"Before the Play" - Stephen King's prequel to "the Shining"?

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Witchcult Today

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Aug 13, 2014
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How did i not know about this until yesterday?! "The Shining" was my first Stephen King book. I read it 15 years ago! I never knew until yesterday that there was a prequel to "The Shining". It is written in five acts and here is what i believe to be the right transcript. It helped tie up a lot of the loose ends in "The Shining" (Such as Dan's inexplicable unease about the fire hose on the second floor).
 
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Witchcult Today

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i realized that at the same time that you edited my thread! i apologize for that! i should have used my head. anyway, wasn't there an extremely limited pressing of this as an actual hard copy? i believe it was restricted to ~250 signed copies. i sure would like to get my hands on one of those! :0:
 

Witchcult Today

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If I'm remembering correctly it's been published in Whispers and an abridged version in TV Guide shortly before the miniseries was aired but I may be mixing that up with something else.

You are correct! I just checked in to that. It's going to be published again? that's fantastic news! I bet there are quite a few people that have not read it. I noticed that King included a few bits and pieces from it in his teleplay for the miniseries "Stephen King's The Shining".
 

Moderator

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You are correct! I just checked in to that. It's going to be published again? that's fantastic news! I bet there are quite a few people that have not read it. I noticed that King included a few bits and pieces from it in his teleplay for the miniseries "Stephen King's The Shining".
It is? Not saying it isn't but it's not ringing any bells for me that it's coming out again. May just be having a senior moment, though.
 

Witchcult Today

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Oh i was talking about the TV Guide thing. as for it being published again, your guess is as good as mine. I would hope it does! it may just be one of those works that a lucky few will get their hands on. I know a lot of bands do things like that with their music so i would imagine that authors do so as well. hopefully some day! have you read it?
 

kingricefan

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Jul 11, 2006
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It was originally published in Whispers Magazine Volume 5, Number 1-2, Whole Number 17-18, August 1982. This is Whispers Press Stephen King issue, with pretty much everything inside pertaining to King, along with some short stories by other writers. It came in three editions-a hardback that was signed (250 copies?), an unsigned hardback (which I own and may be just a publishers over-run?) and an unsigned trade paperback. They occasionally show up on the secondary markets like Ebay, etc. Well worth searching out as it has the complete text that King excised from the book. You can also get the abridged version that was re-printed in TV Guide at a good price. It has some great Bernie Wrightson illustrations too. But, it's not the complete text. There's some great little backstory vignettes in it, so if I were you I'd track it down. The Whispers edition also has an ad for the Grant edition of The Gunslinger and also a review by the editor Stuart David Schiff, in which he states Do not miss this book.' Who knew? ;-D Also an ad for Different Seasons and Fear Itself:The Horror Literature Of Stephen King. It also has the original short story It Grows On You by King. Articles include On The Shining And Other Perpetrations by King, Return Of The Son Of Mr. King: Book Two by David Schow and various artists with their takes on King's stories.