The Hotel at the End of the Road

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"The Hotel at the End of the Road"
Short story by Stephen King
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Genre(s) Horror short story
Publication
Published in People, Places and Things
Publication type Anthology
PublisherTriad Publishing
Media typePrint
Publication date 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 .

Contents

Plot summary

The story opens with two criminals, Kelso Black and Tommy Riviera, being pursued by the police. After evading the police by turning down a gravel road, Black and Riviera see an old hotel ahead and decide to stay there. After Riviera threatens an elderly man at reception at gunpoint, they are directed to room five of the hotel. Upon waking up the following morning, Riviera finds he is paralyzed; he sees the elderly man inject a needle into Black's arm. The story ends with the elderly man informing Black and Riviera that they are being added to his museum of "living mummies".

Publication

"The Hotel at the End of the Road" was written by King in the summer before beginning high school. [1] [2] It was self-published in 1960 as part of the short story collection People, Places and Things . [3] King submitted the story to the literary magazine Flip but the magazine ceased publication before printing the story. [3] "The Hotel at the End of the Road" was republished in 1993 in the fourth edition of Market Guide for Young Writers by Kathy Henderson [3] [4] [5] [6] and again in 1996 in the fifth edition. [7] The character of Kelso Black reappeared in "The Stranger" (another short story within People, Places and Things) [8] and again in King's 2018 work The Outsider . [3] [9]

Reception

Rocky Wood describes "The Hotel at the End of the Road" as "as derivative as one could expect from an early teenage writer". [3] Stephen J. Spignesi states "there really isn't too much in the way of plot development in this story, and there are a few unanswered questions [...] But, again, for all its flaws, we can't help but be amazed by the sophisticated narrative and the sheer unstoppable story-telling powers of Stephen King at such an early age". [8] Spignesi further suggests that "the hotel seems to foretell King's later masterful use of haunted places, especially the Overlook Hotel (from The Shining ) and the Marsten House (from 'Salem's Lot )" [7]

References

  1. ↑ Beahm, George (1998). Stephen King from A to Z: An Encyclopedia of His Life and Work. Andrews McMeel Publishing. p. 114. ISBN   978-0-8362-6914-7.
  2. ↑ Rolls, Albert (2008). Stephen King: A Biography. ABC-CLIO. p. 5. ISBN   978-0-313345-73-9.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 Wood, Rocky; King, Stephen (2012). Stephen King: Uncollected, Unpublished. Overlook Connection Press. pp. 187–189. ISBN   978-1-892950-59-8.
  4. ↑ Wood, Rocky (2017). Stephen King: A Literary Companion. McFarland & Company. p. 192. ISBN   978-0-7864-8546-8.
  5. ↑ Henderson, Kathy (1993). Market Guide for Young Writers (4th ed.). Writer's Digest Books. ISBN   978-0-898796-06-3.
  6. ↑ Vincent, Bev (2022). Stephen King: A Complete Exploration of His Work, Life, and Influences. becker&mayer!. p. 99. ISBN   978-0-7603-7681-2.
  7. 1 2 Spignesi, Stephen J. (2018). Stephen King, American Master: A Creepy Corpus of Facts About Stephen King & His Work. Permuted Press+ORM. pp. 351–352. ISBN   978-1-682616-07-9.
  8. 1 2 Spignesi, Stephen J. (1991). The Shape Under the Sheet: The Complete Stephen King Encyclopedia. Popular Culture. p. 468. ISBN   978-1-5607-5018-5.
  9. ↑ Strengell, Heidi (2005). Dissecting Stephen King: From the Gothic to Literary Naturalism. Popular Press. p. 137. ISBN   978-0-299209-74-2.

See also

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