| "Rush Call" | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Short story by Stephen King | |||
| Country | United States | ||
| Language | English | ||
| Genre(s) | Short story | ||
| Publication | |||
| Published in | Dave's Rag | ||
| Media type | |||
| Publication date | 1960 | ||
| Chronology | |||
| |||
"Rush Call" is a short story by Stephen King. Originally published in his brother's self-published newspaper Dave's Rag in 1960, it was later collected in the 2000 work Secret Windows .
The story takes place on Christmas Eve. The "Scrooge-like" character Dr. Thorpe volunteers to attend the scene of a traffic collision, where a boy with acute appendicitis is trapped in a car. After successfully removing the boy's appendix in a four-hour operation, Thorpe gains an understanding of the "true meaning of Christmas". [1] [2]
King wrote "Rush Call" at the age of 12. [3] [1] [2] It was originally published in Dave's Rag, a weekly neighborhood newspaper self-published by King's older brother David King in Durham, Maine using a hectograph, in 1960. In 2000, it was collected in Secret Windows , unchanged other than spelling corrections. [4] [1] [3] [5] [6]
Rocky Wood describes "Rush Call" as "clearly juvenilia" but with "some sentences that are stunning when one considers a 12-year-old boy wrote them", noting "sophisticated thinking is evident". [1]
David McAlister Barry is an American author and columnist who wrote a nationally syndicated humor column for the Miami Herald from 1983 to 2005. He has also written numerous books of humor and parody, as well as comic novels and children's novels. Barry's honors include the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary (1988) and the Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism (2005).
Ragtime, also spelled rag-time or rag time, is a musical style that had its peak from the 1890s to 1910s. Its cardinal trait is its syncopated or "ragged" rhythm. Ragtime was popularized during the early 20th century by composers such as Scott Joplin, James Scott, and Joseph Lamb. Ragtime pieces are typically composed for and performed on piano, though the genre has been adapted for a variety of instruments and styles.
Stephen Edwin King is an American author. Widely known for his horror novels, he has been crowned the "King of Horror". He has also explored other genres, among them suspense, crime, science-fiction, fantasy and mystery. Though known primarily for his novels, he has written approximately 200 short stories, most of which have been published in collections.
This is a list of short fiction works 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.
Four Past Midnight is a collection of novellas written by Stephen King in 1988 and 1989 and published in August 1990. It is his second book of this type, the first one being Different Seasons. The collection won the Bram Stoker Award in 1990 for Best Collection and was nominated for a Locus Award in 1991. In the introduction, King says that, while a collection of four novellas like Different Seasons, this book is more strictly horror with elements of the supernatural.
David James Pelzer is an American author of several autobiographical and self-help books. His 1995 memoir of childhood abuse, A Child Called "It": One Child's Courage to Survive, was listed on The New York Times Best Seller list for several years, and in 5 years had sold at least 1.6 million copies. The book brought Pelzer fame, and has also been a source of controversy, with accusations of several events being fabricated coming from both family members and journalists.
Frank Herbert Muir was an English comedy writer, radio and television personality, and raconteur. His writing and performing partnership with Denis Norden endured for most of their careers. Together they wrote BBC Radio's Take It from Here for over 10 years, and then appeared on BBC radio quizzes My Word! and My Music for another 35. Muir became Assistant Head of Light Entertainment at the BBC in the 1960s, and was then London Weekend Television's founding Head of Entertainment. His many writing credits include editorship of The Oxford Book of Humorous Prose, as well as the What-a-Mess books that were later turned into an animated TV series.
Richard Veitch is an American comics artist and writer who has worked in mainstream, underground, and alternative comics.
The Ballad of the Flexible Bullet is a fantasy novella by American writer Stephen King, first published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction in 1984 and collected in King's 1985 collection Skeleton Crew as well as the 2000 collection Secret Windows. The title is in reference to the narrator's belief that insanity is a sort of "flexible bullet": it will eventually kill, but how long this process takes, and how much damage the bullet does before the victim finally dies, are impossible to predict. Since the publication of this story, King has occasionally used the term "flexible bullet" to describe insanity, in reference to this story.
"In the Deathroom" is a horror short story by American writer Stephen King, first published as part of King's 1999 audiobook Blood and Smoke.
David Victor Peacock is an English musician and bass guitarist. He was brought up in Ponders End and the Freezywater areas of Enfield. Peacock is best known as having been one half of the English musical duo Chas & Dave from 1974 until the death of Chas Hodges in 2018
"Never Look Behind You" is a short story by Chris Chesley and Stephen King. It was self-published by Chesley and King in 1960 as part of the collection People, Places and Things.
The Newspaper Enterprise Association (NEA) is an editorial column and comic strip newspaper syndication service based in the United States and established in 1902. The oldest syndicate still in operation, the NEA was originally a secondary news service to the Scripps Howard News Service; it later evolved into a general syndicate best known for syndicating the comic strips Alley Oop, Our Boarding House, Freckles and His Friends, The Born Loser, Frank and Ernest, and Captain Easy / Wash Tubbs; in addition to an annual Christmas comic strip. Along with United Feature Syndicate, the NEA was part of United Media from 1978 to 2011, and is now a division of Andrews McMeel Syndication. The NEA once selected college All-America teams, and presented awards in professional football and professional basketball.
"The Reaper's Image" is a horror short story by American writer Stephen King, first published in Startling Mystery Stories in 1969 and collected in Skeleton Crew in 1985. The story is about an antique mirror haunted by the visage of the Grim Reaper, who appears to those who gaze into it.
According to books by Tyson Blue, Stephen J. Spignesi, and Rocky Wood et al., there are numerous unpublished works by Stephen King that have come to light throughout King's career. These allegedly include novels and short stories, most of which remain unfinished. Most are stored among Stephen King's papers in the special collections of the Raymond H. Fogler Library at the University of Maine, some of which are freely accessible to the library's visitors. However, others require King's permission to read. Additionally, there are a number of uncollected short stories, published throughout King's long career in various anthologies and periodicals, that have never been published in a King collection.
"The Killer" is a short story by Stephen King. Written in the early 1960s, it was first published in issue #202 of Famous Monsters of Filmland in spring 1994.
People, Places and Things is a short story collection by Chris Chesley and Stephen King, self-published in 1960.
"The Hotel at the End of the Road" is a short story by Stephen King. It was self-published by King in 1960 as part of the collection People, Places and Things.
"Jumper" is a short story by Stephen King. Originally serialized in the self-published newspaper Dave's Rag in 1959–1960, it was later collected in the 2000 work Secret Windows. It was King's first piece of fiction to be published.
"The Furnace" is a short story authored in instalments by Stephen King and 28 other writers as a piece of collaborative fiction. King's opening was originally published in 2005 in the educational magazine Know Your World Extra.
