Stephen King: Uncollected, Unpublished - Revised & Expanded Edition (61 page)

Copies of
Ubris
are almost impossible to find, although the story can be photocopied from an original copy of the magazine held at the Fogler Library of the University of Maine at Orono. For those seeking an original copy of their own we can only recommend the normal online King booksellers but one should expect a long wait and a hefty price tag! 

The Tale of Gray Dick
(2003) 

The Tale of Gray Dick
is a version of the chapter of the same name in
The Dark Tower V: Wolves of the Calla
, published in November 2003. The stand-alone short story was first published in the magazine,
Timothy McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern #10
on 25 February 2003; and in anthology,
McSweeney’s Mammoth Treasury of Thrilling Tales
, published by Vintage Books in a large paperback format the following month. King fiction would again appear in a
McSweeney’s
anthology, with
Lisey and the Madman
, in
McSweeney’s Enchanted Chamber of Astonishing Stories
, released in November 2004. 

There are revisions, including both the deletion and addition of material for its appearance in
The Dark Tower V: Wolves of the Calla
. These changes were clearly made to avoid giving away plotlines in the novel ahead of its publication. The short story is more of a variation to, than a version of, the tale. 

In this Dark Tower story a woman takes revenge on her father’s killer while using an innovative weapon. Roland Deschain and Jake Chambers talked to Vaughn Eisenhart and his wife Margaret at their Lazy B ranch near Calla Bryn Sturgis. Roland examined Vaughn’s three guns, finding that only one rifle was of any value.  

In the ensuing discussion Roland was told the story of Lady Oriza and her weapon. Gray Dick, an outlaw prince, had killed Lady Oriza’s father Lord Grenfall and she sought revenge. Expertly learning how to throw a sharpened plate she took dinner with Gray Dick, who was suspicious of her motives but could not resist the offer to dine with her naked. During the meal she threw one of her plates, decapitating her victim.  

Roland was also told that the plates were still made in a town far to the north, Calla Sen Chre. Most of the women in Calla Bryn Sturgis could throw the plates and Margaret Eisenhart reluctantly demonstrated her amazing accuracy with the weapon for Roland’s benefit.  

Copies of
McSweeney’s Mammoth Treasury of Thrilling Tales
are available at second-hand bookshops, specialist King booksellers and such sources as eBay. An unabridged version of this story is also available as a Random House Audible download as part of
McSweeney’s Mammoth Treasury of Thrilling Tales
, read by Kevin Gray.
 

¹³¹
The Road to the Dark Tower
, Bev Vincent, p.332 

¹³²
He later appeared as Clark Rivingham (in the
You Know They Got a Hell of a Band
episode of
Nightmares & Dreamscapes: From the Stories of Stephen King
); and Steve Ames in
Desperation
 

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 called 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.