The Glass Floor

"The Glass Floor"
"The Glass Floor"
Short story by Stephen King
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre(s)	Horror short story
Publication
Published in	Startling Mystery Stories
Publisher	Health Knowledge, Inc.
Media type	Print
Publication date	1967
Chronology
; The 43rd Dream	; Cain Rose Up

"The Glass Floor" is a short story by Stephen King, first published in the autumn 1967 issue of Startling Mystery Stories.[1] It was King's first professional sale.[2][3][4]

Plot summary

Charles Wharton visits Anthony Reynard, the recently widowed husband of Wharton's sister Janine, in his Victorian mansion, the appearance of which unsettles Wharton. Reynard tells Wharton that Janine died by falling off a ladder while dusting the mansion's East Room, breaking her neck. When Wharton asks to see the room, Reynard refuses, telling him the door to the room has been plastered over. When Wharton protests, Reynard's elderly housekeeper Louise explains that the East Room – which has a floor made entirely out of mirror glass – is regarded as "dangerous".

At Wharton's insistence, Reynard gives him a trowel and allows him to reopen the East Room, refusing to watch. Upon entering the room, Wharton is quickly disoriented by the mirrored floor; fancying that he is standing in mid-air, he panics and calls for help. Reynard finds Wharton's body lying in the middle of the room; he removes it using a pole hook, leaving a small pool of blood on both the floor and ceiling. As he prepares to once again plaster the East Room shut, Reynard wonders "if there was really a mirror there at all".[2]

Publication

King wrote "The Glass Floor" in the summer of 1967 at the age of 19. It was the first of his submissions (over the course of two years) to magazine editor Robert A. W. Lowndes to be accepted for publication. King earned $35 (equivalent to $307 in 2022) for the story, marking his first professional earnings from writing.[2] "The Glass Floor" was first published in the autumn 1967 issue of Startling Mystery Stories. It was later published (with some minor amendments) in issue #298 of Weird Tales in autumn 1990 and in issue #68 of Cemetery Dance in December 2012.[1][5] In 2020, it was published as part of the trade hardcover Best of Cemetery Dance 2.[6] It has never been collected in a work by King.[3]

Reception

Michael R. Collings described "The Glass Floor" as "derivative, depending upon Poe and Lovecraft for its situational and atmospheric horror", while regarding it as an improvement on the "workaday prose" of King's earlier work.[7] George Beahm also regarded the story as "derivative", but judged it to be "a first effort that requires no apology".[8]

Revisiting the story after 23 years in 1990, King described the first several pages as "clumsy and badly written - clearly the product of an unformed story-teller's mind" but judged the climax to be "better than I remembered" with "a genuine frisson".[2]

Rocky Wood notes two seeming factual errors in the story: Reynard's mansion bears the date 1770 but is contrastingly described as "Victorian" (1770 being part of the Georgian era) and "Revolutionary War vintage" (the American Revolutionary War lasting from 1775 to 1783).[3]

References

"The Glass Floor". StephenKing.com. Retrieved February 11, 2021.
Williamson, Chet; King, Stephen (1990). Weird Tales 298 (Fall 1990). Wildside Press. pp. 36–42. ISBN 978-0-8095-3214-8.
Wood, Rocky; King, Stephen (2012). Stephen King: Uncollected, Unpublished. Overlook Connection Press. p. 169-171. ISBN 978-1-892950-59-8.
Collings, Michael R.; Engebretson, David (1985). The Shorter Works of Stephen King. Starmont House. p. 8. ISBN 978-0-930261-03-0.
Wood, Rocky (2017). Stephen King: A Literary Companion. McFarland & Company. p. 88. ISBN 978-0-7864-8546-8.
Chizmar, Richard (2019). The Best of Cemetery Dance II. Cemetery Dance Publications. ISBN 978-1-58767-081-7.
Collings, Michael R. (2008). The Many Facets of Stephen King. Wildside Press. p. 18. ISBN 978-0-89370-923-5.
Beahm, George (1998). Stephen King from A to Z: An Encyclopedia of His Life and Work. Andrews McMeel Publishing. pp. 83–84. ISBN 978-0-8362-6914-7.

External links

"The Glass Floor" at StephenKing.com

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[GlassFloor-1] "The Glass Floor". StephenKing.com. Retrieved February 11, 2021.

[WilliamsonKing1990-2] Williamson, Chet; King, Stephen (1990). Weird Tales 298 (Fall 1990). Wildside Press. pp. 36–42. ISBN 978-0-8095-3214-8.

[WoodKing2012-3] Wood, Rocky; King, Stephen (2012). Stephen King: Uncollected, Unpublished. Overlook Connection Press. p. 169-171. ISBN 978-1-892950-59-8.

[CollingsEngebretson1985-4] Collings, Michael R.; Engebretson, David (1985). The Shorter Works of Stephen King. Starmont House. p. 8. ISBN 978-0-930261-03-0.

[Wood2017-5] Wood, Rocky (2017). Stephen King: A Literary Companion. McFarland & Company. p. 88. ISBN 978-0-7864-8546-8.

[Chizmar2019-6] Chizmar, Richard (2019). The Best of Cemetery Dance II. Cemetery Dance Publications. ISBN 978-1-58767-081-7.

[Collings2008-7] Collings, Michael R. (2008). The Many Facets of Stephen King. Wildside Press. p. 18. ISBN 978-0-89370-923-5.

[Beahm1998-8] Beahm, George (1998). Stephen King from A to Z: An Encyclopedia of His Life and Work. Andrews McMeel Publishing. pp. 83–84. ISBN 978-0-8362-6914-7.