Night Shift

Originally published in 1978, Night Shift is Stephen King’s first short story collection. The collection features 20 stories within the suspense and horror genres. King found early success with his novels Carrie (1974), ’Salem’s Lot (1975), and The Shining (1977), and his publisher encouraged him to collect his early fiction, which King wrote over the course of a decade.

The stories that comprise Night Shift account for much of King’s early apprenticeship toward writing. Nine of the stories were published in Cavalier from 1970 to 1975, while others were published in Cosmopolitan, Gallery, Ubris, Penthouse, and Maine Magazine. To bolster the collection for publication, King composed four new stories: “Jerusalem’s Lot,” “Quitters, Inc.,” “The Last Rung on the Ladder,” and “The Woman in the Room.” Several of the stories have been adapted into feature-length films and television series, with the Children of the Corn film series proving the most enduring. In 1977, King received many letters from film students interested in adapting stories from Night Shift. In response, King initiated his Dollar Baby program, in which he grants permission to students to adapt one of his selected short stories for one dollar. At least five of the stories in Night Shift have been adapted, and the Dollar Baby program helped launch the career of Frank Darabont, who has since directed several award-winning King adaptations, including The Shawshank Redemption (1994).