"Slade" is an early short story (about 5,200 words) 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 ...

. In 1970, he originally published it in eight installments in the student newspaper ''

The Maine Campus ''The Maine Campus'' is a weekly newspaper produced by the students of the University of Maine in the United States. It covers university and Town of Orono events, and has four sections: News, Opinion, Culture and Sports. It serves the 20,000 stu ...

''. It's a

Western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

parody about gunslinger Jack Slade, who protects a damsel in distress against some outlaws.

Story

Gunslinger Jack Slade comes to Dead Steer Springs, called upon by Sandra Dawson, whose farm is threatened by the outlaw Sam Columbine – he wants to sell the land to the railroad. But in fact, everything is a sham; Sandra turns out to be Slade's ex-girlfriend – whom he believes dead. She couldn't get along with Slade anymore and conspired with Columbine to kill Slade. Both, however, didn't take into consideration that Slade is prone to wearing bullet-proof blue underwear (with nice flowers). Slade, playing possum after a duel, shoots both conspirators. Then he needs a joint before setting out for future adventures.

Connections to ''The Dark Tower''

Even though Slade is, of course, a much shallower and most of all much less serious character than King's later creation

Roland Deschain Roland Deschain of Gilead is a fictional character and the protagonist of Stephen King's '' The Dark Tower'' series. He is the son of Steven and Gabrielle Deschain and is descended from a long line of "gunslingers", peacekeepers and diplomats of ...

, Slade can be considered a first test run for the famous gunslinger: *Like Slade, Roland pines for his lost love (Susan Delgado). *Both smoke whenever possible. *Both always hit what they shoot at. *Both only speak when necessary and are used to journeying alone. *Like the gunslingers in '' The Dark Tower'' (see especially ''

Wolves of the Calla ''Wolves of the Calla'' is a fantasy novel by American writer Stephen King. It is the fifth book in his '' The Dark Tower'' series. The book continues the story of Roland Deschain, Eddie Dean, Susannah Dean, Jake Chambers, and Oy as they make ...

''), Slade feels the obligation to help if called upon.

Publication

The short story was originally published by ''

'' in eight installments, from June 11 to August 6, 1970. According to the 1998 book ''Stephen King from A to Z'': "It will never be issued because King considers it

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 has steadfastly refused all attempts to bring it back into print, to the point of having his lawyer write a litigious letter when The Maine Campus considered reprinting it, along with King's nonfiction columns, in a book for fund-raising purposes."

References

External links

Official Stephen King website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Slade (Short Story) 1970 short stories Short stories by Stephen King Works originally published in American magazines

Story

Connections to ''The Dark Tower''

Publication

See also

References

External links