Unpublished and uncollected works by Stephen King


There are numerous unpublished works by Stephen King that have come to light throughout King's career. These include novels and short stories, most of which remain unfinished. Many of them were stored among Stephen King's papers in the special collections of the Raymond H. Fogler Library at the University of Maine, but the papers were removed in 2020. Additionally, there are a number of uncollected short stories, published throughout King's long career in various anthologies and periodicals, that have never been published in a King collection.

Unpublished works

Short stories

  • 1959 "Charlie"
  • :The story consists of six pages, but ends mid-paragraph. A note states that pages are missing from the manuscript. The story concerns an asteroid miner who discovers a pink cube. A black substance starts to come out of the cube, driving the miner back to his small hut. As the mysterious black substance reaches the hut, it breaches the air locks and proceeds to consume the miner.
  • 1960 People, Places and Things
  • :People, Places and Things is a self-published, magazine-sized collection of short stories written in 1960 together with King's friend Chris Chesley. The collection was published using King's brother's small printing press. It consists of a mere 18 hand-bound pages, and King estimates that only 10 copies were printed. Copies were sold to school friends for about $0.10 to $0.25 each. The original collection consists of nine short stories by King and nine by Chesley. According to King, the only surviving copy is in his possession.
  • 1964 "The Star Invaders"
  • 1974 "The Float": original version of "The Raft"
  • 1984 "Keyholes" : In the existing short fragment, King describes a concerned father talking to a psychiatrist about examining his son. The story circulates freely in the Stephen King internet community.
  • 1990 "An Evening at God's": a one-act play, written for the Institute for Advanced Theater Training. The manuscript was auctioned in 1990.
  • "Pinfall"
  • "But Only Darkness Loves Me" : Today, only two pages of the typed and handwritten manuscript remain. The first page was typewritten, while the second was handwritten. The first and only part of the story concerns a boy who is talking to a beautiful girl in a bar in Ledge Cove, Maine. She is apparently too beautiful to look any other way but indirectly. She then invites the boy back to her hotel room, but he ends up leaving her in the lobby and not going to her room. This tale was written with King's eldest son Joseph.
  • Unnamed story, written in collaboration with Stephen R. Donaldson and several other writers to raise money for charity at a science fiction and fantasy convention. With no prior discussion, each wrote for 30 to 45 minutes, then folded the sheet so that the next writer had only their final line for context. Donaldson, who had to follow King's final line, called the resulting story "hysterically surreal".
  • "I Hate Mondays" : This is one of 10 stories, including "But Only Darkness Loves Me", that were rediscovered by author Rocky Wood. The completed five-page story was written with King's younger son, Owen.
  • "Comb Dump"

Novels

  • 1963 The Aftermath
  • 1970 Sword in the Darkness
  • 1974 The House on Value Street
  • 1976 Welcome to Clearwater
  • 1976 The Corner
  • 1977 Wimsey : In an attempt to write an English novel, King moved to England, but the idea failed. In the small segment that exists, Wimsey and his driver go to a party at an estate which seems to be in the middle of nowhere. On their way, they have an accident on a bridge that is seemingly on the verge of collapse. The segment ends here.
  • 1983 The Cannibals : This unfinished story eventually developed into Under the Dome, published in 2009.
  • 1983 The Leprechaun : This story was written for King's son Owen King. In the story, Owen is playing in a garden when he sees his cat attacking what seems to be a small animal, only to discover that the cat is attacking a tiny man. At that point, the story ends. According to King, the rest of the story was lost from the back of his motorcycle, so there is no chance of the remainder being discovered. The remains of the story are available within the online King community. The story has similarities to the third and final segment "General" of the 1985 anthology film Cat's Eye directed by Lewis Teague and screenplay by King himself.
  • 1987 Phil and Sundance : This 80-page story, unearthed by a French Stephen King fan site, was written for a boy with muscular dystrophy. The terminally ill child was granted a wish from the Make-a-Wish Foundation and requested to meet Stephen King, who gave him this story. Little is known about the story itself. Phil and Sundance is now owned by Cemetery Dance, and there has been no talk of its publication.Hatchet Head The Doors George D.X. McArdle On the Island : King said he spent "most of the fall working on, and winter... it's a piece of shit".

Uncollected works

Short stories

The following works may have been published in magazines, but not in collections:
  • 1965 "I Was a Teenage Grave Robber"
  • 1965 "Code Name: Mouse Trap"
  • 1966 "The 43rd Dream"
  • 1967 "The Glass Floor": King's first published story, which he sold for $35.00. The story concerns a man who goes to meet the grieving husband of his dead sister. The sister's husband explains that the woman died while working on a ladder in a room with a glass floor. Looking down, she became disoriented and fell from her ladder. The door to the room has since been plastered over to prevent more tragic accidents. The woman's brother breaks open the sealed door and walks into the glass-floored room, where he experiences a strange, trance-like vertigo from which he himself must be rescued.
  • 1970 "A Possible Fairy Tale"
  • 1970 "Slade"
  • 1971 "The Old Dude's Ticker"
  • 1976 "Weeds"
  • 1977 "Before the Play" and "After the Play": uncollected original prologue and original epilogue to The Shining
  • 1977 "The King Family and the Wicked Witch": In this short story written for the amusement of King's children, a jealous witch has cast a spell on the members of the King family. The cursed family rescues an injured woodchuck that reveals itself to be a magical prince who was another of the witch's victims. The prince frees the family of their curse, then gives them enchanted cookies, which they trick the witch into eating. The cookies cause the witch to fart so violently that she blasts herself to the moon, and the family's happiness is restored.
  • 1978 "Man with a Belly"
  • 1978 "The Night of the Tiger"
  • 1979 "The Crate"
  • 1971 "The Blue Air Compressor"
  • 1985 "The Reploids"
  • 1986 "For the Birds"
  • 1994 "The Killer": a rewrite of I've Got to Get Away!
  • 1994 "Jhonathan and the Witchs": An early short story written by a nine-year-old King. A poor cobbler's son named Jhonathan sets off to seek his fortune. On the way to visit the King to seek work, Jhonathan rescues a fairy and is given three magical wishes. The King tasks Jhonathan with destroying three witches, each of whom can only be killed in a certain way. Jhonathan uses his wishes to destroy the witches and is rewarded.
  • 2012 A Face in the Crowd with Stewart O'Nan, published digitally in 2012 and then in a hardcover edition in 2023 along with Richard Chizmar's The Longest December
  • 2017 "Thin Scenery": a play
  • 2019 "Squad D"
  • 2025 "The Extra Hour"

Poems

  • 1968 "Harrison State Park '68"
  • 1969 "The Dark Man"
  • 1970 "Donovan's Brain"
  • 1970 "She Has Gone to Sleep While"
  • 1971 "Silence"
  • 1971 "Woman with Child"
  • 1972 "In the Key Chords of Dawn"
  • 1972 "The Hardcase Speaks"
  • 1988 "Dino"
  • 2009 "Mostly Old Men"