View source for Never Look Behind You

{{short description|Short story by Stephen King}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}}
{{Infobox short story | <!-- See [[Wikipedia:WikiProject Novels]] or [[Wikipedia:WikiProject Books]] -->
| name                = Never Look Behind You
| author              = Chris Chesley and [[Stephen King]]
| country             = United States
| language            = English
| genre               = [[Horror (fiction)|Horror]] [[short story]]
| published_in        = ''[[People, Places and Things (short story collection)|People, Places and Things]]''
| publisher           = Triad Publishing
| publication_type    = [[Anthology]]
| media_type          = Print
| pub_date            = [[1960 in literature|1960]]
| preceded_by         =
| followed_by         = 
}}
"'''Never Look Behind You'''" is a short story by Chris Chesley and [[Stephen King]]. It was [[self-published]] by Chesley and King in 1960 as part of the collection ''[[People, Places and Things (short story collection)|People, Places and Things]]''.

== Plot summary ==
An "old miser"<ref name="Blue1989"/> and "[[usurer]]"<ref name="WoodKing2012"/> named George Jacobs is counting his money when an old woman dressed in rags with a scarred face enters his office behind him. As Jacobs finishes counting his money, the woman tells him "too bad you won't be able to spend it". After Jacobs turns around to confront the woman, she raises her hand, killing Jacobs with "a flash of fire on his throat".

Following Jacobs' death, an unnamed character queries what killed him, while another states that he is glad that Jacobs is dead. The latter character is described as "lucky" as "he didn't look behind him".

== Publication ==
"Never Look Behind You" was written by Chesley and King in the summer before beginning high school.<ref name="Beahm1998"/><ref name="Rolls2008"/><ref name="Spignesi2018"/> It was [[self-published]] in 1960 as part of the [[short story collection]] ''[[People, Places and Things (short story collection)|People, Places and Things]]'',<ref name="WoodKing2012"/><ref name="Wood2017"/> which was [[mimeograph]]ed by Chesley and King.<ref name="Wilson2000"/>

== Reception ==
[[Rocky Wood]] describes ''People, Places and Things'' as "[[juvenilia]]" but with "clear hints of the King to come". Reviewing "Never Look Behind You", Wood comments that "it is the punch line that makes the story."<ref name="WoodKing2012"/> [[Michael R. Collings]] states, "In approach, content, theme, and treatment [the stories] clearly suggest directions the mature King would explore in greater detail...".<ref name="Collings2002"/> Tyson Blue describes "Never Look Behind You" as "an intriguing little tale not so much for what it says as what it does not say".<ref name="Blue1989"/>

== See also ==
* [[Stephen King short fiction bibliography]]

== References ==
{{reflist|refs=

<ref name="Beahm1998">{{cite book|first=George|last=Beahm|title=Stephen King from A to Z: An Encyclopedia of His Life and Work|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2BcECkYB7uoC&pg=PA114|year=1998|publisher=[[Andrews McMeel Publishing]]|isbn=978-0-8362-6914-7|pages=114, 156–157}}</ref>

<ref name="Blue1989">{{cite book|first=Tyson|last=Blue|title=The Unseen King|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LtQhAQAAIAAJ|year=1989|publisher=[[Borgo Press]]|isbn=978-1-5574-2072-5|pages=11–12}}</ref>

<ref name="Collings2002">{{cite book|author-link=Michael R. Collings|first=Michael|last=Collins|title=Horror Plum'd: An International Stephen King Bibliography and Guide, 1960-2000|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rLchAQAAIAAJ|year=2002|publisher=Overlook Connection Press|isbn=978-1-892950-45-1|pages=114}}</ref>

<ref name="Rolls2008">{{cite book|first=Albert|last=Rolls|title=Stephen King: A Biography|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IeA7ghrMfw4C&pg=PA5|year=2008|publisher=[[ABC-CLIO]]|isbn=978-0-313345-73-9|pages=5}}</ref>

<ref name="Spignesi2018">{{cite book|first1=Stephen J.|last1=Spignesi|title=Stephen King, American Master: A Creepy Corpus of Facts About Stephen King & His Work|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uMhyDwAAQBAJ|date=2018|publisher=Permuted Press+ORM|isbn=978-1-682616-07-9|page=357}}</ref>

<ref name="Wilson2000">{{cite book|first1=Suzan|last1=Wilson|title=Stephen King: King of Thrillers and Horror|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=L2sFzeynyIUC|date=2000|publisher=[[Enslow Publishers]]|isbn=978-0-766012-33-2|page=37}}</ref>

<ref name="Wood2017">{{cite book|first1=Rocky|last1=Wood|author-link1=Rocky Wood|title=Stephen King: A Literary Companion|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EpgZDgAAQBAJ|date=2017|publisher=[[McFarland & Company]]|isbn=978-0-7-86485-46-8|page=192}}</ref>

<ref name="WoodKing2012">{{cite book|first1=Rocky|last1=Wood|author-link1=Rocky Wood|first2=Stephen|last2=King|author-link2=Stephen King|title=Stephen King: Uncollected, Unpublished|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=E9mAtwAACAAJ|year=2017|publisher=Overlook Connection Press|isbn=978-1-892950-59-8|pages=225–231}}</ref>

}}

== External links ==
* {{ISFDB title|2349689|short=yes}}

{{Stephen King}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Never Look Behind You}}
[[Category:1960 short stories]]
[[Category:Horror short stories]]
[[Category:Short stories by Stephen King]]