"I Was a Teenage Grave Robber" is a short story by

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 first published in the

fanzine A fanzine (blend word, blend of ''fan (person), fan'' and ''magazine'' or ''-zine'') is a non-professional and non-official publication produced by fan (person), enthusiasts of a particular cultural phenomenon (such as a literary or musical genre) ...

''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.

Plot summary

The story takes place in the (fictitious) district of Belwood,

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

in 1962. The narrator, Danny Gerald (amended in the rewrite to "Gerad"), was orphaned at the age of 13; at the age of 18, he is conned out of the last of his inheritance, forcing him to drop out of college. While drowning his sorrows in a bar, Danny meets Rankin, who recruits him to work for his employer, the cadaverous Steffen Weinbaum. Visiting Weinbaum's Victorian mansion, Danny learns that the job entails procuring corpses for Weinbaum to use in his experiments. Desperate for money so he can resume his education, Danny reluctantly agrees. Two days later, Danny and Rankin visit the Crestwood Cemetery at night, where they dig up the body of the recently deceased Daniel Wheatherby and take it to Weinbaum's laboratory. While driving home, Danny witnesses a man dragging a young woman into a

panel truck A panel truck (also called a panel delivery or pickup truck-based van) in U.S. and Canadian usage is a small delivery truck with a fully enclosed body. It typically is high and has no rear windows in the rear cargo area. The term was first used ...

; his intervention leads to the truck crashing, killing the man. The girl, Vicki Pickford, explains that the man was her uncle David, her legal guardian, who she was running away from due to his drunkenness. While on a date with Vicki, Danny receives a call from Rankin urgently summoning him to the mansion. Danny brings Vicki with him to the mansion, where she reveals that David began drinking heavily while working there, with Danny realising that he was recruited to replace David. Leaving Vicki in his car, Danny finds the laboratory ransacked, with a broken glass tank, green liquid on the floor, and a blood trail leading into the garage. Following the trail into a tunnel, Danny finds Rankin dead from a head wound. At the end of the tunnel, Danny finds Weinbaum standing above a pit containing an unseen "mewing" creature. Hearing Vicki scream, Danny returns to the laboratory, where he finds two more tanks have broken. Taking Weinbaum's revolver, Danny follows a trail left by Vicki and a large pursuer into the woods. Finding Vicki in a gully, Danny determines that three creatures have escaped from the tanks, with the first having been trapped in the pit by Weinbaum and the second now trapped in the gully, leaving one unaccounted for. Returning once more to the mansion, Danny finds Weinbaum being attacked by an enormous

maggot A maggot is the larva of a fly (order Diptera); it is applied in particular to the larvae of Brachycera flies, such as houseflies, cheese flies, and blowflies, rather than larvae of the Nematocera, such as mosquitoes and crane flies. ...

made up of millions of smaller maggots. As the giant maggot kills Weinbaum, Danny kills the maggot by setting the green liquid on fire, then flees with Vicki. In the epilogue, Danny reveals that the ensuing fire destroyed 15 square miles of the surrounding land. Returning to the mansion after the fire, Danny discovers Weinbaum's diary, which reveals that after he exposed corpses to

gamma ray A gamma ray, also known as gamma radiation (symbol γ or \gamma), is a penetrating form of electromagnetic radiation arising from the radioactive decay of atomic nuclei. It consists of the shortest wavelength electromagnetic waves, typically ...

s, the maggots in the corpses grew and eventually formed three giant

gestalt Gestalt may refer to: Psychology * Gestalt psychology, a school of psychology * Gestalt therapy, a form of psychotherapy * Bender Visual-Motor Gestalt Test, an assessment of development disorders * Gestalt Practice, a practice of self-exploration ...

creatures. While feeling guilt over the death of Rankin, Danny resolves to move forward with Vicki.

Publication

King wrote "I Was a Teenage Grave Robber" while in high school at the age of 17. The story was partially inspired by King's part-time job as a

gravedigger A gravedigger is a cemetery worker who is responsible for digging a grave prior to a funeral service. Description If the grave is in a cemetery on the property of a church or other religious organization (part of, or called, a churchyard), g ...

. The story's title derives from contemporary films such as ''

I Was a Teenage Frankenstein ''I Was a Teenage Frankenstein'' (U.K. title: ''Teenage Frankenstein'') is a film starring Whit Bissell, Phyllis Coates and Gary Conway, released by American International Pictures (AIP) in November 1957 as a double feature with '' Blood of Dra ...

'' and ''

I Was a Teenage Werewolf ''I Was a Teenage Werewolf'' is a 1957 horror film starring Michael Landon as a troubled teenager, Yvonne Lime and Whit Bissell. It was co-written and produced by cult film producer Herman Cohen and was one of the most successful films released ...

''. "I Was a Teenage Grave Robber" was the first of King's works to be accepted for publication, albeit he was not paid for it. The story was first published in 1965 as a four-part serial in issues #1 to #4 of the

''Comics Review'' edited by Mike Garrett; the fourth issue was never published. In 1966, a rewrite of the story was printed in issue #2 of the fanzine ''Stories of Suspense'' where it was given the new title "In a Half-World of Terror" by

Marv Wolfman Marvin Arthur Wolfman (born May 13, 1946) is an American comic book and novelization writer. He worked on Marvel Comics's ''The Tomb of Dracula'', for which he and artist Gene Colan created the vampire-slayer Blade, and DC Comics's '' The New Te ...

. The story was partially reprinted in the 2009 work ''The Stephen King Illustrated Companion''. The original version of the story as published in ''Comics Review'' is held in the Murray Collection of

Duke University Libraries Duke University Libraries is the library system of Duke University, serving the university's students and faculty. The Libraries collectively hold some 6 million volumes. The collection contains 17.7 million manuscripts, 1.2 million public documen ...

Reception

Rocky Wood Rocky Wood (19 October 1959 – 1 December 2014) 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 pos ...

describes "I Was a Teenage Grave Robber" as "

juvenilia Juvenilia are literary, musical or artistic works produced by authors during their youth. Written juvenilia, if published at all, usually appears as a retrospective publication, some time after the author has become well known for later works. ...

" and "derivative of

1950s The 1950s (pronounced nineteen-fifties; commonly abbreviated as the "Fifties" or the " '50s") (among other variants) was a decade that began on January 1, 1950, and ended on December 31, 1959. Throughout the decade, the world continued its re ...

B-grade science fiction/horror movies" and as having "both structural and internal logic problems". Stephen J. Spignesi notes "just how developed King's storytelling abilities were by the age of eighteen". David M. Kingsley describes "I Was a Teenage Grave Robber" as "a Timely/

Atlas An atlas is a collection of maps; it is typically a bundle of maps of Earth or of a region of Earth. Atlases have traditionally been bound into book form, but today many atlases are in multimedia formats. In addition to presenting geographic ...

pastiche A pastiche is a work of visual art, literature, theatre, music, or architecture that imitates the style or character of the work of one or more other artists. Unlike parody, pastiche pays homage to the work it imitates, rather than mocking it ...

Plot summary

Publication

Reception

References

See also