スティーヴン・キング短編傑作全集〈2〉神々のワード・プロセッサ

by Stephen King

事故で死んだジョナサンが伯父リチャードのために作ったワードプロセッサ。それは一見、なんの変哲もないワープロだったが、その機械の中にジョナサンは、ほんの少し、普通よは違う機能を組みこんでいた。ちょっとした偶然から、その機能に気がついたリチャードは、少しずつ自分の運命を変えていき、ついに人間が踏みこんではならない領域に入ってしまう……。不思議な機能を持ったワード・プロセッサと、それを手に入れた男の運命を描いた表題作『神々のワード・プロセッサ』、テレポーテーションされる少年の恐怖を描いたSF『ジョウント』、そして、猿のシンバルの音にこめられた死の影『猿とシンバル』など、ホラー王キングの短編集待望の登場。パラノイドの唄 - A Chant（1985）訳:矢野浩三郎神々のワードプロセッサ - Word Processor of the Gods（1983）訳:矢野浩三郎オットー伯父さんのトラック - Uncle Otto's Truck（1983）訳：矢野浩三郎ジョウント - The Jaunt（1981）訳:大村美根子アルフレッド・ベスターの『虎よ、虎よ!』に登場するジョウント効果に由来する。しなやかな銃弾のバラード - The Ballad of the Flexible Bullet（1984）訳:山本光伸猿とシンバル - The Monkey（1980）訳:深町眞理子

Paperback Bunko

About the author

Stephen Edwin King was born the second son of Donald and Nellie Ruth Pillsbury King. After his father left them when Stephen was two, he and his older brother, David, were raised by his mother. Parts of his childhood were spent in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where his father's family was at the time, and in Stratford, Connecticut. When Stephen was eleven, his mother brought her children back to Durham, Maine, for good. Her parents, Guy and Nellie Pillsbury, had become incapacitated with old age, and Ruth King was persuaded by her sisters to take over the physical care of them. Other family members provided a small house in Durham and financial support. After Stephen's grandparents passed away, Mrs. King found work in the kitchens of Pineland, a nearby residential facility for the mentally challenged.

Stephen attended the grammar school in Durham and Lisbon Falls High School, graduating in 1966. From his sophomore year at the University of Maine at Orono, he wrote a weekly column for the school newspaper, THE MAINE CAMPUS. He was also active in student politics, serving as a member of the Student Senate. He came to support the anti-war movement on the Orono campus, arriving at his stance from a conservative view that the war in Vietnam was unconstitutional. He graduated in 1970, with a B.A. in English and qualified to teach on the high school level. A draft board examination immediately post-graduation found him 4-F on grounds of high blood pressure, limited vision, flat feet, and punctured eardrums.

He met Tabitha Spruce in the stacks of the Fogler Library at the University, where they both worked as students; they married in January of 1971. As Stephen was unable to find placement as a teacher immediately, the Kings lived on his earnings as a laborer at an industrial laundry, and her student loan and savings, with an occasional boost from a short story sale to men's magazines.

Stephen made his first professional short story sale ("The Glass Floor") to Startling Mystery Stories in 1967. Throughout the early years of his marriage, he continued to sell stories to men's magazines. Many were gathered into the Night Shift collection or appeared in other anthologies.

In the fall of 1971, Stephen began teaching English at Hampden Academy, the public high school in Hampden, Maine. Writing in the evenings and on the weekends, he continued to produce short stories and to work on novels.