Jerusalem's Lot (Stephen King)
Encyclopedia
Jerusalem's Lot is a fictional town in the works of horror fiction
writer Stephen King
. The town first appears in the novel 'Salem's Lot, then in the prequel short story "Jerusalem's Lot
", and then in the sequel short story "One for the Road." It is then subsequently mentioned in passing in The Shining
, The Dead Zone
, The Body
, Pet Sematary
, Dolores Claiborne
, Dreamcatcher
, and the last three books of the The Dark Tower
series (Wolves of the Calla, Song of Susannah, and The Dark Tower). It is also mentioned in Alan Moore
's comic The New Traveller's Almanac
.
In adaptations, it appears in the 1979 Salem's Lot miniseries
and its 1987 sequel A Return to Salem's Lot
, the 1995 BBC radio drama
, and the 2004 Salem's Lot miniseries.
Together with Castle Rock, Maine and Derry, Maine, it is one of the principal towns in King's fictional Maine
topography
. In Salem's Lot and "One for the Road", it is described as being located in Cumberland County
, between (or including parts of) the towns of Falmouth
, Windham
, and Cumberland
, near the southern part of the state about twenty miles north of Portland
; however, on the map of Maine at Stephen King's official website, it is placed considerably further north, approximately in Northwest Piscataquis.
King himself has publicly conceded that ‘Salem’s Lot was his own personal favorite of books he has written. In his Playboy
interview, the interviewer wrote that King was planning a sequel, but more recently his official website states he has finished the story thread in Wolves of the Calla and Song of Susannah.
The town is mainly prototypical to later King towns, such as Derry and Castle Rock, and is not a commonly used setting for his stories.
, King's non-fiction, semi-autobiographical review of horror in all media forms, King confesses that 'Salem's Lot was largely derived from the town of Durham, Maine
; specifically the area in which he resided as a youth known locally as "Methodist Corners." The Marsten House of Salem's Lot was based upon a vacant house of the same name in Methodist Corners; he and his friends had explored the real Marsten House as children.
Sometime between the town's incorporation and 1850, the Lot was abandoned. When aristocrat Charles Boone and his manservant Calvin McCann went looking for the town in 1850, they found it deserted. There was evidence of a cult of witches there that worshipped Yog-Sothoth
and Boone and McCann found a copy of De Vermis Mysteriis
. They claimed to have found a gigantic wormish monster in the town church, hinted to be an incarnation of the Cthulhu Mythos
deity Shudde M'ell, which later killed Calvin. Boone drives off the monster by burning the book, but flees himself when he sees the corpse of his great great grandfather crawl out of the hole left by the worm's departure. In the letters Boone writes to his friend describing these events, he states that he intends to kill himself in order to end the Boone line and end the evil in Jerusalem's Lot.
At an unknown date sometime after Boone and McCann's exploration, people began inhabiting the town again. The town had a representative named Elias Jointner in the House of Representatives by 1896. As chronicled in the novel 'Salem's Lot, Jerusalem's Lot has been identified as a residence for great and mysterious evil, particularly vampire
s.
Horror fiction
Horror fiction also Horror fantasy is a philosophy of literature, which is intended to, or has the capacity to frighten its readers, inducing feelings of horror and terror. It creates an eerie atmosphere. Horror can be either supernatural or non-supernatural...
writer Stephen King
Stephen King
Stephen Edwin King is an American author of contemporary horror, suspense, science fiction and fantasy fiction. His books have sold more than 350 million copies and have been adapted into a number of feature films, television movies and comic books...
. The town first appears in the novel 'Salem's Lot, then in the prequel short story "Jerusalem's Lot
Jerusalem's Lot
"Jerusalem's Lot" is a short story by Stephen King, first published in King's 1978 collection Night Shift.-Setting and style:"Jerusalem's Lot" is an epistolary short story set in the fictional town of Preacher's Corners, Maine, in 1850...
", and then in the sequel short story "One for the Road." It is then subsequently mentioned in passing in The Shining
The Shining (novel)
The Shining is a 1977 horror novel by American author Stephen King. The title was inspired by the John Lennon song "Instant Karma!", which contained the line "We all shine on…". It was King's third published novel, and first hardback bestseller, and the success of the book firmly established King...
, The Dead Zone
The Dead Zone (novel)
The Dead Zone is a horror novel by Stephen King published in 1979. It concerns Johnny Smith, who is injured in an accident and enters a coma for nearly five years. When he emerges, he can see horrifying secrets but cannot identify all the details in his "dead zone", an area of his brain that...
, The Body
The Body (novella)
The Body, or Fall from Innocence, is a novella by Stephen King, originally published in King's 1982 collection Different Seasons and in 1986 adapted into the acclaimed film Stand by Me...
, Pet Sematary
Pet Sematary
Pet Sematary is a 1983 horror novel by Stephen King. It was nominated for a World Fantasy Award for Best Novel in 1984, and was later made into a film of the same name.-Plot:...
, Dolores Claiborne
Dolores Claiborne
Dolores Claiborne is a 1992 psychological thriller novel by Stephen King. The novel is narrated by the title character. Atypically for a King novel, it has no chapters, double-spacing between paragraphs, or other section breaks; thus the text is a single continuous narrative which reads like a...
, Dreamcatcher
Dreamcatcher (novel)
Dreamcatcher is a horror novel written by Stephen King. It was adapted into a 2003 movie of the same name. The book, written longhand, was the author's tool for recuperation from a 1999 car accident, and was completed in half a year...
, and the last three books of the The Dark Tower
The Dark Tower (series)
The Dark Tower is a series of books written by American author Stephen King, which incorporates themes from multiple genres, including fantasy, science fantasy, horror and western. It describes a "Gunslinger" and his quest toward a tower, the nature of which is both physical and metaphorical. King...
series (Wolves of the Calla, Song of Susannah, and The Dark Tower). It is also mentioned in Alan Moore
Alan Moore
Alan Oswald Moore is an English writer primarily known for his work in comic books, a medium where he has produced a number of critically acclaimed and popular series, including Watchmen, V for Vendetta, and From Hell...
's comic The New Traveller's Almanac
The New Traveller's Almanac
The New Traveller's Almanac was a series of writings included in the back of all six issues of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Volume II, covering the timeline and the world of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen....
.
In adaptations, it appears in the 1979 Salem's Lot miniseries
Salem's Lot (1979 TV mini-series)
Salem's Lot is a 1979 American television adaptation of the novel of the same name by Stephen King...
and its 1987 sequel A Return to Salem's Lot
A Return to Salem's Lot
A Return to Salem's Lot is a 1987 horror film written and directed by Larry Cohen.-Plot:Michael Moriarty plays an amoral anthropologist who has been lumbered with his dysfunctional adolescent son and who returns to Salem's Lot, the town of his birth, to find that it has been taken over by the undead...
, the 1995 BBC radio drama
Salem's Lot (radio drama)
This article is about a 1995 BBC radio-dramatization of Stephen King's horror novel 'Salem's Lot. For the 1979 TV mini-series adaptation, see Salem's Lot . For the 2004 TV mini-series adaptation, see 'Salem's Lot ....
, and the 2004 Salem's Lot miniseries.
Together with Castle Rock, Maine and Derry, Maine, it is one of the principal towns in King's fictional Maine
Maine
Maine is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and south, New Hampshire to the west, and the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the northwest and New Brunswick to the northeast. Maine is both the northernmost and easternmost...
topography
Topography
Topography is the study of Earth's surface shape and features or those ofplanets, moons, and asteroids...
. In Salem's Lot and "One for the Road", it is described as being located in Cumberland County
Cumberland County, Maine
Cumberland County is a county located in the U.S. state of Maine. As of 2010, the population was 281,674. Its county seat is Portland, and is the most populous of the sixteen Maine counties, as well as the most affluent. Cumberland County has the deepest and second largest body of water in the...
, between (or including parts of) the towns of Falmouth
Falmouth, Maine
Falmouth is a town in Cumberland County, Maine, United States. The population was 11,185 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Portland–South Portland–Biddeford, Maine metropolitan statistical area....
, Windham
Windham, Maine
Windham is a town in Cumberland County, Maine, United States. The population was 17,001 at the 2010 census. It includes the villages of South Windham and North Windham...
, and Cumberland
Cumberland, Maine
Cumberland is a town in Cumberland County, Maine, United States. The population was 7,211 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Portland–South Portland–Biddeford, Maine Metropolitan Statistical Area.-History:...
, near the southern part of the state about twenty miles north of Portland
Portland, Maine
Portland is the largest city in Maine and is the county seat of Cumberland County. The 2010 city population was 66,194, growing 3 percent since the census of 2000...
; however, on the map of Maine at Stephen King's official website, it is placed considerably further north, approximately in Northwest Piscataquis.
King himself has publicly conceded that ‘Salem’s Lot was his own personal favorite of books he has written. In his Playboy
Playboy
Playboy is an American men's magazine that features photographs of nude women as well as journalism and fiction. It was founded in Chicago in 1953 by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from Hefner's mother. The magazine has grown into Playboy Enterprises, Inc., with...
interview, the interviewer wrote that King was planning a sequel, but more recently his official website states he has finished the story thread in Wolves of the Calla and Song of Susannah.
The town is mainly prototypical to later King towns, such as Derry and Castle Rock, and is not a commonly used setting for his stories.
Origin and Inspiration
In Danse MacabreDanse Macabre (book)
Danse Macabre is a non-fiction book by Stephen King, about horror fiction in print, radio, film and comics, and the genre's influence on United States popular culture...
, King's non-fiction, semi-autobiographical review of horror in all media forms, King confesses that 'Salem's Lot was largely derived from the town of Durham, Maine
Durham, Maine
Durham is a town in Androscoggin County, Maine, United States. The population was 3,419 at the 2000 census. It is included in both the Lewiston-Auburn, Maine Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Lewiston-Auburn, Maine Metropolitan New England City and Town Area.-Geography:According to the United...
; specifically the area in which he resided as a youth known locally as "Methodist Corners." The Marsten House of Salem's Lot was based upon a vacant house of the same name in Methodist Corners; he and his friends had explored the real Marsten House as children.
History and myth
The town was incorporated in 1765, before the U.S. existed and Maine became a state. The town gets its name from a myth about one of the earliest town residents, Charles Belknap Tanner. He raised pigs, one of which was named Jerusalem. One day Jerusalem escaped from her confines into a nearby forest, and became aggressive and wild. Mr. Tanner began warning young children who trespassed on his property to "Keep 'ee out o' Jerusalem's wood lot," lest the pig devour them. Eventually, the phrase "Jerusalem's Lot" was adopted as the town name.Sometime between the town's incorporation and 1850, the Lot was abandoned. When aristocrat Charles Boone and his manservant Calvin McCann went looking for the town in 1850, they found it deserted. There was evidence of a cult of witches there that worshipped Yog-Sothoth
Yog-Sothoth
Yog-Sothoth is a cosmic entity of the fictional Cthulhu Mythos and the Dream Cycle of H. P. Lovecraft. Yog-Sothoth's name was first mentioned in his novella The Case of Charles Dexter Ward...
and Boone and McCann found a copy of De Vermis Mysteriis
De Vermis Mysteriis
De Vermis Mysteriis, or Mysteries of the Worm, is a fictional grimoire created by Robert Bloch and incorporated by H. P. Lovecraft into the lore of the Cthulhu Mythos.-Creation:...
. They claimed to have found a gigantic wormish monster in the town church, hinted to be an incarnation of the Cthulhu Mythos
Cthulhu Mythos
The Cthulhu Mythos is a shared fictional universe, based on the work of American horror writer H. P. Lovecraft.The term was first coined by August Derleth, a contemporary correspondent of Lovecraft, who used the name of the creature Cthulhu - a central figure in Lovecraft literature and the focus...
deity Shudde M'ell, which later killed Calvin. Boone drives off the monster by burning the book, but flees himself when he sees the corpse of his great great grandfather crawl out of the hole left by the worm's departure. In the letters Boone writes to his friend describing these events, he states that he intends to kill himself in order to end the Boone line and end the evil in Jerusalem's Lot.
At an unknown date sometime after Boone and McCann's exploration, people began inhabiting the town again. The town had a representative named Elias Jointner in the House of Representatives by 1896. As chronicled in the novel 'Salem's Lot, Jerusalem's Lot has been identified as a residence for great and mysterious evil, particularly vampire
Vampire (Stephen King)
Vampires appear throughout Stephen King's fictional multiverse. They appear in the novels Salem's Lot, Wolves of the Calla, Song of Susannah, and The Dark Tower; the short stories "One for the Road", "The Night Flier", "Popsy", and "The Little Sisters of Eluria"; and are mentioned in a number of...
s.