Sword in the Darkness
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Sword in the Darkness is the title of an unpublished novel by American author Stephen King.
This is the longest of King's unpublished works, running in at around 485 pages (150,000 words), and was finished on the 30th of April 1970, but subsequently rejected by 12 publishers. It is about a race riot in a large American city. Although the novel is supposed to be about the riot, it is about life in high school, with the riot taking place only in the last 80 pages of the book.
Arnie's life is torn apart when his pregnant sister commits suicide and his mother dies of a brain tumour. He eventually seeks a relationship with the saucy Kit Longtin after being rejected by Janet Cross. Marcus Slade, a black activist lawyer, arrives in town, and after an incident at Harding High School where he is speaking, the riot erupts and the town burns.
Fuelled by gangs like the Dock Street Socializers, the Markham Avenue Chieftains, and the Turner Street Trades, the riot shows the evil side of human nature.
King has stated that he now considers the novel unpublishable and that he intends for it never to be released to the public.
In 2006 a lengthy excerpt, "Chapter 71" — a stand-alone back-story of one character, teacher Edie Rowsmith, set in the seminal King town of Gates Falls, Maine — was released in the book Stephen King: Uncollected, Unpublished by Rocky Wood, et al.
