha De Filippo, and a criticism of King’s works by Algis Budrys.

  Despite King’s author’s note in the magazine stating, “What follows is the first section of The Dark Tower III: The Wastelands …” the version of The Bear included in The Wastelands is significantly different from the magazine version. Those wishing to read the short story, particularly Dark Tower completists and fans, will be able to purchase a copy from King online booksellers or specialist magazine traders, as The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction is collectable in its own right.

  It is interesting to note that Eddie (Edward) Dean’s middle name is given as Alan in The Bear and as Cantor in The Wastelands.

  In this Dark Tower tale Roland and Susannah Dean are out shooting with live ammunition for only the third time. Roland was upset and taunted Susannah to get her in the right mind to fire accurately at small target rocks. She hit five of the six and nicked the last. As they talked after the practice they heard a huge roar and the sound of trees falling in the forest near where they had left Eddie Dean, and ran to investigate.

  A 70-foot tall bear, known by those who once lived in the area as Mir, had sensed the humans and was intent on destroying them. Eddie had been carving a slingshot from a piece of wood when Mir approached and he’d climbed the tallest tree to seek refuge. Safe from the bear’s reach he waited for help and watched as it sneezed diseased, worm-filled snot from its nose and mouth.

  As the bear was trying to break the tree and kill Eddie, Roland and Susannah arrived. Susannah shot the bear to get its attention and, as it charged, shot the radar dish on the top of its head, killing the creature (of course, the shooting or disabling of radar dishes would play a highly significant role in The Dark Tower V: Wolves of the Calla). The three looked at the corpse of the fallen bear and discovered it was actually a robot named Shardik.

  The Bird and the Album (1981)

  This story was published in A Fantasy Reader: The Seventh World Fantasy Convention Program Book on 30 October 1981. Thanks to the editor’s introduction some sources state this tale is an “excerpt” from Chapter 13 of the magnificent novel It. The story was actually published five years before the novel (the editor described it as “…from the opening of chapter 13 of a work in progress, a novel the author calls IT”) but King substantially rewrote the piece for its appearance in the novel, where it actually appears as the beginning of Chapter 14. Among the changes is that from past to present tense.

  In this Maine Street Horror tale friends meet in Derry after twenty-five years apart. Eddie Kaspbrak, Beverly, Richie, Ben Hanscom, Mike Hanlon and Bill Denbrough discuss the things they were starting to remember from their childhood. One of the former friends, “a guy named Stan Uris … couldn’t make it.” (Note: Beverly and Richie’s surnames are not given).

  Among the childhood incidents they could remember was Mike bringing his father’s photograph album to the clubhouse where the pictures performed the “…same trick as in Georgie’s room. Only that time we all saw it.” Ben remembered that they had turned a silver dollar into silver bullet.

  When Mike left the room to get a beer from the lounge refrigerator he “… felt the shock sink into him, bone deep and ice-white, the way February cold sank into you when February was here and it seemed that April never would be. Blue and orange balloons drifted out in a flood, dozens of them …” and then he saw what:

  …It had popped into the refrigerator … Stan Uris’s head was … there in the refrigerator beside Mike’s sixpack of Bud, the head of a ten year old boy. The mouth was open in a soundless scream but Mike could see neither teeth nor tongue because the mouth had been stuffed full of feathers.

  Mike was in no doubt that these huge, brown feathers were from “the Bird” he had seen in May 1958 and the whole group had seen that August. Mike remembered his dying father telling him he had also “…seen something like it once, too, during the fire at the Black Spot.” The head’s eyes opened “and they were the silver-bright eyes of Pennywise the Clown” and the mouth tried to speak around the feathers.

  Something was trying to scare Mike and his friends out of town and away from their plan, even hurling racial epithets at Mike. The head popped out of existence but Mike could still see the balloons, some reading, “DERRY NIGGERS GET THE BIRD” and others, “THE LOSERS ARE STILL LOSING, BUT STANLEY URIS IS AHEAD.” Mike then remembered going down to the Barrens “two days after he had seen Pennywise the Clown in person for the first time,” the day the group began planning to kill It. He cal
led the whole group into the lounge, as he continued to remember the warm welcome his future friends had given him that first day. The story ends at this point.

  Just one example of the changes and deletions should serve to whet the reader’s appetite to seek out the original version of the story. Early in section one of Chapter 14 of It (The Album), we find this line:

  They all look at Bill then, as they had in the gravel-pit, and Mike thinks: They look at Bill when they need a leader, at Eddie when they need a navigator. Get down to business, what a hell of a phrase that is. Do I tell them that the bodies of the children that were found back then and now weren’t sexually molested, not even precisely mutilated, but partially eaten?

  The Bird and the Album version reads:

  They all look at Mike then, as they had in the gravel pit, and Mike thought: They look at Bill when they need a leader, and me when they need a navigator. I wonder how they’d like it if I told them that in the movies the hero’s never bald and, as for me, I lost my compass and rudder while I was working in my damned journal, trying to make sense of killing fires and giant birds, an explosion in an ironworks where the boilers had been shut down, a mass murder in a bar in Hell’s Half-Acre, a mass murder seems to have happened while the customers went right on drinking; and if I told them all of those things, would I really be telling them anything they don’t already know? Get down to business, what a hell of a phrase that is. Do I tell them that the bodies of the children that were found back then and now weren’t sexually molested, not even precisely mutilated, but partially eaten?

  Readers at the time the original was published were intrigued by the tale but had to wait another five years for the context in which to place this slightly less than 3000 word piece. As an historical note this was the first published mention of Derry.

  Those wishing to read this original version of the story today will find their task somewhat difficult. The convention book sometimes appears for sale at specialist King booksellers and that would be the best option for those seeking a copy.

  Calla Bryn Sturgis (2001)

  Calla Bryn Sturgis was first released on King’s official website, www.stephenking.com on 21 August 2001, just three weeks before September 11. King provided the story free of charge as a thank you to long-suffering fans of The Dark Tower cycle, who were awaiting the next installment, The Dark Tower V: Wolves of the Calla.

  Readers were told this was the Prologue to the new novel but hints were provided that this would not be its final form in the book. In fact, so as not to give away certain events in the novel, there had been some careful editing and changes. The story was delivered in a substantially different form as the Prologue, Roont when The Dark Tower V: Wolves of the Calla was published more than two years later, in November 2003.

  Both versions featured the return of King’s benighted character, Father Callahan of ‘Salem’s Lot, known in the Calla as Pere Callahan. King had said that, despite the Catholic priest having last been seen on a bus out of the Lot, he had not finished with the Father and he would reappear in some future story. ‘Salem’s Lot was published in 1975, so there was in fact more than a quarter century between published novels featuring this character. This is the longest period between appearances by a significant King character!

  In this Dark Tower tale a village in End-World considers a coming threat. Tian Jaffords tended his fields with the plough being pulled not by animals but by his twin sister! She, like many others in Calla Bryn Sturgis, was “roont.”

  Every generation or so “Wolves” would come and take one child from each set of twins, returning them sometime later, large and strong but slow in the mind. In a village where almost all births were of twins the raids were far from welcome, but a robot named Andy now told Jaffords that the Wolves would return in a month.

  That night forty men, mostly farmers from the area, met to discuss the upcoming raid. Various suggestions were offered and discussed, including killing the children, leaving town, accepting the loss of their children, and even standing and fighting. As it had been about 23 years since the Wolves had last appeared there was much speculation about the weaponry the kidnappers carried, which apparently included Light Sticks, Sneetches and Stealthies. Pere Callahan, who ran a Christian church in the village, then told the meeting three gunslingers and their apprentice were heading toward Calla Bryn Sturgis, along the path of the Beam.

  It was time to stand and be true.

  It was immediately obvious to fans of the Dark Tower series that the three gunslingers (one of whom was a woman) and their apprentice were Roland Deschain, Eddie Dean and Susannah Dean, along with Jake Chambers. In a nod to the later stages of The Dark Tower IV: Wizard and Glass Andy the robot spoke of a Palace of Green Glass that had appeared and then disappeared near the Big River in Out-World.

  There is one error in the story. We are told that Tian’s last name is Jaffords, but when Andy is standing in Tian’s Son of a Bitch field, he thinks of, “…that thankless tract of Jaffrey land…” The error was corrected when the novel was released.

  The story no longer appears on King’s website and, as it was never published in a paper form, readers wishing to access a copy will need to contact a King collector or fan who has retained it in electronic format and may wish to provide a copy. It should be noted that the story is King’s copyright and should not be purchased or sold.

  King’s serious fan base was delighted and intrigued by both the story and Callahan’s appearance. Perhaps as a result of this positive reaction King also allowed another section of the novel, The Tale of Gray Dick, to appear in an altered version ahead of the novel’s release (covered later in this chapter).

  Lisey and the Madman (2004)

  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. This was the second time King had been published in a Chabon edited anthology from the McSweeney series. The earlier story was the previous year’s The Tale of Gray Dick in McSweeney’s Mammoth Treasury of Thrilling Tales.

  The co-author of The Talisman and Black House, Peter Straub also has a story in the anthology, Mr. Aickman’s Air Rifle. King’s contribution is dedicated to Nan Graham. The “About the Contributors” section notes of King, “He has promised to retire, but ‘Lisey and the Madman’ is from what may eventually be a novel called Lisey’s Story. In his own defense, King points out that all novelists lie – sometimes to others, almost constantly to themselves.” Of course, the novel was published, in October 2006.

  The story was also reprinted in an anthology, New Beginnings: A Tsunami Benefit Book, released by Bloomsbury on World Book Day, 3 March 2005. Among other authors to contribute to this book, intended to raise funds to benefit victims of the 26 December 2004 Asian Tsunami, were Maeve Binchy, Margaret Atwood, Paulo Coelho, Scott Turow and Vikram Seth.

  This America Under Siege story begins with Lisey Landon, wife of a famous novelist, recalling events eighteen years earlier. She is reminded of them by a now famous photograph, in which she appears, although no one else is aware of that fact. The photo shows a young man holding a small silver shovel, looking somewhat dazed, while a cop shakes his hand. Lisey’s contribution to the photo is half a brown loafer in the far right-hand side of the photo as she had left the scene for something much more important.

  It had been a hot, muggy day at the University of Tennessee in August of 1986, when Scott Landon (Pulitzer and National Book Award winning novelist) was due to turn the first earth at the commencement ceremonies for the Shipman Library. From the first thing that morning, back at their Maine home, Lisey Landon had been suffering from a sense of foreboding. She had accidentally smashed a tooth glass in their bathroom and had not felt right since. After the accident Lisey cursed and remembered her grandmother, “that old Irish highpockets,” who had quite a store of sayings and curses and who ha
d most certainly believed in omens, even if Lisey did not.

  A large crowd had turned out to see the famous author say a few words. This, combined with the heat, only added to Lisey’s concerns as she recalled the “deep-space” fans that come with fame – one had hitchhiked from Texas to Maine to discuss Bigfoot with Scott (of course, this type of individual is a regular problem for both the King family and his office). She even noted one of the breed (“Blondie”) standing in the crowd but, strangely, was not concerned by him, despite her foreboding.

  Attended by the reluctant and pompous representative of the University, a student reporter and local newspaper photographer, the official party proceeded to a point behind velvet-rope barriers where Scott Landon was presented with a small silver shovel. Landon proceeded to give a quick speech for the crowd and a small showy display for the photographer. In his speech he spoke briefly of current events, concluding, “The world grows dark. Discordia rises.” Turning the sod he called the names of favored authors and asked the crowd to check out both their books and those of their own personal favorites when the Library opened.

 

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