Comments for: "Umney's Last Case"

The first appearance of this story was apparently sometime in 1993 online, before the publication of Nightmares & Dreamscapes. I was able to find the site where it was published: http://web.archive.org/web/199701271...ng/kingtoc.htm

Not sure when exactly it was posted. It had the following copyright statement:

Copyright Notice to The Online BookStore (OBS) Edition of Stephen King "Umney's Last Case" from Nightmares and Dreamscapes (working title), by Stephen King (Viking/Penguin a division of Penguin Books USA Inc., 1993, $27.50). Copyright c 1993, Stephen King. All rights reserved.

THE FOLLOWING STATEMENT OF INTENT AND ACCOMPANYING ORDERING INFORMATION MUST REMAIN INTACT AND UNEDITED AND APPEAR AS THE OPENING TEXT ON ALL ELECTRONIC COPIES OF THIS DOCUMENT. WE REQUEST THAT USERS REFRAIN FROM REFORMATTING, PRINTING, OR OTHERWISE DUPLICATING THIS DOCUMENT OR ANY PORTION THEREOF WITHOUT OUR WRITTEN PERMISSION.

Statement of Intent
With The Online BookStore electronic text release of "Stephen King "Umney's Last Case" from Nightmares and Dreamscapes (working title)" by Stephen King, we are outwardly adjusting the frontiers of conventional publishing to advance our purpose of making current literature available to the online audience in a fashion that enables the author to get paid for his or her work.

We invite reader participation in the ongoing projects, and welcome your email responding to this book and our new publishing strategy.

This electronic document is for online personal use only and not for reformatting, resale or distribution, by electronic means or otherwise, without written permission from Editorial Inc./Online BookStore (OBS), PO Box 267, Rockport, Mass., 01966, U.S. Don't print it out; for printed books, check your local library, bookstore, or order from Viking/Penguin (ordering information provided below). By honoring the conditions of this online release, you allow the creators of this work to get compensated for creating Stephen King "Umney's Last Case" from Nightmares and Dreamscapes (working title), and will pave the way for other current works to come online.

Comments to: OBS@EDITORIAL.COM, or 508-546-7346

Distribution in Europe and N. Africa
Through special agreement with the Online BookStore (OBS) of Rockport, Massachusetts, U.S.A, EUnet Deutschland GmbH, together with EUnet branches in other countries, has the right to distribute this document to EUnet members in Europe and Northern Africa via EUnet. This document must not be stored on other electronic archive and information server systems or on BBSs. It must be retrieved from EUnet servers only.

Comments to: info-admin@Germany.EU.net, or +49 231 972-00

For their valuable assistance in preparing this dual-language online edition in XMosaic, the Online BookStore would like to thank Margrit Deutler, Peter Deutsch, David Eales, Peter Fritz, Mary Helen Gunn, Joanne Hoy, Al Kaufman, Joachim Koerber, Eileen Kramer, Dee Landergren, Axel Pawlik, Dykki Settle, Marc Sheldon and Ralph Vicinanza.

That's the archived page, but right now it looks like this: http://archives.obs-us.com/obs/engli...ng/kingtoc.htm

NOTE: THE FULL TEXT OF THIS SHORT STORY WAS POSTED ONLINE BY EDITIORIAL INC / ONLINE BOOKSTORE IN 1993, AND HAS BEEN REMOVED.

Anyone with more info? I had always assumed this short story was first published in N&D.

This online publication of Umney's Last Case is mentioned in Justin Brooks' Bibliography.

John

Doing a bit more digging I would this page:

http://web.archive.org/web/200106222...ing/pr-eng.htm

Even before the Frankfurt bookfair, which takes place from Oct. 6 to 10, computer users which are connected to EUnet can access the so far unpublished short story Umneys Last Case by Stephen King. The 21 page novella will only be published in print during the bookfair. This is the first time that in Germany a book is published electronically independently from its printed form.

With this offer the commercial provider for electronic communication services, EUnet Deutschland GmbH, Dortmund, wants to show the possibilities which users of electronic media have. Part of this for instance is access to electronic libraries with roughly 1000 volumes via the Internet network.

The speciality of this electronic access to such libraries is the possibility to look up keywords or cross references as well as multimedia functions. Using the Stephen King short story, written by one of the most successful authors today, these usages will be demonstrated to a wide audience.

Stephen King's novella is provided by the American publisher Online Bookstore, who offers electronic books. Before King's novella is published on the Frankfurt bookfair, EUnet users can download Umney's Last Case electronically. Together with an Internet subscription users have access to all services EUnet offers. EUnet understands this E-Mail service not as replacement for traditional books, but as supplement.

More than this, EUnet will offer more services regarding electronic media. Magazines, professional literature and several databases are to be provided. EUnet appreciates the trend to make books accessible electronically. On the Frankfurt bookfair for the first time several providers of online books are seen.

Since this press release talks about Germany and October (Nightmares & Dreamscapes was published in September), I assume the "first published online" thing is not really correct.

Any idea on the date of that, Bev?