'Salem's Lot
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

''Salem's Lot'' is a 1975
horror Horror may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Genres *Horror fiction, a genre of fiction ** Japanese horror, Japanese horror fiction **Korean horror, Korean horror fiction * Horror film, a film genre *Horror comics, comic books focusing o ...
novel A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itsel ...
by American author
Stephen King Stephen Edwin King (born September 21, 1947) is an American author of horror, supernatural fiction, suspense, crime, science-fiction, and fantasy novels. Described as the "King of Horror", a play on his surname and a reference to his high s ...
. It was his second published novel. The story involves a writer named Ben Mears who returns to the town of Jerusalem's Lot (or 'Salem's Lot for short) in Maine, where he lived from the age of five through nine, only to discover that the residents are becoming
vampire A vampire is a mythical creature that subsists by feeding on the Vitalism, vital essence (generally in the form of blood) of the living. In European folklore, vampires are undead, undead creatures that often visited loved ones and caused mi ...
s. The town is revisited in the short stories " Jerusalem's Lot" and " One for the Road", both from King's story collection '' Night Shift'' (1978). The novel was nominated for the
World Fantasy Award The World Fantasy Awards are a set of awards given each year for the best fantasy literature, fantasy fiction published during the previous calendar year. Organized and overseen by the World Fantasy Convention, the awards are given each year a ...
in 1976 and the
Locus Award The Locus Awards are an annual set of literary awards voted on by readers of the science fiction and fantasy magazine ''Locus'', a monthly magazine based in Oakland, California. The awards are presented at an annual banquet. In addition to the pl ...
for the All-Time Best Fantasy Novel in 1987. In two separate interviews in the 1980s, King said that, of all his books, ''Salem's Lot'' was his favorite. In his June 1983 ''
Playboy ''Playboy'' is an American men's lifestyle and entertainment magazine, formerly in print and currently online. It was founded in Chicago in 1953, by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from Hefner's mother. K ...
'' interview, the interviewer mentioned that because it was his favorite, King was planning a sequel, but King has said on his website that because '' The Dark Tower'' series already continued the narrative in '' Wolves of the Calla'' and '' Song of Susannah'', he felt there was no longer a need for a sequel. In 1987 he told Phil Konstantin in ''The Highway Patrolman'' magazine: "In a way it is my favorite story, mostly because of what it says about small towns. They are kind of a dying organism right now. The story seems sort of down home to me. I have a special cold spot in my heart for it!" ''Salem's Lot'' has been adapted into a 1979 two-part miniseries directed by Tobe Hooper and a 2004 television miniseries directed by
Mikael Salomon Mikael Salomon (born 24 February 1945) is a Danish cinematographer, director and producer of film and television. After a long cinematography career in Danish cinema, he transitioned to the Hollywood film industry in the late 1980s earning two ...
. A feature film adaptation directed by
Gary Dauberman Gary Dauberman is an American screenwriter and director. He is known for writing The Conjuring Universe horror films '' Annabelle'' (2014), '' Annabelle: Creation'' (2017), '' The Nun'' (2018), and ''Annabelle Comes Home'' (2019). He made his dir ...
is currently in production. The book is dedicated to King's daughter Naomi.


Plot

Ben Mears, a writer, has returned to Jerusalem's Lot,
Maine Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and north ...
after 25 years to try to write his next novel. He quickly becomes friends with high school teacher Matt Burke and strikes up a romantic relationship with Susan Norton, a young college graduate with ambitions of leaving town. Ben has returned to "the Lot" to write a book about the long-abandoned Marsten House, where he had a bad experience as a child when he saw a hanging ghost. He learns that the house—the former home of Depression-era
hitman Contract killing is a form of murder or assassination in which one party hires another party to kill a targeted person or persons. It involves an illegal agreement which includes some form of payment, monetary or otherwise. Either party may be ...
Hubert "Hubie" Marsten—has been purchased by
Kurt Barlow Kurt Barlow is a fictional character and the main antagonist of Stephen King's 1975 horror novel Salem's Lot''. The character is a powerful vampire who moves to the Maine town of Jerusalem's Lot with the intent to form a vampire colony of its ...
, ostensibly an Austrian immigrant who has arrived in the Lot to open an antique furniture store. Barlow is supposedly on an extended buying trip; only his business partner, Richard Straker, is seen in public. The truth, however, is that Barlow is an ancient
vampire A vampire is a mythical creature that subsists by feeding on the Vitalism, vital essence (generally in the form of blood) of the living. In European folklore, vampires are undead, undead creatures that often visited loved ones and caused mi ...
and Straker is his human
familiar In European folklore of the medieval and early modern periods, familiars (sometimes referred to as familiar spirits) were believed to be supernatural entities that would assist witches and cunning folk in their practice of magic. According to re ...
. The duo's arrival coincides with the disappearance of a young boy, Ralphie Glick, and the death of his 12-year-old brother, Danny, who becomes the town's first vampire turned by Barlow. Barlow also turns town dump custodian Dud Rogers and telephone repairman Corey Bryant. Danny turns other locals into vampires, including the graveyard digger, Mike Ryerson; a newborn baby, Randy McDougall; a man named Jack Griffen; and Danny's mother, Marjorie. Danny fails to turn his classmate Mark Petrie, who resists him by holding a plastic cross in Danny's face. To fight the spread of the new vampires, Ben and Susan are joined by Matt and his doctor, Jimmy Cody, along with Mark and the local priest, Father Callahan. Susan is captured by Barlow, who turns her. She is eventually staked through the heart by Ben. When Father Callahan and Mark go to Mark's parents' house to explain the danger that the family is in, the power is suddenly cut off and Barlow appears. After killing Mark's parents, Barlow takes the boy hostage. Callahan pulls out his cross in an attempt to drive him off, and it works until Barlow challenges him to throw the cross away. Callahan, not having faith enough to do so, is soon overwhelmed by Barlow, who forces Callahan to drink his blood, making him "unclean". When Callahan tries to re-enter his church, he receives an electric shock, preventing him from going inside. Defeated, Callahan leaves Jerusalem's Lot. Matt suffers a fatal heart attack while Jimmy is killed when he falls from a rigged staircase and is impaled by knives set up by the vampires. Ben and Mark destroy Barlow, but are lucky to escape with their lives and are forced to leave the town to the now-leaderless vampires. Ben returns the following day to retrieve and bury the bodies of Jimmy and Mark's parents in a clearing behind the Petrie residence. The novel's
prologue A prologue or prolog (from Greek πρόλογος ''prólogos'', from πρό ''pró'', "before" and λόγος ''lógos'', "word") is an opening to a story that establishes the context and gives background details, often some earlier story that ...
, which is set shortly after the end of the story proper, describes Ben and Mark's flight across the country to a seaside town in Mexico, where they attempt to recover from their ordeal. Mark is received into the
Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
by a friendly local priest and confesses for the first time what they have experienced. An
epilogue An epilogue or epilog (from Greek ἐπίλογος ''epílogos'', "conclusion" from ἐπί ''epi'', "in addition" and λόγος ''logos'', "word") is a piece of writing at the end of a work of literature, usually used to bring closure to the w ...
reveals the two return to the town a year later, intending to renew the battle. Ben, knowing that there are too many hiding places for the vampires, starts a brush fire in the nearby woods with the intent of destroying the town.


Background

While teaching a course on fantasy and science fiction for students at Hampden Academy, King was inspired by ''
Dracula ''Dracula'' is a novel by Bram Stoker, published in 1897. As an epistolary novel, the narrative is related through letters, diary entries, and newspaper articles. It has no single protagonist, but opens with solicitor Jonathan Harker taking ...
'', one of the books covered in the class. "One night over supper I wondered aloud what would happen if Dracula came back in the twentieth century, to America. 'He'd probably be run over by a Yellow Cab on Park Avenue and killed,' my wife said. n the Introduction to the 2004 audiobook recording that Stephen King read himself, he says it was he who said, "Probably he'd land in New York and be killed by a Taxi Cab, like Margaret Mitchell in Atlanta" and that it was his wife who suggested a rural setting for the book.] That closed the discussion, but in the following days, my mind kept returning to the idea. It occurred to me that my wife was probably right – if the legendary Count came to New York (state), New York, that is. But if he were to show up in a sleepy little country town, what then? I decided I wanted to find out, so I wrote ''Salem's Lot'', which was originally titled ''Second Coming''." Though King initially planned to title the novel ''Second Coming'', he changed it to ''Jerusalem's Lot'' on the advice of his wife, novelist Tabitha King, who thought the original title sounded too much like a "bad sex story." King's publishers then shortened it to the current title, thinking the author's choice sounded too religious. King's paperback publisher bought the book for $550,000. King expands on this thought of the 20th-century vampire in his essay for ''Adeline Magazine'', "On Becoming a Brand Name" (February 1980): "I began to turn the idea over in my mind, and it began to coalesce into a possible novel. I thought it would make a good one, if I could create a fictional town with enough prosaic reality about it to offset the comic-book menace of a bunch of vampires." Yet the inspirations for ''Salem's Lot'' go back even farther. In '' Danse Macabre'', a non-fiction overview of the modern horror genre, King recalls a dream he had when he was eight years old. In the dream, he saw the body of a hanged man dangling from the arm of a scaffold on a hill. "The corpse bore a sign: ROBERT BURNS. But when the wind caused the corpse to turn in the air, I saw that it was my face - rotted and picked by birds, but obviously mine. And then the corpse opened its eyes and looked at me. I woke up screaming, sure that a dead face would be leaning over me in the dark. Sixteen years later, I was able to use the dream as one of the central images in my novel ''Salem's Lot''. I just changed the name of the corpse to Hubie Marsten." King first wrote of Jerusalem's Lot in the short story " Jerusalem's Lot", penned in college, but not published until years later in the short story collection '' Night Shift''. In a 1969 installment of "The Garbage Truck", a column King wrote for the
University of Maine at Orono The University of Maine (UMaine or UMO) is a public land-grant research university in Orono, Maine. It was established in 1865 as the land-grant college of Maine and is the flagship university of the University of Maine System. It is classified ...
's campus newspaper, King foreshadowed the coming of ''Salem's Lot'' by writing: "In the early 1800s a whole sect of
Shakers The United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Appearing, more commonly known as the Shakers, are a Millenarianism, millenarian Restorationism, restorationist Christianity, Christian sect founded in England and then organized in the Unit ...
, a rather strange, religious persuasion at best, disappeared from their village (Jeremiah's Lot) in
Vermont Vermont () is a state in the northeast New England region of the United States. Vermont is bordered by the states of Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, and New York to the west, and the Canadian province of Quebec to ...
. The town remains uninhabited to this day.""The Stephen King Companion" Beahm, George Andrews McMeel press 1989, p. 267 Politics during the time influenced King's writing of the story. The corruption in the government was a significant factor in the inspiration of the story. Of this he recalls,


Illustrated edition

In 2005,
Centipede Press Centipede Press is an American independent book and periodical publisher focusing on horror, weird tales, crime narratives, science fiction, gothic novels, fantasy art, and studies of literature, music and film. Its earliest imprints were Cocytus ...
released a deluxe limited edition of ''Salem's Lot'' with black and white photographs by
Jerry Uelsmann Jerry Norman Uelsmann (June 11, 1934 – April 4, 2022) was an American photographer. As an emerging artist in the 1960s, Jerry Uelsmann received international recognition for surreal, enigmatic photographs (photomontages) made with his uniqu ...
and the two short stories "Jerusalem's Lot" and " One for the Road", as well as over 50 pages of deleted material. The book was limited to 315 copies, each signed by Stephen King and Jerry Uelsmann. The book was printed on 100# Mohawk Superfine paper, it measured , was over thick, and weighed more than . The book included a ribbon marker, head and tail bands, three-piece cloth construction, and a slipcase. An unsigned hardcover edition limited to 600 copies, was later released. Both the signed and unsigned editions were sold out. In an interview with the printed trade journal ''Fine Books & Collections'', King said of the illustrated folio version of his ''Salem's Lot'', "I think it's beautiful!" A trade edition was later released.


Critical reception

In the short story anthology ''A Century of Great Suspense Stories'', editor
Jeffery Deaver Jeffery Deaver (born May 6, 1950) is an American mystery and crime writer. He has a bachelor of journalism degree from the University of Missouri and a J.D. degree from Fordham University and originally started working as a journalist. He later ...
noted that King


Adaptations


Film and television

In 1979, ''Salem's Lot'' was adapted to a two-part television miniseries of the same name that aired on CBS. It stars David Soul as Ben Mears, and was nominated for three
Primetime Emmy Award The Primetime Emmy Awards, or Primetime Emmys, are part of the extensive range of Emmy Awards for artistic and technical merit for the American television industry. Bestowed by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (ATAS), the Primetime ...
s and an
Edgar Award The Edgar Allan Poe Awards, popularly called the Edgars, are presented every year by the Mystery Writers of America, based in New York City. Named after American writer Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849), a pioneer in the genre, the awards honor the bes ...
. It was filmed on location in
Ferndale, California Ferndale is a city in Humboldt County, California, United States. Its population was 1,371 at the 2010 census, down from 1,382 at the 2000 census. The city contains dozens of well-preserved Victorian storefronts and homes. Ferndale is the nort ...
. A truncated two-hour version was also released in cinemas in some countries. In 1987, Larry Cohen directed the film ''
A Return to Salem's Lot ''A Return to Salem's Lot'' is a 1987 American vampire film co-written and directed by Larry Cohen and starring Michael Moriarty, Andrew Duggan, Samuel Fuller, Evelyn Keyes, and June Havoc. A theatrical sequel to the 1979 miniseries '' Salem's ...
''. Marketed as a sequel to the 1979 miniseries, the film does not include any of the original characters despite using the image of Barlow from the 1979 version on the poster. In 2004, TNT premiered a new television adaptation of ''Salem's Lot'' starring Rob Lowe as Ben Mears, which also received a Primetime Emmy nomination. In 2018, the eighth episode of the '' Castle Rock'' TV series (centered around the fictional town created by King) entitled "Past Perfect" was aired, which briefly showed a present-day bus stop in Jerusalem's Lot. A traffic sign indicated that the town was located 24 miles away from Castle Rock. The Marsten House is featured in the show's second season. The 2021
Epix Epix (pronounced ''epics'' and stylized as P) is an American premium cable and satellite television network owned by the Epix Entertainment LLC subsidiary of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), a subsidiary of Amazon's MGM Holdings, Inc. The channel's pr ...
television series '' Chapelwaite'', starring Adrien Brody and Emily Hampshire, is based on the short story " Jerusalem's Lot", a prequel to ''Salem's Lot'' set in the 19th Century. A theatrical film adaptation of ''Salem's Lot'', from
New Line Cinema New Line Cinema is an American film production studio owned by Warner Bros. Discovery and is a film label of Warner Bros. It was founded in 1967 by Robert Shaye as an independent film distribution company; later becoming a film studio after acq ...
, was announced in April 2019, with
Gary Dauberman Gary Dauberman is an American screenwriter and director. He is known for writing The Conjuring Universe horror films '' Annabelle'' (2014), '' Annabelle: Creation'' (2017), '' The Nun'' (2018), and ''Annabelle Comes Home'' (2019). He made his dir ...
set to write and direct, and James Wan attached to produce. Filming began in
Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
in September 2021.
Lewis Pullman Lewis James Pullman (born January 29, 1993) is an American actor. His film credits include '' The Strangers: Prey at Night'', ''Bad Times at the El Royale'' (both 2018), and '' Top Gun: Maverick'' (2022). On television, he starred as Major Majo ...
stars as Ben Mears, while
Spencer Treat Clark Spencer Treat Clark (born September 24, 1987) is an American actor. He rose to prominence for his roles in the films '' Gladiator'' (2000) and ''Unbreakable'' (2000). He has since appeared in the films ''Mystic River'' (2003), ''The Last House o ...
and
Makenzie Leigh Makenzie Leigh (born August 8, 1990) is an American actress, noted for playing the protagonist's romantic interest in Ang Lee's ''Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk (film), Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk'' (2016). Early life Leigh was born in Dall ...
will co-star as Mike Ryerson and Susan Norton respectively. The film was originally scheduled to be released in cinemas on September 9, 2022, but was pushed back to April 21, 2023 before being pulled from
Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Di ...
release schedule indefinitely.


Radio

The novel was adapted in the U.K. as a
radio drama Radio drama (or audio drama, audio play, radio play, radio theatre, or audio theatre) is a dramatized, purely acoustic performance. With no visual component, radio drama depends on dialogue, music and sound effects to help the listener imagine ...
on
BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC' ...
in 1995.


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Salems Lot 1975 American novels Novels by Stephen King American horror novels American vampire novels Novels set in Maine Doubleday (publisher) books Fiction set in 1975 Fiction set in 1976 American novels adapted into television shows American novels adapted into films Novels adapted into radio programs Third-person narrative novels