Magic and Imagery #12

The original paperback cover of ‘Salem’s Lot is what arrested me.  It’s grandeur can’t really be seen in the photo above, but it was a solid, glossy black, with the face of a girl embossed.  The only spot of color was a drop of crimson at the corner of her lips — an image at once evocative of a tombstone, the darkness, and the undead.

Later editions were published without the embossing — it was too expensive — and instead showed the same face, but with blue, unearthly highlights.

I believe it was the paperback marketing of this novel and Carrie — along with Brian DePalma’s film adaptation in 1976 — that really turned Stephen King into the known author he is today.  Carrie’s first paperback was a double spread — her face on the cover, and when you opened it up, a second scene of her town in flames.  Back then, books were marked in small dumps not only in bookstores, but at cash registers in department stores.  I bought Carrie at Montgomery Ward’s.  That’s good marketing, both visually and at point of purchase.  I wonder what would happen if they did that now . . .

‘Salem’s Lot remains my favorite of his novels.  I also believe it is his single best novel, and also his scariest.