Easily, my favorite Stephen King book is The Stand. It was the first book I read by King. Now, it wasn't the first book I started. I started with The Gunslinger, but I was quickly lost and my friend told me to give up on the Dark Tower for a while and give The Stand a try. I was hooked!
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A Stephen King collection needs several copies of The Stand. Of course, my original paperback of the Complete and Unabridged no longer exists. That edition was a strange paperback with a birght orange shiny cover, good and evil fighting. Of course, it fell apart -- but was well loved. Here's what I've wrestled up so far:
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1. First edition The Stand, purchased from Betts Bookstore. Price inside dustjacked says it was $12.95. Has an undated inscription inside from someone giving the book to a graduating student. The price at Betts was tagged at $195, but I think I remember getting it for half that.
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2. Book club edition: The Stand. This edition is everywhere! Value is between $5-$20. It is almost identical to the first edition, so if you're just looking to have a reliable edition of the original edition of the Stand, this is a good option.
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3. First edition The Stand Complete And Uncut, British edition. This really is the true first edition, first appearance of this book. The Hodder edition has blue lightening bolts shooting across the cover.
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4. First edition The Stand Complete And Uncut, Doubleday. The price on the dustjacket is $24.95. It's hard to discern first editions of this book. In fact, Doubleday makes it truly difficult to discern what edition of a King book you have. This creates no end to confusion on ebay. Anyway, this was a beautifully bound and illustrated book -- nothing like the cheap original edition of The Stand.
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5. Paperback reading copy, signet (NAL), #7 on the numberline. The cover of this edition is tied in to the mini-series. "Now an ABC TV miniseries."
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What I still don't have: The ONE! You know what that is, right? The Holy Grail for King collectors. The leatherbound special edition housed ina wooden box of the Uncut edition. This goes for around $2,000, but I noticed the Betts has recorded that they sold theirs.
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Another thing I don't have is the audio recording of the orginal edition of The Stand. I've listened to it, read by Grover Gardner. Actually, I paid to join a lending library just so I could listen to this book. But, I haven't bought it because not only would I have to purchase the book, but would then have to pay a company to convert the whole thing to CD. Besides, Grover Gardner's narration is -- how do I say -- uh, not inspiring. He's no Frank Muller, okay! Anyway, the edition does exist.
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