Dedication (short story)

Dedication is a short story by Stephen King first published as part of the 1988 short story anthology Dark Visions and reprinted in King's 1993 short story collection Nightmares & Dreamscapes.

Plot summary

It tells the story of a black house maid working in a hotel and an eccentric alcoholic and prejudiced writer who is a frequent guest there. The maid consumes some of the writer's semen which was left on his sheets as part of a possible black magic spell, in the hope that it will pass talent and ability along to her unborn son. The story is told, in part, in the past tense.

King states in the introduction to this story that it was the inspiration for his novel Dolores Claiborne and that it was partly written to explore the idea of why such famous and talented people can sometimes be horrible in real life.

See also

• Stephen King short fiction bibliography