1961 Stephen King letter to a magazine

[mae]

http://www.lettersofnote.com/2011/04...-obituary.html

The following submission letter, written by an aspiring author aged just 14, arrived at the offices of Spacemen Magazine in 1961 and was accompanied by a copy of 'The Killer,' the polite youngster's latest short story. Unfortunately for him the magazine's editor — Forrest Ackerman — didn't deem the tale worthy of inclusion at that point, and it would be another 33 years before he changed his mind and decided to publish it in issue #202 of another of his magazines: Famous Monsters of Filmland.

By that time however, the story's author, Stephen King, was already rather successful.

Transcript follows. Image kindly supplied by C. Lawrence.

Dear Editor,

I am 14 years of age, and have been writing as far back as I can remember, and submitting manuscripts for the last couple of years. I subscribe to your magizine, and my favorite feature is the Obituary department, although "O. Henry's Comet," for which this story is intended, runs a close second.,

Thanks very much for reading my story. I hope you see your way clear to put it in "O. Henry's Comet."

Sincerely,

(Signed, 'Stephen King')

Stephen King
Rt #1, Pownal
Maine

[Mr. Rabbit Trick]

I think carlosdetweiller has this letter. There is a reproduction of it in Bev Vincent's "The Stephen King Illustrated Companion".

[DanishCollector]

I have the letter in its first appearance in a catalogue for Forrest J. Ackerman memoribilia (spelled right?)

[biomieg]

It's indeed in Bob's collection and it was used for Bev's book.