| "The Glass Floor" | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Short story by Stephen King | |||
| Country | United States | ||
| Language | English | ||
| Genre(s) | Horror short story | ||
| Publication | |||
| Published in | Startling Mystery Stories | ||
| Publisher | Health Knowledge, Inc. | ||
| Media type | |||
| Publication date | 1967 | ||
| Chronology | |||
| |||
"The Glass Floor" is a short story by Stephen King, first published in the autumn 1967 issue of Startling Mystery Stories. [1] It was King's first professional sale. [2] [3] [4]
Charles Wharton visits Anthony Reynard, the recently widowed husband of Wharton's sister Janine, in his Victorian mansion, the appearance of which unsettles Wharton. Reynard tells Wharton that Janine died by falling off a ladder while dusting the mansion's East Room, breaking her neck. When Wharton asks to see the room, Reynard refuses, telling him the door to the room has been plastered over. When Wharton protests, Reynard's elderly housekeeper Louise explains that the East Room – which has a floor made entirely out of mirror glass – is regarded as "dangerous".
At Wharton's insistence, Reynard gives him a trowel and allows him to reopen the East Room, refusing to watch. Upon entering the room, Wharton is quickly disoriented by the mirrored floor; fancying that he is standing in mid-air, he panics and calls for help. Reynard finds Wharton's body lying in the middle of the room; he removes it using a pole hook, leaving a small pool of blood on both the floor and ceiling. As he prepares to once again plaster the East Room shut, Reynard wonders "if there was really a mirror there at all". [2]
King wrote "The Glass Floor" in the summer of 1967 at the age of 19. It was the first of his submissions (over the course of two years) to magazine editor Robert A. W. Lowndes to be accepted for publication. King earned $35 (equivalent to $307in 2022) for the story, marking his first professional earnings from writing. [2] [5] "The Glass Floor" was first published in the autumn 1967 issue of Startling Mystery Stories. It was later published (with some minor amendments) in issue #298 of Weird Tales in autumn 1990 and in issue #68 of Cemetery Dance in December 2012. [1] [5] [6] In 2020, it was published as part of the trade hardcover Best of Cemetery Dance 2. [7] It has never been collected in a work by King. [3]
Michael R. Collings described "The Glass Floor" as "derivative, depending upon Poe and Lovecraft for its situational and atmospheric horror", while regarding it as an improvement on the "workaday prose" of King's earlier work. [8] George Beahm also regarded the story as "derivative", but judged it to be "a first effort that requires no apology". [9]
Revisiting the story after 23 years in 1990, King described the first several pages as "clumsy and badly written - clearly the product of an unformed story-teller's mind" but judged the climax to be "better than I remembered" with "a genuine frisson ". [2]
Rocky Wood notes two seeming factual errors in the story: Reynard's mansion bears the date 1770 but is contrastingly described as "Victorian" (1770 being part of the Georgian era) and "Revolutionary War vintage" (the American Revolutionary War lasting from 1775 to 1783). [3]
Stephen Edwin King is an American author of horror, supernatural fiction, suspense, crime, science-fiction, and fantasy novels. Called the "King of Horror", his books have sold more than 350 million copies as of 2006, and many have been adapted into films, television series, miniseries, and comic books. He has also written approximately 200 short stories, most of which have been published in book collections. His debut, Carrie, was published in 1974, and was followed by 'Salem's Lot, The Shining, The Stand and The Dead Zone. Different Seasons, a collection of four novellas, was his first major departure from the horror genre. The novellas provided the basis for the films Stand by Me and The Shawshank Redemption. King has published under the pseudonym Richard Bachman and has cowritten works with other authors, notably his friend Peter Straub and sons Joe Hill and Owen King.
The Shining is a 1977 horror novel by American author Stephen King. It is King's third published novel and first hardcover bestseller; its success firmly established King as a preeminent author in the horror genre. The setting and characters are influenced by King's personal experiences, including both his visit to The Stanley Hotel in 1974 and his struggle with alcoholism. The novel was adapted into a 1980 film and a 1997 miniseries. The book was followed by a sequel, Doctor Sleep, published in 2013, which in turn was adapted into a film of the same name in 2019.
There have been many books published about Stephen King and his works.
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.
Skeleton Crew is a collection of short fiction by American writer Stephen King, published by Putnam in June 1985. A limited edition of a thousand copies was published by Scream/Press in October 1985 (ISBN 978-0910489126), illustrated by J. K. Potter, containing an additional short story, "The Revelations of 'Becka Paulson", which had originally appeared in Rolling Stone magazine, and was later incorporated into King's 1987 novel The Tommyknockers. The original title of this book was Night Moves.
Carrie is a 1974 horror novel, the first by American author Stephen King. Set in Chamberlain, Maine, the plot revolves around Carrie White, a friendless, bullied high-school girl from an abusive religious household who discovers she has telekinetic powers. Feeling guilty for harassing Carrie, Sue Snell invites Carrie to the prom with Tommy Ross, but a humiliating prank during the prom by Chris Hargensen leads to Carrie destroying the town with her powers. The narrative contains fictional documents in approximately chronological order that present multiple perspectives on the prom incident and its perpetrator. Carrie deals with themes of ostracism and revenge, with the opening shower scene and the destruction of Chamberlain being pivotal scenes.
The Stanley Hotel is a 140-room Colonial Revival hotel in Estes Park, Colorado, United States, about five miles from the entrance to Rocky Mountain National Park. It was built by Freelan Oscar Stanley, co-founder of the Stanley Motor Carriage Company, and opened on July 4, 1909, as a resort for upper-class Easterners and a health retreat for sufferers of pulmonary tuberculosis. The hotel and its surrounding structures are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Today, the hotel includes a restaurant, spa, and bed-and-breakfast; with panoramic views of Lake Estes, the Rockies, and Longs Peak.
"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.
Glenn Chadbourne is an American artist. He lives in Newcastle, Maine. He is best known for his work in the horror and fantasy genres, having created covers and illustrated books and magazines for publishers such as Cemetery Dance Publications, Subterranean Press, and Earthling Publications. Mr. Chadbourne is known for his sense of humour and down to earth manner, as well as the stark honesty of his work.
"The Blue Air Compressor" is a short story by Stephen King, first published in January 1971 in Onan.
Rocky Wood was a New Zealand-born Australian writer and researcher best known for his books about horror author Stephen King. He was the first author from outside North America or Europe to hold the position of president of the Horror Writers Association. Wood was born in Wellington, New Zealand and lived in Melbourne, Australia with his family. He had been a freelance writer for over 35 years. His writing career began at university, where he wrote a national newspaper column in New Zealand on extra-terrestrial life and UFO-related phenomena and published other articles about the phenomenon worldwide, in the course of which research he met such figures as Erich von Däniken and J. Allen Hynek; and had articles on the security industry published in the US, Canada, the UK, New Zealand and South Africa. In October 2010, Wood was diagnosed with motor neurone disease. He died of complications on 1 December 2014.
Michael Robert Collings is an American writer, poet, literary critic, and bibliographer, and a former professor of creative writing and literature at Pepperdine University. He was Poet in Residence at Pepperdine's Seaver College from 1997 to 2000.
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.
"The Little Green God of Agony" is a short story by Stephen King. It was originally published in 2011 as part of the anthology A Book of Horrors.
"I Was a Teenage Grave Robber" is a short story by Stephen King. It was first published in the fanzine Comics Review in 1965; a rewritten version was published in 1966 under the title "In a Half-World of Terror". It was King's first independently published story.
"For the Birds" is a short story by Stephen King. It was originally published in 1986 as part of the short story collection Bred Any Good Rooks Lately?.
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.
"Jhonathan and the Witchs" is a fairy tale by Stephen King. Written in 1956-1957, it was first published in 1993 as part of the anthology First Words: Earliest Writings from Favorite Contemporary Authors. It is the earliest work of King still known to exist.
