'Salem's Lot is a horror novel by Stephen King, written in 1975. It tells the tale of Ben Mears, a writer who comes back to his home town, the fictional town of Jerusalem's Lot, Maine (or "'salem's Lot", as the locals call it). He is there to see The Marsten House, an old house that has given him nightmares for years because of a bad experience with it as a child. As it turns out, the house has been bought by a Mr. Barlow, who seems very suspicious to Ben. Over the course of the book, the town is slowly taken over by vampires, while Ben and a few people he meets in the town try to figure out what Barlow is up to and try to stop the vampires from taking over.
This was King's second published novel. It was the first of his books to have a huge cast of characters, a trait that would appear again in later books such as The Stand.
The book was adapted into a 1979 TV movie of the same name. A sequel to that movie, A Return to 'Salem's Lot, was made in 1987. A TV movie remake of the original film is planned for 2004.
King also wrote a similarly titled short story called "Jerusalem's Lot".
King wrote a follow-up short story about vampires in 'Salem's Lot called "One for the Road". Both "Jerusalem's Lot" and "One for the Road" are published in the collection Night Shift.