Publication Date: February 1978
Back in the early Eighties, during one summer break when I was going to college, my brother-in-law Walt handed me a stack of books by an author I’d never read before and told me I should give them a try.
And this was how I was introduced to Stephen King. Walt suggested that I start with Night Shift, a short story collection of tales that King had previously published in various magazines (mostly men’s magazines…so maybe some people were reading them for the great fiction).
I was immediately entranced by the storytelling skills of King, and like so many of us who live and breathe for reading, I didn’t want to put the book down. In my mind, I’ve probably romanticized these stories a little too much, because I’ve read better, but this was the start that boosted me into reading horror fiction, and therefore it holds a special place in my heart (despite the way some of these terrifying tales turn out!).
Here’s a sample from one of the stories, Night Surf, so that you can get a taste of King’s early prose…and it feels eerily relevant to our world today:
So here we were, with the whole human race wiped out, not by atomic weapons, or bio-warfare or pollution or anything grand like that. Just the flu.
The picture included here is the copy I own, but it’s not the one that Walt loaned me - that one has a hand, with the lower portion wrapped in gauze, and the hand and fingers have eyes. To me, it’s unforgettable, and I may need to get that version someday…
The stories from this collection that stand out to me (and remember, I read this close to 40 years ago) are:
Jerusalem’s Lot
Graveyard Shift
Night Surf
Sometimes They Come Back
The Ledge
Quitters, Inc.
Children of the Corn
But to be honest, there’s really not a bad one in the bunch if you enjoy King’s style of writing. If you’ve never read any of his fiction and want to give him a try, you can’t go wrong with Night Shift.
…and stay tuned for Page 6, coming soon!
From the excitement of buying shiny new comic books to collecting older issues for those nostalgic leanings of yesteryear, my weekly blog Cool Comics In My Collection showcases something for everyone at edgosney.com.