'Salem's Lot

'Salem's Lot

First edition cover
Author	Stephen King
Cover artist	Dave Christensen
Country	U.S.
Language	English
Genre	Gothic fiction
Published	October 17, 1975
Publisher	Doubleday
Media type	Print (Hardcover)
Pages	439
ISBN
OCLC	848489
Dewey Decimal	813.54
LC Class	PS3561.I483

'Salem's Lot is a 1975 horror fiction novel written by the American author Stephen King. It was his second published novel. The story involves a writer named Ben Mears who returns to the town of Jerusalem's Lot (or 'Salem's Lot for short) in Maine, where he had lived from the age of three through seven, only to discover that the residents are becoming vampires. The town is revisited in the short stories "Jerusalem's Lot" and "One for the Road", both from King's story collection, Night Shift (1978). The novel was nominated for the World Fantasy Award for Best Novel in 1976, and the Locus Award for the All-Time Best Fantasy Novel in 1987.

In two separate interviews King said that, of all his books, 'Salem's Lot was his favorite. In his June 1983 Playboy interview, the interviewer mentioned that because it was his favorite, King was planning a sequel, but King has said on his website that because The Dark Tower series already continued the narrative in the Wolves of the Calla and Song of Susannah, he felt there was no longer a need for a sequel. In 1987 he told Phil Konstantin in The Highway Patrolman magazine: "In a way it is my favorite story, mostly because of what it says about small towns. They are kind of a dying organism right now. The story seems sort of down home to me. I have a special cold spot in my heart for it!"

The book is dedicated to King's daughter Naomi: "For Naomi Rachel King . . . promises to keep."

Ben Mears, a writer who spent part of his childhood in Jerusalem's Lot, Maine, has returned after twenty-five years. He quickly becomes friends with high school teacher Matt Burke and strikes up a passionate romantic relationship with Susan Norton, a young college graduate.