'Salem's Lot

Stephen King�s second novel, the classic vampire bestseller �SALEM�S LOT , tells the story of evil in small-town America. For the first time in a major trade edition, this terrifying novel is accompanied by previously unpublished material from King�s archive, two short stories, and eerie photographs that bring King�s fictional darkness and evil to vivid life. When Stephen King�s classic thriller �SALEM�S LOT hit the stands in 1975, it thrilled and terrified millions of readers with tales of demonic evil in small-town America. Now, thirty years later and still scaring readers witless, �SALEM�S LOT reemerges in a brilliant new edition, complete with photographs, fifty pages of deleted and alternate scenes, and two short stories related to the events of the novel. While the original edition of �SALEM�S LOT will forever be a premier horror classic, �SALEM�S LOT: ILLUSTRATED EDITION , with the inclusion of material from King�s archive, is destined to become a classic in its own right and a must-have for all Stephen King fans. In this edition, the hair-raising story of Jerusalem�s Lot, a small town in Maine whose inhabitants succumb to the evil allure of a new resident, is told as the author envisioned it, complete with fifty pages of alternate and deleted scenes. With a new introduction by the author, two short stories related to the events and residents of Jerusalem�s Lot, the lavishly creepy photographs of Jerry Uelsmann, and a stunning new page design, this edition brings the story to life in words and pictures as never before. No library will be complete without this ideal collector�s item for any King aficionado, the definitive illustrated edition of the great �SALEM�S LOT . From Booklist Starred Review Before vampires became sympathetic characters with their own alternate worlds, complete with vampire coffee shops and vampire politics, they used to be bad guys, scary not sexy, and they preferred wreaking havoc in horror novels rather than exuding tortured sensitivity in YA coming-of-age fiction. Fortunately, we don�t need to go all the way back to Dracula and Boris Karloff to remember those halcyon days: we have Stephen King�s �Salem�s Lot, from 1975. Oddly, it�s not the vampires that make �Salem�s Lot great popular fiction. Mr. Barlow, our lead vampire, is no Dracula. He doesn�t even appear until the story is nearly half over, and he is perhaps the most one-dimensional figure in the book (but that single dimension is enough: unadulterated evil). The real main character isn�t a person at all, human or vampire: it�s the seemingly idyllic New England town of Jerusalem�s Lot. King once said that in �Salem�s Lot, he set out to create �a fictional town with enough prosaic reality about it to offset the comic-book menace of a bunch of vampires.� He did just that by drawing on our universal fear of outsiders, and nowhere is that fear more recognizable than in our traditional image of the New England small town, where insularity itself becomes a defense against incursion by strangers. The stereotypical Yankee, befuddling outsiders with a series of cryptic yups and nopes, may be a comic character from folklore, but he is also a soldier defending his Maginot Line against potential blitzkrieg. And behind the crotchety Yankee�s seeming impregnability, there is the constant fear that one day a stranger will come to town who won�t take nope for an answer. That juxtaposition of prosaic reality against outlandish terror has always been central to King�s technique for scaring his readers. In �Salem�s Lot, he does it by looking beneath the surface of idyllic New England. We see the pastoral beauty, the close-knit community, and the unpretentious lifestyle, yet from the beginning, we also see the harbinger of something else, something other. The novel begins with a stranger, not Barlow but a writer, Ben Mears, returning to the Lot, where he�d lived briefly as a boy. Mears has come home again not to reclaim his innocence but to expunge his demons�the memory of the body of a man dead for decades, still hanging in the closet of the Marsten House. Mears believes he hallucinated this horrible scene, but he wants to explore why it happened, why this house prompted him to imagine evil. What Mears finds when he returns to the Lot is that the Marsten House is now occupied by another stranger, our Mr. Barlow. As the known gives way to the unknown, King shows how the small-town insistence on maintaining the illusion of tranquility makes easy pickings for a vampire intent on fomenting a little evil. If �Salem�s Lot were just another old-fashioned vampire novel, it would portray a straightforward struggle between good (people) and bad (vampires). It would not portray the arrival of vampires in the Lot as a kind of supernatural manifestation of the town�s distorted sense of itself. King feels both affection for and anger toward his small town. A part of him wants to see �Salem�s Lot get its comeuppance, and this part gives the novel a degree of frisson that most vampire stories lack. And yet, in the end, the vampires don�t win, at least not exactly. Yes, Ben Mears pounds a stake in Barlow�s heart, but that isn�t enough. The evil continues to thrive. The town needs its own stake. Writers of every kind�from Nathaniel Hawthorne to Grace Metalious to John Updike to Carolyn Chute�have wrestled with their mixed feelings about the small towns of New England. But it took Stephen King to burn one down. --Bill Ott Review "Spine-tingling fiction at its best." -- Grand Rapids Press "A master storyteller." --*The Los Angeles Times "An unabashed chiller." -- Austin American Statesman* �[The] most wonderfully gruesome man on the planet.� � USA Today � � A super exorcism...tremendous.� � Kirkus Reviews �A novel of chilling, unspeakable evil.� � Chattanooga Times �[King is] . . . the guy who probably knows more about scary goings-on in confined, isolated places than anybody since Edgar Allan Poe.� � Entertainment Weekly �Stephen King has built a literary genre of putting ordinary people in the most terrifying situations. . . . he�s the author who can always make the improbable so scary you'll feel compelled to check the locks on the front door.� � The Boston Globe �Peerless imagination.� � The Observer (London) Product Description: Upon its initial publication in 1975, Salem's Lot was recognized as a landmark work. The novel has sold millions of copies in various editions, but it wasn't until Centipede Press published a special limited edition in 2004 that King's masterpiece was brought to brilliant and eerie life. With the addition of fifty pages of material deleted from the 1975 manuscript as well as material that has since been modified by King, an introduction by him, and two short stories related to the events of the novel, this edition represents the text as the author envisioned it. Centipede's deluxe edition, of which only 900 copies were printed, features lavishly creepy photographs by acclaimed photographer Jerry Uelsmann, printed interior endpapers, and a stunning page design. Doubleday is proud to make this volume, printed from the original design of the Centipede Press edition, available to the general reader. No King aficionado's library will be complete without owning this definitive illustrated edition of the great Salem's Lot SOON TO BE A NEW FILM, STREAMING ON MAX FALL OF 2024 • #1 BESTSELLER • Ben Mears has returned to Jerusalem's Lot in hopes that exploring the history of the Marsten House, an old mansion long the subject of rumor and speculation, will help him cast out his personal devils and provide inspiration for his new book.'A master storyteller.'—The Los Angeles TimesWhen two young boys venture into the woods, and only one returns alive, Mears begins to realize that something sinister is at work. In fact, his hometown is under siege from forces of darkness far beyond his imagination. And only he, with a small group of allies, can hope to contain the evil that is growing within the borders of this small New England town.With this, his second novel, Stephen King established himself as an indisputable master of American horror, able to transform the old conceits of the genre into something fresh and all the more frightening for taking place in a familiar, idyllic locale. #1 BESTSELLER • Ben Mears has returned to Jerusalem’s Lot in hopes that exploring the history of the Marsten House, an old mansion long the subject of rumor and speculation, will help him cast out his personal devils and provide inspiration for his new book. But when two young boys venture into the woods, and only one returns alive, Mears begins to realize that something sinister is at work. In fact, his hometown is under siege from forces of darkness far beyond his imagination. And only he, with a small group of allies, can hope to contain the evil that is growing within the borders of this small New England town. With this, his second novel, Stephen King established himself as an indisputable master of American horror, able to transform the old conceits of the genre into something fresh and all the more frightening for taking place in a familiar, idyllic locale. Author Ben Mears returns to ‘Salem's Lot to write a book about a house that has haunted him since childhood only to find his isolated hometown infested with vampires. While the vampires claim more victims, Mears convinces a small group of believers to combat the undead. ([source][1]) [1]: https://stephenking.com/library/novel/_salem_s_lot.html ---------- Also contained in: - [Night Shift / Carrie / 'Salem's Lot / Shining](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL19558521W/Night_Shift_Carrie_'Salem's_Lot_Shining) - ['Salem's Lot: Illustrated Edition](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL19859438W) - [Works (Danse Macabre / Salem's Lot / Shining)](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL24233994W)