“I have a special cold spot in my heart for it”: Stephen King names his favourite story
Anyone with a remote interest in horror fiction has likely picked up a Stephen King novel at one point or another. Without a doubt, King has established himself as the most prominent horror writer in the world, and while some might argue that his works lack literary quality, there’s no denying their popularity.
Some of the legendary author’s most notable books are Carrie, The Shining, Misery, The Green Mile and It, all of which have provided the basis for some of the most iconic book-to-movie adaptations in cinematic history from directors like Stanley Kubrick, Brian De Palma and Frank Darabont.
King has never been afraid of stating his love for some of his favourite books and writers. For instance, he has previously gushed about his admiration for the legendary horror writer H.P Lovecraft, which reveals his deep inspiration. However, it’s interesting to think what King thinks of his own novels and what might be his favourite.
Fortunately, King has indeed noted which of his works he considers his favourite. In 1975, King published his second novel, Salem’s Lot, which the author feels the closest aligned to. He had once told Phil Constantin, “In a way, it is my favourite story, mostly because of what it says about small towns.”
According to King, in the 1980s, he felt that American small towns were becoming a “dying organism” and that Salem’s Lot represented something close to his heart from which his other novels departed. “The story seems sort of down home to me,” he said. “I have a special cold spot in my heart for it!”
Salem’s Lot tells of a writer called Bean Mears, who returns to his hometown of Jerusalem’s Lot (shortened to Salem’s Lot), where he lived between the ages of five and nine. However, when he arrives, he discovers that the residents of the town have slowly become vampires, and he becomes embroiled in a battle to escape alive and discover the source of their turning.
King had been planning a sequel to Salem’s Lot, seeing as it was his favourite, but by the time he had written the Dark Tower books Wolves of the Calla and Song of Susannah, he felt that the narrative had already progressed. Speaking with Konstantin, King explained the origins of the fictional town in Salem’s Lot, saying that it was based “on a town in upstate Vermont, that I heard about as an undergraduate in college, called Jeremiah’s Lot”.
According to King, as he was passing through Vermont, his friend pointed out the town in the car and told him that, apparently, each of its residents had suddenly disappeared back in 1908. Initially, King didn’t believe it, but his friend doubled down, insisting that the spooky event had really happened.
“One day they were there, and then one day a relative came over to look for someone that they hadn’t heard from in a while, and all of the houses were empty,” King’s friend had told him. “Some of the houses had dinner set on the table. Some of the stores still had money in them. The town was completely emptied out.” That’s how King first got the inspiration for the town in his favourite novel of his own writing.
