Jumper (short story)
Originally serialized in the self-published newspaper Dave's Rag in 1959–1960, it was later collected in the 2000 work Secret Windows.Davis is summoned to the Chrysler Building in New York City after Robert Steppes, a "serial jumper", threatens to jump from the 15th floor.After talking to Steppes, Davis becomes convinced that "although theoretically, any man can take his own life, few men could really commit suicide, and Robert was not one of those men" and walks along the ledge to Steppes, who ultimately does not jump.[1][2] It was originally published in Dave's Rag, a weekly neighborhood newspaper self-published by King's older brother David King in Durham, Maine using a hectograph, as a three-part serial from December 1959 to early-1960.[3][4][5][6] Rocky Wood describes "Jumper" as "clearly juvenilia" but with "some sentences that are stunning when one considers a 12-year-old boy wrote them", noting "sophisticated thinking is evident".