Stephen King is one of the few popular authors who still produces and publishes short stories in collections today. He himself has mentioned (“What Ails the Short Story,” New York Times) that the art seems to be suffering – short story magazines are shoved to the bottom of shelves and the amount of short stories produced seems to be shrinking each year rather than growing, as the amount of novels are. But no matter; that is not the subject at hand. Stephen King seems to be producing short stories at as quick a rate as ever, while still keeping up with full length novels and various other endeavors (articles, screenplays, reviews, and so on). Here is a basic list with brief reviews of and information about King’s (published) short story collections.
Night Shift (1978)
Night Shift is a short story collection featuring twenty stories, four of which were previously unpublished. Many of them were King’s most famous short works. One such story is Children of the Corn, a story about a man and woman who come across a strange and seemingly isolated town by expansive fields of corn which spawned a 1984 film adaptation. The first short story (written in the form of exchanging letters), Jerusalem’s Lot, ties into his 1975 novel ‘Salem’s Lot. The Lawnmower Man was also adapted into a film starring Pierce Brosnan and Jeff Fahey, but Stephen King was highly disappointed in how unfaithful it was to his story and asked to have his name removed from the film. Other stories in the book are: Graveyard Shift, Night Surf, I Am the Doorway, The Mangler, The Boogeyman, Gray Matter, Battleground, Trucks, Sometimes They Come Back, Strawberry Spring, The Ledge, Quitters Inc. (a story featuring an interesting program for quitting absolutely anything), I Know What You Need, The Last Rung on the Ladder, The Man Who Loved Flowers, One For the Road, and The Woman in the Room. Overall the book is very enjoyable for horror fans and even those who don’t savor horror in their tales -there is a bit of something for both.
Skeleton Crew (1985)
Skeleton Crew featured two more stories than its predecessor, Night Shift, but only three previously unpublished stories were included in this collection of twenty-two. The short story collection includes one novella – The Mist (which was later adapted into a film in 2007 starring Thomas Jane and Marcia Gay Harden), as well as two poems (For Owen and Paranoid: A Chant). One story (Mrs. Todd’s Shortcut) was completed and sold when King was only eighteen, some others were written at close to the publication as 1983. The stories, however, no matter the publication or writing date, are timeless. Stephen King manages to include more mature works – this collection is often admired for the more adult tone – while still maintaining his knack for scaring the socks off his readers. The Monkey is one such more mature work – while still frightening, it seems less amateur than some of his previous works. Gramma stands out as it is from the point of view of a child who is terrified of his grandmother. The Reaper’s Image brings to mind such stories as Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray – in its quirkiness, it is rather reminiscent of some of Poe’s works. Other stories include Here There Be Tygers, Cain Rose Up, The Jaunt (a futuristic sort of story with a bit of terror infused), The Wedding Gig, The Raft (classic Stephen King horror), Word Processor of the Gods (a fascinating tale about a customized word processor that can add and delete more than just words on demand – one of my favorites in this collection), The Man Who Would Not Shake Hands, Beachworld, Nona, Survivor Type (a rather grotesque but captivating story of cannibalism in the strangest form), Uncle Owen’s Truck, Morning Deliveries(Milkman #1), Big Wheels: A Tale of the Laundry Game (Milkman #2), The Ballad of the Flexible Bullet, and The Reach.
Nightmares and Dreamscapes (1993)
Of the twenty four stories in Nightmares and Dreamscapes, Stephen King included five that had not been published elsewhere. Chattery Teeth is a classic King horror tale involving an odd set of chattery teeth – the kind you wind up to watch them chatter. You Know They Got a Hell of a Band features a town full of musicians who passed out of life and into a small place in Oregon. Stephen King also included The Doctor’s Case, a non-canonical Sherlock Holmes story from The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. Sorry, Right Number – one of my personal favorites – is an eerie tale that was later made into an episode of Tales from the Darkside. Head Down stands out – it is not a story, but an essay chronicling the 1989 season for his son Owen’s Little League baseball team. Sneakers is a strange ghost story, and The Moving Finger is a disturbing tale that may affect anyone who has ever heard a strange noise from their sink or been frightened out of a room by something small such as a spider. Other stories in this collection: Dolan’s Cadillac, The End of the Whole Mess, Suffer the Little Children, The Night Flier (adapted into a film starring Mark Pavia and Julie Entwisle in 1997), Popsy, It Grows on You (which could tie into King’s novel Needful Things), Dedication, Home Delivery, Rainy Season, My Pretty Pony, The Ten O’ Clock People, Crouch End, The House on Maple Street, The Fifth Quarter, Umney’s Last Case, Brooklyn August, and The Beggar and the Diamond (a retelling of a Hindu story).
Hearts in Atlantis (1999)
Hearts in Atlantis stands out from all of these short story collections because it is, in fact, much different. Instead of being a collection of mostly unconnected stories, Hearts in Atlantis features two novellas and three short stories featuring recurring characters and taking places in roughly chronological order. The stories all feature the idea (stated by Stephen King himself) that the Baby Boomer generation failed to live up to the dreams they once held. In this sense the story collection could and possibly should be read as if it were a whole novel rather than many stories. These stories are: Low Men in Yellow Coats (the longest, taking place in 1960), Hearts in Atlantis (which takes place in 1966), Blind Willie (which covers a single day in 1983), Why We’re in Vietnam, and Heavenly Shades of Night are Falling (a rather hopeful tale).
Everything’s Eventual (2002)
This collection may seem rather spare as compared to Stephen King’s short story collections of the past – it contains only fourteen stories, all of which have been published elsewhere. The quality of the stories much outweighs the quantity, however, as King’s fans will soon recognize. The first story, Autopsy Room Four, is somewhat terrifying but more thought-provoking – it is told about a man who is paralyzed, but thought to be dead, and must prove that he is alive. That Feeling, You Can Only Say What it is in French, despite its lengthy title, is a quick and interesting read about a woman who repeats the same events over and over, each with a terrible ending. 1408 is an engaging story of a truly haunted hotel room which was adapted into a film starring John Cusack and Samuel L. Jackson in 2007. Readers will encounter the maître d’ from hell in the bloody Lunch at the Gotham Café. Other stories featured are: The Man in the Black Suit, All That You Love Will Be Carried Away, The Death of Jack Hamilton, In The Deathroom, The Little Sisters of Eluria (which can tie into Stephen King’s Dark Tower series), Everything’s Eventual, L.T.’s Theory of Pets, The Road Virus Heads North, Riding the Bullet, and Luckey Quarter (a strangely interesting story of a woman and her fantasies about a “lucky” quarter).
Just After Sunset (2008)
Stephen King’s most recent collection of short stories, Just After Sunset, features a literal baker’s dozen of stories – King had originally intended to include twelve stories, including one previously unpublished one, but added The Cat From Hell (a story with a plot mostly given away by the title) to make thirteen. N. is a story of a man suffering from obsessive compulsive disorder who believes his condition to be brought on by a strange source – some stones in a field. The Gingerbread Girl is a story of a woman who begins running obsessively after losing a child – her habit of running comes in handy when she must escape a man with diabolical plans. Anyone who has ever exercised alone may be interested in Stationary Bike, a story of a man who finds a way to completely lose himself while exercising. The Things They Left Behind is a mature and rather poignant story about what happens after the September 11 attacks. Other stories include Willa (a story of what happens after death), Harvey’s Dream, Rest Stop (another Stephen King story much like The Dark Half or Secret Window, Secret Garden which examines the line between two different personalities in one person), Graduation Afternoon, The New York Times At Special Bargain Rates (another tale of the events after death), Mute, Ayana, and A Very Tight Place.
One thing many diehard Stephen King readers may enjoy is his habit of including notes on his stories at the back of the book. In these notes he discusses the source of inspiration for some of his stories, and sometimes mentions which stories are his personal favorites. Each story has its own story – though some may insist that a building is only fascinating once finished, and what bricks were used do not matter – and the story behind each story is just as interesting to me as the story itself. The stories themselves are also a quick way to read Stephen King – an author known for writing quite lengthy novels. These are fast and more portable alternatives to King’s famous 500-plus page books.
