Night Shift (short story collection)

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Night Shift
Night Shift (1978) front cover, first edition.jpg
First edition cover
Author Stephen King
LanguageEnglish
Genre Horror
Publisher Doubleday
Publication date
February 1978
Publication placeUnited States
Media typePrint (hardcover)
Pages336
ISBN 978-0-385-12991-6
Followed by Different Seasons  

Night Shift is Stephen King's first collection of short stories, [1] first published in 1978. In 1980, Night Shift won the Balrog Award for Best Collection, and in 1979 it was nominated as best collection for the Locus Award and the World Fantasy Award. [2]

Contents

Stories

#TitleOriginally published in
1"Jerusalem's Lot"Previously unpublished
2"Graveyard Shift"October 1970 issue of Cavalier
3"Night Surf"Spring 1969 issue of Ubris
4"I Am the Doorway"March 1971 issue of Cavalier
5"The Mangler"December 1972 issue of Cavalier
6"The Boogeyman"March 1973 issue of Cavalier
7"Gray Matter"October 1973 issue of Cavalier
8"Battleground"September 1972 issue of Cavalier
9"Trucks"June 1973 issue of Cavalier
10"Sometimes They Come Back"March 1974 issue of Cavalier
11"Strawberry Spring"Fall 1968 issue of Ubris
12"The Ledge"July 1976 issue of Penthouse
13"The Lawnmower Man"May 1975 issue of Cavalier
14"Quitters, Inc."Previously unpublished
15"I Know What You Need"September 1976 issue of Cosmopolitan
16"Children of the Corn"March 1977 issue of Penthouse
17"The Last Rung on the Ladder"Previously unpublished
18"The Man Who Loved Flowers"August 1977 issue of Gallery
19"One for the Road"March/April 1977 issue of Maine
20"The Woman in the Room"Previously unpublished

Details

The back cover of the first edition of Night Shift Night Shift (1978) back cover, first edition (cropped).jpg
The back cover of the first edition of Night Shift

The book was published on the heels of The Shining (1977 Doubleday) and is King's fifth published book (including Rage , which was published under the pseudonym of Richard Bachman). Nine of the twenty stories had first appeared in issues of Cavalier Magazine from 1970 to 1975; others were originally published in Penthouse , Cosmopolitan , Gallery, Ubris, and Maine Magazine. The stories "Jerusalem's Lot", "Quitters, Inc.", "The Last Rung on the Ladder", and "The Woman in the Room" appeared for the first time in this collection.

King had wanted to cut "Gray Matter" in favor of his 1972 story "Suffer the Little Children", but deferred to editor Bill Thompson who chose to keep "Gray Matter" in the collection ("Suffer the Little Children" was ultimately collected in Nightmares & Dreamscapes in 1993). [3]

Foreword and introduction

Night Shift is the first book for which King wrote a foreword. The introduction was written by one of King's favorite authors, John D. MacDonald. MacDonald writes that "Stephen King is a far, far better writer at thirty than I was at thirty, or at forty. I am entitled to hate him a little bit for this." He adds, "I will say that I do not give a diddly-whoop what Stephen King chooses as an area in which to write. The fact that he presently enjoys writing in the field of spooks and spells and slitherings in the cellar is to me the least interesting fact about the man anyone can relate", predicting that "Stephen King is not going to restrict himself to his present area of intense interest." [4]

Film, television or theatrical adaptations

With the publication of Night Shift and the rise in King's popularity as a best-selling author, and with the success of Brian De Palma's motion picture adaptation of Carrie (1976), student film makers began submitting requests to King to adapt stories from the collection. King formed a policy he deemed the Dollar Deal, which allowed the students the permission to make an adaptation for $1.

In the 1980s, entrepreneurial film producer Milton Subotsky purchased the rights to six of the stories in this collection to produce feature films and a television anthology based on multiple stories. Although Subotsky was involved with several King adaptations (Cat's Eye, Maximum Overdrive, Sometimes They Come Back, The Lawnmower Man) the television series never happened due to conflicts with the networks' Standards and Practices. [5]

The following film, television, and theatre adaptations are adapted from the stories in Night Shift:

Feature film adaptations

Television adaptations

Dollar Baby adaptations (shorts)

Other

The Stephen King Collection: Stories from Night Shift

The Stephen King Collection: Stories from Night Shift
Stephen King Value Collection.tiff
Author Stephen King
Audio read by John Glover
LanguageEnglish
GenreShort story collection
Publisher Random House Audio
Publication placeUnited States
Media typeCompact Disc, Digital Audio, MP3

In 2000, Random House released a recorded compilation of selected stories from Night Shift, each read by John Glover. [6] The full track list of unabridged stories is as follows:

See also

Related Research Articles

This is a list of short fiction by Stephen King. This includes short stories, novelettes, and novellas, as well as poems. It is arranged chronologically by first publication. Major revisions of previously published pieces are also noted. Stephen King is sometimes credited with "nearly 400 short stories". However, all the known published pieces of short fiction are tabulated below. In all, 218 works are listed. Most of these pieces have been collected in King's seven short story collections: Night Shift (1978), Skeleton Crew (1985), Nightmares & Dreamscapes (1993), Everything's Eventual (2002), Just After Sunset (2008), The Bazaar of Bad Dreams (2015), and You Like It Darker (2024); in King's five novella collections: Different Seasons (1982), Four Past Midnight (1990), Hearts in Atlantis (1999), Full Dark, No Stars (2010), and If It Bleeds (2020); and in the compilation Secret Windows: Essays and Fiction on the Craft of Writing (2000). Some of these pieces, however, remain uncollected.

<i>Nightmares & Dreamscapes</i> Short story collection by Stephen King

Nightmares & Dreamscapes is a short story collection by American author Stephen King, published in 1993.

"The Ten O'Clock People" is a short story by American author Stephen King, published in the Nightmares & Dreamscapes collection. Unlike many of King's stories which take place in fictional places like Castle Rock, Maine, "The Ten O'Clock People" takes place in Boston, Massachusetts. A film adaptation has been announced.

"Suffer the Little Children" is a horror short story by American writer Stephen King. It was first published by Cavalier in 1972, and was later collected in King's book Nightmares & Dreamscapes in 1993.

"The Night Flier" is a horror short story by American writer Stephen King, first published in the 1988 anthology Prime Evil: New Stories by the Masters of Modern Horror, and then in King's own 1993 Nightmares & Dreamscapes collection.

"Crouch End" is a horror story by Stephen King, set in the real-life North London district of Crouch End, originally published in New Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos (1980), and republished in a slightly different version in King's Nightmares & Dreamscapes collection (1993). It contains distinct references to the horror fiction of H. P. Lovecraft.

"Quitters, Inc." is a short story by Stephen King published as part of his 1978 short story collection Night Shift. Unlike most other stories in this book, "Quitters, Inc." had been previously unpublished until February 1978 under Doubleday Publishing. It was featured in Edward D. Hoch's 1979 ‘Best detective stories of the year’ collection. The plot follows Dick Morrison's discovery of the brutal enforcement methods used by Quitters, Inc., the firm which he enlists to aid him quit smoking. Like much of Stephen King's work, this short story exhibits elements of horror fiction and satire. The tale was adapted in the 1985 American anthology horror film Cat’s Eye.

<i>The Lawnmower Man</i> (film) 1992 science fiction dark horror film

The Lawnmower Man is a 1992 science fiction horror film directed by Brett Leonard, written by Leonard and Gimel Everett, and starring Jeff Fahey as Jobe Smith, an intellectually disabled gardener, and Pierce Brosnan as Dr. Lawrence "Larry" Angelo, a scientist who decides to experiment on him in an effort to give him greater intelligence by stimulating his brain using nootropic drugs and virtual reality computer simulations. The experiments give Jobe superhuman abilities, but also increase his aggression, turning him into a man obsessed with evolving into a digital being.

"Gray Matter" is a short story by Stephen King, first published in the October 1973 issue of Cavalier magazine, and later collected in King's 1978 collection Night Shift.

"The Last Rung on the Ladder" is a short story by Stephen King, first published in King's 1978 collection Night Shift.

"The Boogeyman" is a short story by Stephen King, first published in the March 1973 issue of the magazine Cavalier and later included in King's 1978 collection, Night Shift.

<i>My Pretty Pony</i> 1988 short story by Stephen King

"My Pretty Pony" is a short story written by Stephen King and illustrated by the artist Barbara Kruger. It was the sixth publication in the Whitney Museum of American Art artist and writer series. An original limited coffee table book edition of 250 was published in 1988 and was an oversized fine press slip-cased book with stainless steel faced boards and digital clock inset into the front cover. A trade edition of 15,000 was later published by Alfred A. Knopf in 1989. In 1993, the story was included in King's collection Nightmares & Dreamscapes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dollar Baby</span> Contract with Stephen King to adapt one of his short stories for $1

The Dollar Baby was an arrangement in which American author Stephen King would grant permission to students and aspiring filmmakers or theater producers to adapt one of his short stories for $1. King retains the rights to his work, but as he began to experience commercial success, he decided to use the Dollar Baby to help the next generation of creatives. The term may be used to refer to both the adaptation itself and the person adapting it; for example, "The Sun Dog" was made as a Dollar Baby and filmmaker Matt Flesher became a Dollar Baby upon adapting it.

"Popsy" is a horror short story by American writer Stephen King, included in his short story compilation Nightmares & Dreamscapes, published in 1993.

"Dedication" is a short story by Stephen King first published as part of the 1988 short story anthology Dark Visions and reprinted in King's 1993 short story collection Nightmares & Dreamscapes.

"The Lawnmower Man" is a short story by American writer Stephen King, first published in the May 1975 issue of Cavalier and later included in King's 1978 collection Night Shift.

<i>Nightmares & Dreamscapes: From the Stories of Stephen King</i> 2006 American anthology television series

Nightmares & Dreamscapes: From the Stories of Stephen King is an eight-episode anthology miniseries that aired on TNT, based on short stories written by American author Stephen King. It debuted on July 12, 2006, and ended its run on August 2, 2006. Although most of the stories are from the book collection of the same title, some are from different collections by King. A trailer confirming a DVD edition of the series was released in October 2006. The series was filmed entirely in Melbourne, Australia.

<i>Maximum Overdrive</i> 1986 film by Stephen King

Maximum Overdrive is a 1986 American horror film written and directed by Stephen King. The film stars Emilio Estevez, Pat Hingle, Laura Harrington, and Yeardley Smith. The screenplay was inspired by and loosely based on King's short story "Trucks", which was included in the author's first collection of short stories, Night Shift, and follows the events after all machines become sentient when Earth crosses the tail of a comet, initiating a world-wide killing spree.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Milton Subotsky</span> American film and television producer and writer

Milton Subotsky was an American film and television writer and producer. In 1964, he founded Amicus Productions with Max J. Rosenberg. Amicus means "friend" in Latin. The partnership produced low-budget science fiction and horror films in the United Kingdom.

References

  1. Cavett Binion. "Graveyard Shift". Movies & TV Dept. The New York Times . Archived from the original on 2013-06-16.
  2. "Night Shift". Isfdb.org.
  3. King, Stephen (1993). Nightmares and Dreamscapes . New York: Viking. p.  801. ISBN   0-606-06623-3.
  4. John D. MacDonald. Introduction to Night Shift by King, Stephen. 1978 p. vii-x
  5. Perakos, Peter S. "Stephen King on Carrie, The Shining, etc." published in Cinefantastique Magazine Vol 1 No 8 Winter 1978. Reprinted in "Feast of Fear" Underwood & Miller, Carroll and Graf 1989 pp. 70
  6. "The Stephen King Collection: Stories from Night Shift". Penguin Random House. Retrieved 1 November 2023.