10 Best Unfinished Stephen King Novels
So you think you've read everything there is to read? Think again, constant reader.
Stephen King is one of the most prolific authors working in the industry today, with a career spanning back as far as the '60s. While it was Carrie that brought him international acclaim (a combination of the novel and the Brian de Palma adaptaion), this had not been King's first foray into writing.
Like many authors, he had been writing since childhood, a topic explored thoroughly in On Writing, his autobiography and 'memoir on the craft'.Any aspiring writer should pick up a copy of On Writing - it remains one of the finest examples of a break down of writing as a whole, while also remaining full of highly interesting pieces of information about King and his life.
With more than sixty published novels, including several under his pseudonym Richard Bachman and collections of short stories, catching up with his output is a daunting task for any constant reader. It is a happy complaint to make, to say that King has so much work out there that to read him is the task of a couple of years at least!
There are also many, many adaptations of his works - films and TV series of varying levels of quality. They range from the highly acclaimed (The Shining, IT Chapter 1, The Shawshank Redemption) to the.....less highly acclaimed (The Lawnmower Man).
But, there are still more works out there, as yet either unpublished or unfinished. Here are ten examples of stories that have yet to see the light of night...
10. People, Places And Things
This is actually out there to be found - but there might be some job in actually finding a copy. King relates in his memoir that he and his friend Chris Chesley wrote an 18 page, hand bound booklet of several short stories. This was then printed on King's brother's printing press (10 copies in all) and sold to class mates for between .10c and .25c a piece.
King now estimates that there is only one surviving copy, and it is in his possession. So, one assumes there would be a fair price for any other verified copies out there.
As there are little to no details of the plots of these stories, People, Places and Things is fascinating in that it would show the earliest days of King's writing. He speaks about trying again and again to get published in On Writing, describing letters that he sent off to magazines and publishing house.
He also talks about the number of times that he was rejected before anyone took a chance on him. This was of course at a time when all submissions would be hard copies. He speaks of a letter sent to him as a reply from none other than Alfred Hitchcock himself. The letter was short and to the point.
Don't staple manuscripts.
And he never did again.
This short collection exists as a time capsule to a very young King, starting out on the read to the superstar that he has become.