Stephen King "Night Shift" First Edition, First Printing w/CustomSlipcase

The author's first short story collection. Winner of the Balrog Award for Best Collection and nominated as best collection in 1979 for the Locus Award and World Fantasy Award.

This rare First Edition/First Printing of "Night Shift" was  Stephen King's first ever short story collection.

New York. Doubleday 1978. Stephen King "Night Shift". First Edition, First Printing. Hardcover book with original dust-jacket. Red boards with black quarter binding. ISBN: 0-385-12991-2. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. A very collectible rare book of King's first short story collection. Octavo hardcover with tan dust jacket. King's fourth book. 

The dust-jacket is now protected in a new Mylar acid-free archival sleeve.

First Edition, First Printing Issue points:

• "FIRST EDITION" as stated on the copyright page.
• $8.95 price on the dust-jacket
• S52 code on page 336
• ISBN: 0-385-12991-2 on the dust-jacket flap
• Not a book club edition
• Not price-clipped

From the undisputed master of modern American horror: His first collection of short stories showcases the darkest depths of his brilliant imagination and will "chill the cockles of many a heart" (Chicago Tribune).

INCLUDES THE STORY “THE BOOGEYMAN” – NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE FROM 20th CENTURY STUDIOS.

Originally published in 1978, Night Shift is the inspiration for over a dozen acclaimed horror movies and television series, including Children of the Corn, Chapelwaite, and Lawnmower Man.

Here we see mutated rats gone bad (“Graveyard Shift”); a cataclysmic virus that threatens humanity (“Night Surf,” the basis for The Stand); a possessed, evil lawnmower (“The Lawnmower Man”); unsettling children from the heartland (“Children of the Corn”); a smoker who will try anything to stop (“Quitters, Inc.”); a reclusive alcoholic who begins a gruesome transformation (“Gray Matter”); a man convinced that a crack in the closet is responsible for the murder of his children ("The Boogeyman"); and many more shadows and visions that will haunt you long after the last page is turned.

This is Stephen King’s first collection of short stories, originally published in 1978, that showcases the darkest depths of his brilliant imagination and will "chill the cockles of many a heart" (Chicago Tribune). Night Shift is the inspiration for over a dozen acclaimed horror movies and television series, including Children of the Corn , Chapelwaite, and Lawnmower Man.

About Night Shift

Night Shift is Stephen King's first collection of short stories, first published in 1978. In 1980, Night Shift won the Balrog Award for Best Collection, and in 1979 it was nominated as best collection for the Locus Award and the World Fantasy Award.

The author's first anthology of short stories, collects twenty terrifying tales, almost half of which (nine of the twenty) went on to become the basis for full-length feature films, including "The Boogeyman," "Children of the Corn," "The Last Rung on the Ladder," "The Lawnmower Man," "Graveyard Shift," "Sometimes They Come Back," "The Mangler," "Night Surf," and "I Know What You Need."

Details

The book was published on the heels of The Shining (1977 Doubleday) and is King's fifth published book (including Rage, which was published under the pseudonym of Richard Bachman). Nine of the twenty stories had first appeared in issues of Cavalier Magazine from 1970 to 1975; others were originally published in Penthouse, Cosmopolitan, Gallery, Ubris, and Maine Magazine. The stories "Jerusalem's Lot", "Quitters, Inc.", "The Last Rung on the Ladder", and "The Woman in the Room" appeared for the first time in this collection.

Foreword and introduction

Night Shift is the first book for which King wrote a foreword. The introduction was written by one of King's favorite authors, John D. MacDonald. MacDonald writes that "Stephen King is a far, far better writer at thirty than I was at thirty, or at forty. I am entitled to hate him a little bit for this." He adds, "I will say that I do not give a diddly-whoop what Stephen King chooses as an area in which to write. The fact that he presently enjoys writing in the field of spooks and spells and slitherings in the cellar is to me the least interesting fact about the man anyone can relate", predicting that "Stephen King is not going to restrict himself to his present area of intense interest."[3]

Film, television or theatrical adaptations

With the publication of Night Shift and the rise in King's popularity as a best-selling author, and with the success of Brian De Palma's motion picture adaptation of Carrie (1976), student film makers began submitting requests to King to adapt stories from the collection. King formed a policy he deemed the Dollar Deal, which allowed the students the permission to make an adaptation for $1.

In the 1980s, entrepreneurial film producer Milton Subotsky purchased the rights to six of the stories in this collection to produce feature films and a television anthology based on multiple stories. Although Subotsky was involved with several King adaptations (Cat's Eye, Maximum Overdrive, Sometimes They Come Back, The Lawnmower Man) the television series never happened due to conflicts with the networks' Standards and Practices.

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 standing in pop culture, his books have sold more than 350 million copies, and many have been adapted into films, television series, miniseries, and comic books. King has published 64 novels, including seven under the pen name Richard Bachman, and five non-fiction books. He has also written approximately 200 short stories, most of which have been published in book collections.

King has received Bram Stoker Awards, World Fantasy Awards, and British Fantasy Society Awards. In 2003, the National Book Foundation awarded him the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. He has also received awards for his contribution to literature for his entire bibliography, such as the 2004 World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement and the 2007 Grand Master Award from the Mystery Writers of America. In 2015, he was awarded with a National Medal of Arts from the U.S. National Endowment for the Arts for his contributions to literature.

Reviews

“A master storyteller.” —Los Angeles Times

“Eerie. . . . Ought to chill the cockles of many a heart.” —Chicago Tribune

“A master. . . . [King] will catch you in his web and reach you at an elemental level where there is no defense.” —The Cincinnati Enquirer

“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)