The Float

[Cordial Jim]

Just wondering, has it definitely been confirmed that King's short story "The Float" was never published in Adam or Adam Bedside Reader? Do we know for sure that ALL copies of Adam and Adam Bedside Reader (from 1969 or 1970... or even '71 and '72) have been checked? We know that he was paid for it (it helped get him out of jail!), and we know that Adam only paid upon publication.

Should I be keeping an eye out for it at estate and yard sales? Or is it a lost cause? Man, how cool would that be to find that, huh!

[jhanic]

I think it's a lost cause. If it hasn't been found by now, I seriously doubt it exists. Finding it would be VERY cool, though.

John

[Bev Vincent]

If you're of a mind to, you can search for Adam Magazine and find many of the issues scanned and posted online. As John said, if it hasn't turned up by now I don't think it ever will.

[Bev Vincent]

I found this in a 1979 interview (contained in Feast of Fear): He [Doc Lowndes of Startling Mystery Stories] bought a third story called "The Float," which he never ran because the magazines went out of business.

[Cordial Jim]

Ok, thanks Bev! I guess that settles it then. From everything that I had read, it seemed like there was a chance it was published but forgotten (since it was so long ago, in a somewhat obscure magazine). I know King has said that he doesn't have a copy (and that he wrote "The Raft" from his memory of it)... I wonder what happened to Doc Lowndes copy? Anyway, thanks again Bev! Now I won't have to be on the lookout for early 70's copies of Adam magazine anymore!

[St. Troy]

I found this in a 1979 interview (contained in Feast of Fear): He [Doc Lowndes of Startling Mystery Stories] bought a third story called "The Float," which he never ran because the magazines went out of business.

Sorry to resurrect a very old thread, but given that Adam received it in the first place, might this not mean that, at one point, there had to have been a copy in the possession of someone at their offices? Given that we haven't learned of it being found and sold for huge $, it most likely was unknowingly lost or disposed of, but I can't help but wonder (or wish) that even now a copy sits in someone's file cabinet or random banker's box of stuff, waiting for a former editor's grandchild to happen to clean the basement or open the right box. (Maybe we can keep our dream alive).