Changes In Stephen King's The Stand 1978-1990 Part 19

Chapter 62 has the usual expansions and fiddling.  For example, Dayna Jurgens hears about the crucifixion of Hector Drogan, which wouldn't have made much sense in the paperback since that crucifixion scene didn't occur in it.  It's essentially the same otherwise though.  One would think by this point that King would be tired and just let the novel roll on, but the man is thorough; he appears to be tinkering with the entire manuscript.

63 has less expansion and fiddling, but it's a short chapter in both books, so that's probably why.  Basically, Tom Cullen has an additional line of dialogue, and King makes some other minor changes such as adding an apostrophe to the front of "Bye".

64 has more expansion, providing more details of Harold Lauder's death.  A typo also sneaks in.  There aren't many in this long, long book, so I was a bit surprised to find it.  The Colt Woodsman gets called a "Cold Woodsman".

65 and 66 are much the same, but I didn't spot any typos.  67 isn't much different, but there is a couple of interchanges between Lloyd Henreid and Shirley, the telephone operator.  Another interesting aspect is that when King updated the year Paul Burlson would be in charge of the secret police he only moved it from 1990 to 1991.  Apparently, King decided that Flagg's police state would move along much more quickly.

68 and 69 continue this trend. 70, like 63, is a short chapter and has less expansion and fiddling for that reason.  There is a new paragraph in which Trashcan Man gets a little more detailed in figuring out how to get the nuclear warhead up the stairs, but that's the biggest change.

71 gets treated much like 70 does.  72 returns to the pattern of more expansion.  For example, it contains Larry Underwood's list of how many miles he and the other walkers have traveled each day.  It also has a new scene where the walkers find animal crackers and potato chips in a station wagon filled with corpses.  One interesting change is that instead of books by John Jakes (though Stu Redman only calls them  "books about that Kent family"), he asks for books by Gore Vidal.  All the books are long, historical novels though.

73 also gets more expansion.  Larry has a nightmare about playing a concert.  The second time he has the nightmare (the first time in the paperback), John Wayne Gacy gets added to the creeps in the audience.

74 follows this pattern.  One interesting change is that King alters the initials on the keycase from S.L. to A.C.  Maybe S.L. stands for 'Salem's Lot, an earlier novel of his, and A.C. is the first part of AC/DC, one of King's favorite bands?  I don't know what the initials stand for, nor why he switched them.

75 gets more expanded.  King adds a few scenes.  Tom Cullen and Stu watch movies (including Rambo IV, which didn't exist at the time), they have an accident on the snowmobile and they have to find another one, and their travels on Christmas Eve are described.  King also makes smaller changes such as correcting the spelling of "breech birth".

76 is another short chapter, so, like the other ones, it doesn't get expanded and fiddled with much.

77 is next!