'Salem's Lot

“Jerusalem’s Lot,” from Night Shift (1978) by Stephen King

The first story in this anthology is a pastiche (a work that imitates the style of another artist) of the work of H. P. Lovecraft—another native New Englander. The story was written years before ’Salem’s Lot while King was in college. The collection also includes “One for the Road,” which takes place in the region around Lot after the events of the novel.

“Allamagoosa” by Eric Frank Russell (1955)

As an avid reader, King would almost certainly have been familiar with this science-fiction story, from which he borrows the eponymous monster.

Dracula by Bram Stoker (1897)

King has said that Dracula had a direct influence on the character of Kurt Barlow.

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson (1959)

This iconic haunted house story has been made into two feature films and adapted for television. King opens salem’s Lot with a quotation from the opening paragraphs of Jackson’s novel, which personifies the haunted house at the center of the story and establishes a connection between evil and physical setting.

It by Stephen King (1986)

Probably the most popular and well-known of Stephen King’s books, the novel follows a group of children on the brink of puberty (coming-of-age) who overpower another Lovecraftian monster, only to have to come back as adults and finish it off much of the way that Ben Mears must return to complete the coming-of-age left unfinished as a child.