| Skeleton Crew | |
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First edition cover |
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| Author(s) | Stephen King |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Horror fiction |
| Publisher | Putnam |
| Publication date | June 21, 1985 |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover) |
| Pages | 512 |
| ISBN | 978-0399130397 |
| Preceded by | Different Seasons |
| Followed by | Four Past Midnight |
Skeleton Crew (1985) is the second collection of short fiction by Stephen King. The first collection, Night Shift, was published seven years prior in 1978. Different Seasons, a collection of four novellas, was published between the two in 1982. Skeleton Crew was originally published in hardcover form by Putnam. It has been reprinted multiple times in the years since in both hardcover and paperback forms. A limited edition of 1,000 copies was published by Scream/Press in 1986 featuring illustrations by J.K. Potter, as well as an extra "bonus" story, "The Revelations of 'Becka Paulson," which had originally appeared in two parts in Rolling Stone magazine (July 19 and August 2, 1984).
Contents |
The collection features 22 works, which includes nineteen short stories, a novella ("The Mist"), and two poems ("Paranoid: A Chant" and "For Owen"). In addition to the introduction, in which King directly addresses his readers in his signature conversational style, Skeleton Crew features an epilogue of sorts entitled "Notes" wherein King discusses the origins of several stories in the collection. The stories are collected from science-fiction and horror anthologies (Dark Forces, Shadows, Terrors, and New Terrors) genre magazine publications (Twilight Zone, Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, Startling Mystery Stories, Weirdbook and Fantasy and Science Fiction) and popular magazines (Redbook, Gallery, Yankee and Playboy).
Although published in 1985, the stories collected in Skeleton Crew span seventeen years from "The Reaper's Image" (King's second professional sale when he was just eighteen years old)[1] [2] to "The Ballad of The Flexible Bullet" which was completed in 1983[3].
Skeleton Crew is critically held as showing King as a maturing writer [4] with greater breadth and depth than his previous short works [5].
The collection also features some more personal works, including "For Owen", the poem he wrote for his son, and "Gramma" a horrific tale from an eleven-year old boy's perspective that seems to recall King's own horrors living with his invalid grandmother [6].
Of one of the stories in the collection, King says: "As far as short stories are concerned, I like the grisly ones the best. However the story "Survivor Type" goes a little bit too far, even for me." [7]
"The Raft" was adapted as a segment of the 1987 New World Pictures anthology film Creepshow 2, with a script by George A. Romero, and directed by Michael Gornic.
"Word Processor of the Gods" (1984 Laurel TV, directed by Michael Gornic) was a 22-minute episode of Tales from the Darkside.
"Gramma" (1986 CBS/MGM-UA, directed by Bradford May) was a 21-minute episode of The New Twilight Zone written by Harlan Ellison.
The Mist (2007 The Weinstein Company, written/directed by Frank Darabont) was adapted into the film The Mist, which was released on November 21, 2007.
The following stories have been adapted as Dollar Baby short films:
The Mist was adapted into a text-based video game by Mindscape Software.
The Mist was adapted as a 90-minute full-cast audio recording in 1986 in "3-D Sound" from ZBS Productions, released by Simon & Schuster, Inc..
The collection Skeleton Crew made an appearance in a public service poster encouraging Americans to patronize their local libraries, where a series of celebrities would be seen with books. In this poster, Michael J. Fox is holding a copy of Skeleton Crew while a ghostly hand is on his shoulder. The poster reads "Michael J. Fox for America's Libraries".
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