Stephen King: Uncollected, Unpublished - Revised & Expanded Edition (40 page)

(^) in a revised version, it was originally published in
Ubris
for Spring 1969 

(#) in a revised version, it was originally published in
Ubris
for Fall 1968 

(+) effectively a reprint, as there were no changes from the earlier version 

(%) poem 

People, Places and Things (1960) 

People, Places and Things
is a collection of eighteen short stories self-published by King and his friend Chris Chesley under the name “Triad Publishing Company.” First published in 1960, it was reprinted in 1963. Chesley was one of King’s close childhood friends growing up in Durham, Maine.
⁷⁹
They apparently wrote many stories together, and singly, for their amusement and that of their family and friends and it is a small tragedy that most have been lost. 

King owns the sole known copy of the collection, which he re-discovered in his papers in 1985. However, partial photocopies of the “Second Printing, 1963” version circulate freely in the King community. It is thought that less than a dozen original copies were ever printed.
⁸⁰
 

The Table of Contents for
People, Places and Things
is as follows: 

Forward (
sic
), 1 

Hotel at the End of the Road, 2 Steve King 

Genius, 3 Chris Chesley 

Top Forty, News, Weather and Sports, 4 Chris Chesley 

Bloody Child, 5 Chris Chesley 

I’ve Got to Get Away!, 6 Steve King 

The Dimension Warp, 7 Steve King 

The Thing at the Bottom of the Well, 8 Steve King 

Reward, 9 Chris Chesley 

The Stranger, 10 Steve King 

A Most Unusual Thing, 11 Chris Chesley 

Gone, 12 Chris Chesley 

They’ve Come, 13 Chris Chesley 

I’m Falling, 14 Steve King 

The Cursed Expedition, 15 Steve King 

The Other Side of the Fog, 16 Steve King 

Scared, 17 Chris Chesley 

Curiousity (
sic
) Killed the Cat, 18 Chris Chesley 

Never Look Behind You, 19 Steve King – Chris Chesley 

The cover is headed “People, Places and Things – Volume 1” and the authors are listed as Steve King and Chris Chesley. This version is listed as the “Second Edition – Complete and Unabridged.” The Table of Contents page shows the booklet as being “Produced in Association with the Triad Publishing Company,” with “Copyright 1963, by Steve King and Chris Chesley – First Printing, 1960 – Second Printing, 1963.” In simple terms, King and Chesley “self-published” these stories. 

Unfortunately, two of the King stories listed in the Table of Contents have been lost – no known copies of
The Dimension Warp
and
I’m Falling
exist. 

All in all the stories are best described as what they are – “juvenilia.” However, clear hints of the King to come appear in each story and it is in this that they perhaps retain their greatest value. Michael Collings writes in his
Horror Plum’d
⁸¹
, “In approach, content, theme, and treatment, however, they clearly suggest directions the mature King would explore in greater detail…” 

Six King stories and one written with Chesley have survived the years and each is briefly reviewed below. 

The Hotel at the End of the Road 

Readers can access this story in
The Market Guide for Young Writers
(Fourth Edition onwards only) by Kathy Henderson
⁸²
. To date, this is the only time the story has been republished. According to King bibliographer Justin Brooks, King sent a copy of the story to Carol Fenner, the managing editor of a student literary magazine,
Flip
, but the magazine folded before the story could be republished! 

In the story Tommy Riviera and Kelso Black are the target of a high speed police chase. They turned up a dirt road, saw an old hotel ahead and decided to stay for the night. After being initially ignored by an old man at reception he directed them to Room Five, but only after being threatened at gunpoint! 

When Tommy woke up the following morning he was totally paralysed. The old man he had seen the night before came into view and informed him that they were new additions to his living “museum,” but they would be well cared for and would not die. 

This 365-word story is as derivative as one could expect from an early teenage writer.  

This story is in King’s America Under Siege Reality but it is possible the criminals had driven into another reality, which would make it a very early New Worlds story. In support of this view, as Riviera and Black were being chased by the police, they turned onto a gravel road then, “The uniformed policeman scratched his head. ‘Where did they go?’ His partner frowned. ‘I don’t know. They just – disappeared.’” When the fleeing pair arrived at the Hotel it “looked just like a scene out of the early 1900s.” 

The main characters are the two criminals – Riviera and Black, and the mysterious old man, who informs them they are “the first additions to my museum in twenty-five years” and, “You’ll go well with the rest of my collection of living mummies.” The key setting is the Hotel, which is old and, in Black’s words, “…a crummy joint. I’ll bet there’s enough cockroaches in here to fill a five-gallon can.” The old man had Kelso and Black stay (perhaps forever?) in Room Five, which was “…barren except for an iron double bed, a cracked mirror and soiled wallpaper.” 

No timeline is given in the story. This early King work has one very interesting link – Kelso Black also appears in
The Stranger
but meets a very different end in that story. 

It should be noted that the title shown on the story page is
The Hotel at the End of the Road
, even though the first ‘The’ is not shown on the Table of Contents page of the compendium. 

I’ve Got to Get Away! 

In this story Denny Phillips woke to find himself on an atomic factory assembly line but could remember nothing. Those around him looked like zombies or prisoners. 

As he tried to escape guards shot him and he blacked out. One of the guards commented that the x-238A robots occasionally seemed to go haywire and try to run away. Two weeks later, after being repaired and returned to work, Denny Phillips again had the urge to get away. 

The roots of the story appear to be in King’s voluminous science fiction readings, with the ‘conscious’ robot wishing for humanity being a staple of the pulp SF market. An interesting development in King’s early writing is changing from first person narrative in the first half of the story where the robot feels ‘…as if I had just awakened from a slumber’ to third person as the guards comment on the problems with the ‘x-238A … Denny Phillips, name’ and Phillips’ second re-awakening, two weeks later. King also uses repetition to bring the reader into Phillips’ dilemma – ‘I had to get away!’; ‘I’ve got to get away’; and the final words of the story, now capitalized: ‘I’VE GOT TO GET AWAY!!’ 

Due to science fiction theme of this story (robots working on ‘an atomic factory assembly line’) it is part of King’s New Worlds Reality. 

The main character is, of course, an x-238A robot, Denny Phillips and the setting is the factory. King’s device of having the factory guarded, ‘…and the guards had guns’ is required to prevent the robot’s escape after it becomes self-aware but also serves to provide a dark, almost concentration-camp like feel to the story. The ubiquitous ‘Acme Robot Repairs’ company took Phillips away for repair, although there is no sign of the Coyote! No timeline is given in the story. 

This 308-word story has an interesting link, as it was apparently re-written as
The Killer
(see the separate chapter). 

The Thing at the Bottom of the Well 

In this story a mean little boy meets a meaner opponent. Oglethorpe Crater enjoyed hurting people and animals. From tying a rope across the stairs so the cook fell, to poking pins into his pet dog, nothing was beyond his wretched ways.  

One day he heard a voice down a well inviting him into it. He went down and was found a month later, tortured, and dead. 

This story is perhaps the least derivative of those in
People, Places and Things
and shows flashes of King’s future themes. Oglethorpe Crater, ‘…an ugly, mean little wretch’ was visited by the very same tortures he had inflicted on other creatures – ‘…his arms were pulled out … pins had been stuck in his eyes, and there were other tortures too horrible to mention.’ 

Oglethorpe had been dealt this ugly but deserving death (King quickly creates an intense dislike for the child in the reader) by something at the bottom of the well. ‘But a soft voice called up, “Hello, Oglethorpe.” Oglethorpe looked down, but could see nothing. “Who are you,” Oglethorpe asked. “Come on down,” said the voice. “And we’ll have jolly fun.” So Oglethorpe went down.’ Any reader of
It
would recognize a prototype of Pennywise in this short passage. The last words of the story, as the searchers leave with the boy’s body are ‘…it actually seemed that they heard laughter coming from the bottom of the well.’ 

This 355-word story falls into the America Under Siege Reality. The main character, little Oglethorpe, is the sort of nasty child who might have grown into a Joe St. George, Sr. ‘He dearly loved plaguing the dog and cat, pulling the wings from flies, and watching worms squirm as he slowly pulled them apart. (This lost its fun when he heard worms feel no pain).’ We know nothing of the ‘Thing’ except it could clearly communicate and kill, somehow taking its tortures from its victim’s own actions. No timeline is given in the story. 

The Stranger 

Kelso Black, a character in
The Hotel at the End of the Road
,
has a reprise in this 235-word story. In each case he comes to a sticky end. In this tale, Black apparently meets the Devil, as does Gary in King’s most critically awarded story,
The Man in the Black Suit
. 

In the story Black killed a guard during a robbery. While toasting the $50,000 takings he heard footsteps coming up the stairs to the attic where he was hiding. A Stranger entered and Kelso Black began screaming after looking into the stranger’s face. The two disappeared, leaving nothing but the smell of brimstone in the room. 

In this America Under Siege tale, the main characters are Kelso Black, who had just committed the robbery, “…now he had fifty grand in his pockets. The guard was dead – but it was his fault! He got in the way”; and a “stranger” the reader (and presumably, Black) assumes is the Devil. “‘It’s time for you to come, Kelso,’ the stranger said softly. ‘After all we have a long way to go.’” Then “…Black looked into that Face.” While Kelso screamed the “stranger” simply laughed “…and in a moment, the room was silent. And empty. But it smelled strongly of brimstone.” Readers will know that King uses a similar artifice in
The Stand
, where looking into Randall Flagg’s face at certain times could drive the viewer insane. No timeline is given in the story. 

The Cursed Expedition 

In this story James Keller and Hugh Bullford travel to Venus, where they find breathable air, perfect temperature and delicious fruit. Keller calls it the Garden of Eden but Bullford has his doubts. These doubts are confirmed the next morning when he finds Keller dead. He tries in vain to contact Earth even though there is nothing wrong with the radio. 

After seeing the ground open up before his eyes he takes a soil sample, analyzes it and finds the planet is alive. Venus then swallows the spaceship, with Bullford inside. 

This 324-word science fiction story falls into King’s New Worlds Reality. King returned to the story line of a living planet swallowing up visiting astronauts in
Beachworld
, published in
Weird Tales
for Fall of 1984 and a slightly revised version in
Skeleton Crew
the following year. Venus is also a key location in a King’s
Night Shift
story,
I Am the Doorway
.