Derry (Stephen King)
Encyclopedia
Derry, Maine is a fictional town and a part of Stephen King
Stephen King
Stephen Edwin King is an American author of contemporary horror, suspense, science fiction and fantasy fiction. His books have sold more than 350 million copies and have been adapted into a number of feature films, television movies and comic books...

's fictional Maine
Maine
Maine is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and south, New Hampshire to the west, and the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the northwest and New Brunswick to the northeast. Maine is both the northernmost and easternmost...

 topography
Topography
Topography is the study of Earth's surface shape and features or those ofplanets, moons, and asteroids...

, and, like Castle Rock
Castle Rock (Stephen King)
Castle Rock, Maine is part of Stephen King’s fictional Maine topography and provides the setting for a number of his novels, novellas, and short stories...

, it has served as the setting for a number of his novels, novellas, and short stories. It first appeared in the short story "The Bird and the Album" and was expanded on in both It
It (novel)
It is a 1986 horror novel by American author Stephen King. The story follows the exploits of seven children as they are terrorized by the eponymous inter-dimensional predatory life-form that exploits the fears and phobias of its victims in order to disguise itself while hunting its prey. "It"...

and Insomnia
Insomnia (novel)
Insomnia is a novel written by Stephen King and first published in 1994. Like It and Dreamcatcher, its setting is the fictional town of Derry, Maine. The original hardcover edition was issued with dust jackets in two complementary designs...

. Derry is said to be near Bangor, Maine
Bangor, Maine
Bangor is a city in and the county seat of Penobscot County, Maine, United States, and the major commercial and cultural center for eastern and northern Maine...

, but King has acknowledged that Derry is actually his portrayal of Bangor. A map on King's official website, though, places Derry in the vicinity of the town of Etna
Etna, Maine
Etna is a town in Penobscot County, Maine, United States. The population was 1,012 at the 2000 census.-History:Etna is named for the famed Mt. Etna in Italy. It was originally known as "Crosbytown" after its first proprietor, Gen. John Crosby of Hampden, Maine. It was incorporated as a town in 1820...

.

Both Derry and Castle Rock, when joined with Jerusalem's Lot
Jerusalem's Lot (Stephen King)
Jerusalem's Lot is a fictional town in the works of horror fiction writer Stephen King...

, complete a trinity of fictional towns King has created as central setting points; the three exist as the main setting in more than one work. King has created other fictional Maine towns such as Chamberlain in Carrie
Carrie (novel)
Carrie is American author Stephen King's first published novel, released in 1974. It revolves around the eponymous Carrie, a shy high-school girl, who uses her newly discovered telekinetic powers to exact revenge on those who tease her...

, Ludlow in Pet Sematary
Pet Sematary
Pet Sematary is a 1983 horror novel by Stephen King. It was nominated for a World Fantasy Award for Best Novel in 1984, and was later made into a film of the same name.-Plot:...

and The Dark Half
The Dark Half
The Dark Half is a horror novel by Stephen King, published in 1989. Publishers Weekly listed The Dark Half as the second best-selling book of 1989 behind Tom Clancy's Clear and Present Danger. It was adapted into a feature film of the same name in 1993.Stephen King wrote several books under a...

(unrelated to the real Maine town of Ludlow
Ludlow, Maine
Ludlow is a town in Aroostook County, Maine, United States. The population was 402 at the 2000 census.-Geography:According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 22.0 square miles , of which, 22.0 square miles of it is land and 0.05% is water...

), Haven in The Tommyknockers
The Tommyknockers
The Tommyknockers is a 1987 horror novel by Stephen King. While maintaining a horror style, the novel is more of an excursion into the realm of science fiction for King, as the residents of the Maine town of Haven gradually fall under the influence of a mysterious object buried in the woods.In his...

, Little Tall Island in Dolores Claiborne
Dolores Claiborne
Dolores Claiborne is a 1992 psychological thriller novel by Stephen King. The novel is narrated by the title character. Atypically for a King novel, it has no chapters, double-spacing between paragraphs, or other section breaks; thus the text is a single continuous narrative which reads like a...

and Storm of the Century
Storm of the Century
Storm of the Century, alternatively known as Stephen King's Storm of the Century, is a 1999 horror TV miniseries written by Stephen King and directed by Craig R. Baxley. Unlike many other King mini-series, Storm of the Century was not based upon a Stephen King novel - King wrote it as a screenplay...

, and Chester's Mill in Under the Dome
Under the Dome
Under the Dome is a novel by Stephen King, published in November 2009. It is a partial rewrite of a novel King attempted writing twice in the late 1970s and early 1980s, under the titles The Cannibals and Under the Dome...

. However, these fictional towns have not been used as much as Derry, Castle Rock, and Jerusalem's Lot in King's stories. This trinity of locations is an homage to H. P. Lovecraft
H. P. Lovecraft
Howard Phillips Lovecraft --often credited as H.P. Lovecraft — was an American author of horror, fantasy and science fiction, especially the subgenre known as weird fiction....

's use of Arkham
Arkham
Arkham is a fictional city in Massachusetts, part of the Lovecraft Country setting created by H. P. Lovecraft and is featured in many of his stories, as well as those of other Cthulhu Mythos writers....

, Dunwich
Dunwich (Lovecraft)
Dunwich is a fictional town that appeared in the H. P. Lovecraft short story "The Dunwich Horror" . Dunwich is found in the fictional Miskatonic River Valley of Massachusetts, part of the imaginary region sometimes called Lovecraft Country...

, and Innsmouth
Innsmouth
Innsmouth is a fictional town in the writings of H. P. Lovecraft, part of the Lovecraft Country setting of the Cthulhu Mythos.Lovecraft first used the name "Innsmouth" in his 1920 short story "Celephaïs" , where it refers to a fictional town in New England...

, three fictional towns or cities in Massachusetts.

Appearances

So far, five novels have been set in (or near) Derry:
  • In It, the first and defining Derry novel, the town is portrayed as haunted by a monster that changes shape to match the fears of its victim. This creature, dubbed "It" by its young protagonists, was responsible for the complete disappearance of the town's population during its early settlement and for literally hundreds of horrific tragedies and murders ever since. All of the atrocities throughout Derry's history are treated with total indifference by the local residents, thereby suggesting that Its evil has completely corrupted the town and everyone in it. Its hold over the town is so absolute that its apparent death causes an enormous storm that damages a part of Derry at the end of the novel.
  • Later, King went on to set the novel Insomnia in Derry. The novel concerns Ralph Roberts and Lois Chasse, two elderly Derry residents who are receptive to different planes of reality, including the universe of King's Dark Tower series. The two must use their knowledge and powers to stop their neighbor, chemist-turned-anti-abortion fanatic Ed Deepneau, from causing a tragedy in Derry that could drastically impact the Dark Tower universe.
  • The third is Bag of Bones
    Bag of Bones
    Bag of Bones is a 1998 novel by Stephen King. It focuses on an author who suffers severe writer's block and delusions at an isolated lake house four years after the death of his wife...

    , though it is only partially set in Derry–the beginning chapters of the book detail Mike Noonan's preparation to leave Derry after his wife dies of an aneurysm. The rest of the novel is set at the Noonan's summer home, Sara Laughs.
  • King's novel Dreamcatcher
    Dreamcatcher (novel)
    Dreamcatcher is a horror novel written by Stephen King. It was adapted into a 2003 movie of the same name. The book, written longhand, was the author's tool for recuperation from a 1999 car accident, and was completed in half a year...

    , about an encounter between four men and a hostile extraterrestrial being, is primarily set some forty miles north of Derry. Some portions of the novel, however, are set in the town.
  • 11/22/63
    11/22/63
    11/22/63 is a novel by Stephen King about a time traveler who attempts to prevent the John F. Kennedy assassination which occurred on November 22, 1963 . The novel was officially announced on the author's official site on March 2, 2011. A short excerpt was released online on June 1, 2011...

    , about a man traveling back in time to stop the Kennedy assassination, is partially set in Derry in September and October of 1958.

29 Neibolt Street

On several occasions in It, the Losers find themselves at 29 Neibolt Street, a run-down, abandoned house near the trainyard. It is in this house – or rather, under the house's front porch
Front Porch
Front Porch, Inc. provides services to Internet Service Providers. Front Porch technology enables an Internet Service Provider to insert its own messages to be presented to users as they use their web browsers, such as customer service notices or online advertising...

 – that Eddie Kaspbrak first encounters It, which shows itself as a mix between a homeless leper and its familiar Pennywise form. Later, after Eddie tells them his story, Bill and Richie go to investigate the house and are chased off by It, the creature having taken the form of a werewolf
Werewolf
A werewolf, also known as a lycanthrope , is a mythological or folkloric human with the ability to shapeshift into a wolf or an anthropomorphic wolf-like creature, either purposely or after being placed under a curse...

.

Soon after these incidents, the Losers Club goes back to the house in hopes of confronting It. However, soon after they confront It, the creature disappears into the sewers through a toilet pipe. They therefore decide to enter the sewers for their first showdown with It.

During It's 1985 killing spree, the body of one of the creature's victims is found directly across the street from the house.

The Barrens

The Barrens is a small tract of land still heavily covered in trees and plant life. Derry's landfill
Landfill
A landfill site , is a site for the disposal of waste materials by burial and is the oldest form of waste treatment...

 is located here, as is a gravel pit and several sewer pump-stations. The Barrens plays the most prominent a role in It, as the Losers adopt it as their home away from home, even building an underground clubhouse there. Most of the Losers have their first meeting here while trying to build a small dam in the Kenduskeag Stream
Kenduskeag Stream
Kenduskeag Stream is a stream in the U.S. state of Maine. It is a tributary of the Penobscot River. The stream rises at the outlet of Garland Pond in the town of Garland, and flows southeast through Corinth, Kenduskeag, and Glenburn, before entering the city of Bangor...

, which runs through the Barrens, and next, Derry.

The Canal

A section of the Kenduskeag that runs through downtown Derry. The canal goes through a tunnel under the streets for a short way and comes out in Bassey Park. It was in January 1958 that a young Ben Hanscom first encountered It (in the form of a mummy) walking on top of the frozen surface.

Derry Civic Center

The Derry Civic Center is a recent structure built after the old civic center was destroyed in the 1985 flood. It was designed by famed architect (and one-time Derry resident) Ben Hanscom. It played an important role in the events of the novel Insomnia. The Crimson King
Crimson King
The Crimson King, also commonly known as Los', is a fictional character created by Stephen King. He is the antagonist in the novel Insomnia the main villain due to a plot twist in Black House and one of the main villains in the latter half of Stephen King's Dark Tower series.-Fictional...

, the supervillain of King's Dark Tower
The Dark Tower (series)
The Dark Tower is a series of books written by American author Stephen King, which incorporates themes from multiple genres, including fantasy, science fantasy, horror and western. It describes a "Gunslinger" and his quest toward a tower, the nature of which is both physical and metaphorical. King...

series, planned to use Ed Deepneau to fly into the Civic Center on a kamikaze
Kamikaze
The were suicide attacks by military aviators from the Empire of Japan against Allied naval vessels in the closing stages of the Pacific campaign of World War II, designed to destroy as many warships as possible....

 mission, using a small plane armed with C4
C-4 (explosive)
C4 or Composition C4 is a common variety of the plastic explosive known as Composition C.-Composition and manufacture:C4 is made up of explosives, plastic binder, plasticizer and usually marker or odorizing taggant chemicals such as 2,3-dimethyl-2,3-dinitrobutane to help detect the explosive and...

 explosives. The aim of this mission was not to kill the people inside the Center, but to kill a child named Patrick Danville
Patrick Danville
Patrick Danville is a fictional character created by Stephen King, featured in the novels Insomnia and The Dark Tower.-Insomnia:Patrick was introduced as a child in Insomnia, a budding artist who was destined to die saving the lives of two men, one of whom must not die...

, who plays a key role in the Dark Tower story. Ralph Roberts and Lois Chasse forced Deepneau to crash the plane in the Center's parking lot. Several people were killed, but Danville was saved.

Kitchener Ironworks

The Kitchener Ironworks was an ironworks
Ironworks
An ironworks or iron works is a building or site where iron is smelted and where heavy iron and/or steel products are made. The term is both singular and plural, i.e...

 outside of Derry. In 1906, despite every machine in the works having been shut completely down, the Ironworks inexplicably exploded, killing a group of 88 children and 102 total people who were participating in an Easter egg hunt. The tragedy was caused by It, sabotaging the equipment, and eight bodies were missing, presumably eaten by the monster. This marked the beginning of the creature's twenty-seven-year hibernation period. It was at the ruins of the Kitchener Ironworks where a young Mike Hanlon first encounters It in the form of a giant bird in 1958.

Jake Epping senses Its presence in the ruins of the Kitchener Ironworks when he visits the ruins in 11/22/63
11/22/63
11/22/63 is a novel by Stephen King about a time traveler who attempts to prevent the John F. Kennedy assassination which occurred on November 22, 1963 . The novel was officially announced on the author's official site on March 2, 2011. A short excerpt was released online on June 1, 2011...

.

The Standpipe

The Standpipe was a large watertower in Derry. In its earlier days, it remained unlocked so that patrons of an adjoining park could climb a spiral staircase
Spiral staircase
Spiral staircase may refer to:* A type of stairway characterized by its spiral shape* The Spiral Staircase , a 1946 American psychological thriller film* The Spiral Staircase , a 1975 British film, a remake of the 1946 film...

 around the tank to look out over Derry from the top. The Standpipe was closed to the public after several children drowned in the tank, most likely the fault of It. The Standpipe was where Stanley Uris first encountered It, which took the form of drowned children.

After the grown-up Losers Club kills It in second Ritual Of Chüd in 1985, a huge storm ensues, destroying many buildings and landmarks in Derry, including the Standpipe. In Dreamcatcher
Dreamcatcher (novel)
Dreamcatcher is a horror novel written by Stephen King. It was adapted into a 2003 movie of the same name. The book, written longhand, was the author's tool for recuperation from a 1999 car accident, and was completed in half a year...

, Mr. Gray drives to Derry to find the Standpipe, only to discover a memorial featuring a cast-bronze statue of two children and a plaque underneath, dedicated to the victims of the 1985 flood and of It. The plaque has been vandalized with graffiti
Graffiti
Graffiti is the name for images or lettering scratched, scrawled, painted or marked in any manner on property....

 reading, "PENNYWISE LIVES".

Tracker Brothers Shipping

According to It, the Tracker Brothers were two men who owned a trucking depot on Kansas Street during It's 1958 killing spree. The brothers maintained a baseball field
Baseball field
A baseball field, also called a ball field or a baseball diamond, is the field upon which the game of baseball is played. The terms "baseball field" and "ball field" are also often used as synonyms for ballpark.-Specifications:...

 behind the depot for children to play on. In Dreamcatcher, Jonesy, The Beav, Henry, and Pete first meet Duddits in the depot's parking lot in 1978 (at which time the depot has closed), saving him from a gang of bullies. In 1985, while visiting the abandoned depot, Eddie Kaspbrak encounters Pennywise for the first time since his childhood. The depot was destroyed in the same 1985 storm that destroyed the Standpipe.

Voigt Field

In The Running Man
The Running Man
The Running Man is a science fiction novel by Stephen King, first published under the pseudonym Richard Bachman in 1982 as a paperback original. It was collected in 1985 in the hardcover omnibus The Bachman Books...

, a Richard Bachman
Richard Bachman
Richard Bachman is a pseudonym used by horror fiction author Stephen King.-Origin:At the beginning of Stephen King's career, the general view among publishers was such that an author was limited to a book every year, since publishing more would not be acceptable to the public...

 novella set in a dystopian future, Derry is home to a large airport consisting of acres of parking lots, a huge "Northern States Terminal," several runways with the capacity to support large widebody aircraft, and a large fuel tank farm. Ben Richards, the novella's protagonist, arrives here by car and is allowed to board a "Lockheed GA/Superbird" by bluffing that he has enough plastic explosive
Plastic explosive
Plastic explosive is a specialised form of explosive material. It is a soft and hand moldable solid material. Plastic explosives are properly known as putty explosives within the field of explosives engineering....

 with him to blow up the entire complex.

Works in which Derry appears

  • "11/22/63
    11/22/63
    11/22/63 is a novel by Stephen King about a time traveler who attempts to prevent the John F. Kennedy assassination which occurred on November 22, 1963 . The novel was officially announced on the author's official site on March 2, 2011. A short excerpt was released online on June 1, 2011...

    "
  • "Fair Extension
    Fair Extension
    Fair Extension is a novella by Stephen King, published in his collection Full Dark, No Stars .-Synopsis:On his way home, Dave Streeter sees a man with a setup by the road to the airport. He goes out and talks with the man, George Elvid, who tells Streeter that he sells extensions of various types...

    ", as part of Full Dark, No Stars
    Full Dark, No Stars
    Full Dark, No Stars, published in November 2010, is a collection of four novellas by the author Stephen King, all dealing with the theme of retribution...

    , published in 2010
  • "Autopsy Room Four
    Autopsy Room Four
    "Autopsy Room Four" is a short story by Stephen King. It was first published in the anthology Robert Bloch's Psychos in 1997 and appeared in King's limited-edition collection Six Stories the same year. In 2002, it was collected in King's collection Everything's Eventual. It was adapted into a...

    "
  • Bag of Bones
    Bag of Bones
    Bag of Bones is a 1998 novel by Stephen King. It focuses on an author who suffers severe writer's block and delusions at an isolated lake house four years after the death of his wife...

  • The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower
  • Dreamcatcher
    Dreamcatcher (novel)
    Dreamcatcher is a horror novel written by Stephen King. It was adapted into a 2003 movie of the same name. The book, written longhand, was the author's tool for recuperation from a 1999 car accident, and was completed in half a year...

  • Insomnia
    Insomnia (novel)
    Insomnia is a novel written by Stephen King and first published in 1994. Like It and Dreamcatcher, its setting is the fictional town of Derry, Maine. The original hardcover edition was issued with dust jackets in two complementary designs...

  • It
    It (novel)
    It is a 1986 horror novel by American author Stephen King. The story follows the exploits of seven children as they are terrorized by the eponymous inter-dimensional predatory life-form that exploits the fears and phobias of its victims in order to disguise itself while hunting its prey. "It"...

  • Pet Sematary
    Pet Sematary
    Pet Sematary is a 1983 horror novel by Stephen King. It was nominated for a World Fantasy Award for Best Novel in 1984, and was later made into a film of the same name.-Plot:...

  • The Tommyknockers
    The Tommyknockers
    The Tommyknockers is a 1987 horror novel by Stephen King. While maintaining a horror style, the novel is more of an excursion into the realm of science fiction for King, as the residents of the Maine town of Haven gradually fall under the influence of a mysterious object buried in the woods.In his...

  • The Running Man
    The Running Man
    The Running Man is a science fiction novel by Stephen King, first published under the pseudonym Richard Bachman in 1982 as a paperback original. It was collected in 1985 in the hardcover omnibus The Bachman Books...

  • Needful Things
    Needful Things
    Needful Things is a 1991 horror novel by American author Stephen King. According to the cover, it is "The Last Castle Rock Story." However, the town later served as the setting for the short story "It Grows on You," published in King's 1993 collection Nightmares and Dreamscapes which, according to...

  • "The Road Virus Heads North
    The Road Virus Heads North
    "The Road Virus Heads North" is a short story by Stephen King. This story first appeared in 999, an anthology published in 1999 and edited by Al Sarrantonio. In 2002, it was collected in King's collection Everything's Eventual....

    "
  • "Mrs. Todd's Shortcut
    Mrs. Todd's Shortcut
    Mrs. Todd's Shortcut is a story by Stephen King, first published in the May 1984 issue of Redbook magazine, and collected in King's 1985 collection Skeleton Crew.-Plot summary:...

    "
  • "Uncle Otto's Truck
    Uncle Otto's Truck
    Uncle Otto's Truck is a short horror story by Stephen King, first published in Yankee in 1983, and collected in King's 1985 collection Skeleton Crew.-Plot summary:...

    "
  • Secret Window, Secret Garden
    Secret Window, Secret Garden
    Secret Window, Secret Garden is one of four novellas published in the Stephen King book Four Past Midnight in 1990. It is similar to King's earlier novel The Dark Half...

  • Lisey's Story
    Lisey's Story
    Lisey's Story is a novel by Stephen King combining the elements of psychological horror and romance. It was released on October 24, 2006, and was nominated for the World Fantasy Award in 2007.-Plot:...

  • Mute
    Just After Sunset
    Just After Sunset is the fifth collection of short stories by Stephen King. It was released in hardcover by Scribner on November 11, 2008, and features a holographic dust jacket. On February 6, 2008, the author's official website revealed the title of the collection to be Just Past Sunset. About a...

    , published in Playboy, December, 2007
  • The Night Flier
    The Night Flier
    "The Night Flier" is a horror short story by Stephen King, first published in the anthology Prime Evil: New Stories by the Masters of Modern Horror, and then in King's own 1993 Nightmares and Dreamscapes collection....

    , as part of Nightmares and Dreamscapes, published in 1993


Derry is also mentioned in One on One
One on One (novel)
One on One is a work of literary fiction by author Tabitha King. It is set in the fictional New England town of Nodd's Ridge, which was previously explored in other Tabitha King novels such as Pearl, Caretakers, and The Book of Reuben...

, a 1993 novel by King's wife, Tabitha King
Tabitha King
Tabitha King is an American author and activist. She is married to writer Stephen King.-Family:King met her husband, author Stephen King, in college through her work-study job in the Fogler Library. Their daughter Naomi Rachel was born in 1970. They married on January 2, 1971...

. In an afterword, she thanks "another novelist who was kind enough to allow me" to use the town's name.

A town called Derry is also mentioned in the "Haven" TV series
Haven (TV series)
Haven is a supernatural drama television series loosely based on the Stephen King novel The Colorado Kid. The show, filmed on the South Shore of Nova Scotia, Canada, is an American/Canadian co-production. The one-hour drama premiered on July 9, 2010, on Syfy...

 and in Horns
Horns (novel)
Horns is a 2010 dark fantasy novel by Joe Hill and is the author's second published novel. The novel also incorporates elements of contemporary fantasy, crime fiction, and Gothic fiction...

,
a 2010 novel by author Joe Hill
Joe Hill (writer)
Joseph Hillstrom King , better known by the pen name Joe Hill, is an American author and comic book writer. He has published two novels—Heart Shaped Box and Horns—and a collection of short stories entitled 20th Century Ghosts. He is also the author of the graphic novel series Locke & Key...

, who is King's oldest son. However, the Derry mentioned in Hill's novel is a real city in New Hampshire.

See also

  • Castle Rock, Maine
    Castle Rock (Stephen King)
    Castle Rock, Maine is part of Stephen King’s fictional Maine topography and provides the setting for a number of his novels, novellas, and short stories...

  • Jerusalem's Lot, Maine
    Jerusalem's Lot (Stephen King)
    Jerusalem's Lot is a fictional town in the works of horror fiction writer Stephen King...

  • Derry
    Derry
    Derry or Londonderry is the second-biggest city in Northern Ireland and the fourth-biggest city on the island of Ireland. The name Derry is an anglicisation of the Irish name Doire or Doire Cholmcille meaning "oak-wood of Colmcille"...

    , Castlerock
    Castlerock
    Castlerock is a seaside village in County Londonderry, Northern Ireland. It is situated between Coleraine and Derry and is very popular with summer tourists, having numerous apartment blocks and three caravan sites. Castlerock Golf Club has both 9 and 18-hole links courses bounded by the beach, the...

     and Bangor
    Bangor, County Down
    Bangor is a large town in County Down, Northern Ireland. It is a seaside resort on the southern side of Belfast Lough and within the Belfast Metropolitan Area. Bangor Marina is one of the largest in Ireland, and holds Blue Flag status...

     in Northern Ireland
    Northern Ireland
    Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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