CARRIE is still floating around out there!

Indie Book Promo posted: Check out this beauty that came across my desk today! The First Edition of Stephen King's classic novel and hit movie, "Carrie."  (facebook.com/indiebookpromos)

Skeleton Crew First Edition

I found two copies of Skeleton Crew at a local used bookstore the other day.   Different boards and covers.  One cover wrap did not include the price and the copyright page did not have a number line.  Both clear indications it is a later edition.  However, the second copy had both.

Is  it "worth"  something?  I dunno.  Probably not  much.  I paid $1.99 for it.  But a find like that makes me pretty happy.  It appears to go on ebay for $15+.  I also have a British first edition of this book.  (I'm not sure why I bought a British edition of that particular book, except that I thought the cover cool.)

My favorite story in Skeleton Crew is by far The Mist.  The book as a whole remains among my favorite of King's short story collections.  As Kevin Quigley pointed out,

"Skeleton Crew is a frustrating instance, because a perfectly terrific version of Skeleton Crew on audio simply doesn’t exist anymore.  The collection Skeleton Crew: Selections is the only version available on audio, which is insane.  Sure, the narrators are fine – King reads “The Raft,” and it’s awesome – but there are only four stories.  Why let the terrific Frank Muller version rot in purgatory?" (interview with Kevin Quigley on THE MIST, at talkstephenking.blogspot.com)

King Out Of Print Books Are In Demand

BookFinder.com has released a list of the 100 most desired out-of-print books of 2013. Topping the list was Madonna’s 1992 erotic coffee table book, “Sex,” and two titles from New England author and Red Sox fan Stephen King (above). No. 2 on the list is “Rage,” in which King writes under the name Richard Bachman. No. 3 is “My Pretty Pony,” King’s 1989 short story that was published as part of the Whitney Museum of American Art’s artist and writer series. No. 4 on the list also has local ties. It’s “The Harvard Classics,’’ an anthology edited by former Harvard University president Charles W. Eliot, cousin of T. S. Eliot.

SOURCE: bostonglobe.com

Add  to their list: The mist  audio book.

2 questions:
1. What King out of print books do you own?
2. What king out of prints are you on the hunt for?

Identifying First Editions

Very Fine Books has released a new/updated guide for identifying Stephen King first editions.  Here is their news release:

Here's a handy new guide we just published on our blog for identifying Stephen King first edition books. 

Even though there are similar tables online, this one is unique. It is searchable. That means you don't have to waste your time scrolling through over 50 novels. 

The search bar is located at the top right of table. Just type in what you're looking for and the results should come up. 

For example, let's say you wanted to know if you have a first edition of The Stand. Just type in "The Stand" and you'll see the 2 novels there along with all the 1st printing identifiers. . 

You can even search by publication year. Let's say you wanted to know what King novel was published in 1977, just type in 1977 in the search bar and you'll see The Shining and Rage. 

The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger

I finally completed my set of gunslinger F&SF magazines. That means I got all five magazines that had the original Gunslinger text.  First thing I did. . . pull out my earliest copy of the Gunslinger and compare the book text to the magazine text.  Were there differences?  Yes.  Mostly nothing worth noting.  Some editing had been done to make the text sharper. 

The images are not all my collection, as blogger wants to print my images sideways. Go figure.  

I'm printing the introduction and close to each story.  Also the synopsis for a couple of the stories, just because it's neat to read how King explained his work.

The Gunslinger" (October 1978) 

The Gunslinger opens with this note:

"Stephen King, author of Carrie, Salem's Lot, The Shining and  "The Night of the Tiger" (F&SF, Feb. 1978), returns with a grim and gripping fantasy about the last gunslinger and his search for The Man In Black."

The Gunslinger closes with the note:

"Thus ends what is written in the first  Book of Roland, and his Quest for the Tower which stands at the root of Time."

"The Way Station" (April 1980) 

The Way Station opens with this note:

"Stephen King is the author of the best-selling novels Salem's Lo,The Stand and most recently, The Dead Zone.  The unusual and gripping story you are about to read is a sequel to "The Gunslinger" (October 1978) and the author has provided a short synopsis of the earlier story."

SYNOPSIS: The dark days have come; the last of the lights are guttering, flickering out --in the minds of men as well as in their dwellings.  The world has moved on.  Something has, perhaps, happened to the continuum itself.  Dark things haunt the dark; communities stand alone and isolated.  Some houses, shunned, have become dens of demons.

Against this dying, twilit land-scape, the gunslinger --last of his kind, and wearing the sandalwood-in-laid pistols of his father --pursues the man in black into the desert, leaving the last, tattered vestiges of life and civilization behind.  The town of Tull, now miles and days at his back, the man in black set him a snare; reanimated a corpse and set the town against him.  The gunslinger has left  them all dead, victims of the man in black's mordant prank and the deadly mindless speed of his own hands.

Following the ashes of days-old fires, the gunslinger pursues the man in black.

He may be gaining, and it may be that the man in black knows the secret of The Dark Tower, which stands at the root of time.  For it is not ultimately the man in black which the gunslinger seeks; it is the tower.

The dark days have come.

The world has moved on.

The Way Station concludes with this note:

"This ends the second section of The Dark Tower -- the story of Roland, the last gunslinger, and his search for the Tower that stands at the root of time. 

"The Oracle and the Mountains" (February 1981) 

The Oracle and the Mountains opens with this note:

"Two earlier stories about Roland and his search for The Dark Tower are "The Gunslinger," October 1978 and "The Way Station," April 1980. We promise a much shorter wait for the fourth story, "The Slow Mutants" which is already in hand.  Mr. King's latest novel is FIRESTARTER (Viking).

SYNOPSIS: This is the third tale of Roland, the last gunslinger, and his quest for the Dark Tower which stands at the root of  time.

Time is the problem; the dark days have come and the world has moved on.  Demons haunt the dark and monsters walk in empty places. The time of light and knowledge has passed, and only remnants -- and revenants -- remain.

Against this twilit landscape, the gunslinger pursues the man in black into the desert, leaving behind the town of Tull where  the man he pursues --if he is a man-- set him a snare.  The man in black reanimated the corpse of a weed-eater and set in motion a chain of events that ended with Roland gunning down every living soul in Tull.

Following the ashes  of the days-old fires, the gunslinger pursues the man in black. Three-quarters of the way across the desert he comes upon the husk of a way station that served the stage-lines years (or centuries, or milennia) ago.

Yet there is life here; not the man in black but a puzzling young boy named Jake, who had no understanding of how he came to be  there.  The gunslinger hypnotizes the boy and hears a puzzling, disquieting tale: Jake remembers a great city whose harbor is guarded by "a lady with a torch."  He remembers going to a private school and wearing a tie; he remembers  yellow vehicles and that pedestrians could hire.

And he remembers being killed.

Pushed from behind in front of an oncoming vehicle (called a "Cadillac"), Jake was run over.  Who pushed him?

It was the man in black, he says.

There is water enough at the way station for two pilgrims to continue onward, across the rest of the desert to the foothills. . . and the mountains beyond.  And in the cellar of the way station, Roland discovers a Speaking Demon in the wall which tells him: "Go slow, gunslinger.  Go slow past the Drawers.  While you travel with the boy, the man in black travels with your soul in his pocket."  

According tot he old ways, a Speaking Demon may only speak through the mouth of a corpse; reaching into the wall, Roland discovers a jawbone which he takes with him.

As Jake and the gunslinger continue toward the mountains, the camp fire remnants of the man in black glow fresher.  And as Jake sleeps, the gunslinger works laboriously over  the figures in his own past: Gabrielle, his mother. . . Marten, the sorcerer-physician who may have been the half brother of the man in black. . . Roland his father. . .Cort, his teacher. . .Cuthbert, his friend. . . and David, the falcon, "God's gunslinger."

He remembers the death of  a traitor, the cook Hax, by hanging. .  . and how he  and Cuthbert broke bread beneath the hanged man's feet as an offering to the rooks.  He remembers "the good man," in whose service Hax died, "The good man" who was ushered in this new dark age.  The good man, Marten.  His mother's lover . . . and the man in black?

As Jake and the gunslinger reach the first hilly upswells marking the far edge of the desert, the boy points upward and, far  above and miles beyond, the gunslinger sees the man in black, climbing up and up toward what the gunslinger feels may be another killing ground.

The man in black  has set him snares before on this terrible progress toward the Tower.  

Roland fears the boy Jake may be another -- and Roland has come to love him.

The Oracle and the Mountains closes with this note: "This ends the third section of the Dark Tower --the story of Roland,the last gunslinger,and his search for the Tower that stands at the root of  time."

"The Slow Mutants" (July 1981) 

The Slow Mutants opens with: This, the fourth and longest  tale in the series about the last gunslinger and his eerie and gripping pursuit of the man in black, follows"The Oracle and the Mountains," (February 1981).  Stephen King's recent books include DANSE MACABRE, non-fiction from Everest House, and CUJO, a new horror novel due in the fall from Viking.

The story is preceded by a lengthy synopsis.  

The Slow Mutants closes with this note: This ends the fourth section of The Dark Tower --the story of Roland the last gunslinger, and his search for the Tower that stands at the root of time.

"The Gunslinger and the Dark Man" (November 1981)

The Gunslinger And The Dark Man opens with: "Stephen King's tales about Roland, the last gunslinger, include: "The Gunslinger" (October 1978), "The Way Station" (April 1980), "The Oracle and the Mountains" (February1981), "The Slow Mutants" (July 1981) an, below, the fifth and last story in the first cycle.  The series will be published in a limited hard-cover edition by Donald M. Grant in the Spring of 1982."

The story is preceded by a very lengthy synopsis.  

The Gunslinger And The Dark Man closes with this note: "This ends the fifth and last section of the First Cycle of the Dark Tower -- the story of Roland, the last gunslinger and his search for the Tower that stands at the root of time."

The Shining First Edition

Do first editions matter?  They do.  Why?  I'm not totally sure!  But I like first editions, and special editions (first editions of the special editions.)  The earliest book I have a first edition of is The Shining.

What surprised me is how much the book club edition is like the first edition.  The first edition states first edition, has a 8.95 price tag, has R49 in the gutter of page 447, and has tan boards.  Book club has black boards.  It is exactly the same size, and sitting beside one another in their dust jackets, the two books look exactly the same.

Book Formats

photo credit: HERE

Collecting Stephen King can mean purchasing multiple formats of the same book. 

I decided with Just After Sunset that I was n o long going to buy first edition hardbacks.  I'm not sure the new books are really collectible, because they print so many copies.  Better to save my money, or buy special editions of the book.  Besides. . . someone usually ends up giving me a copy of King's latest book!

When I do buy a hardcover, because it is a special edition, it is usually not what I choose to read.  In fact, for just sitting around and reading, I prefer an old paperback !  My wife usually gets the book on Kindle.  But my number one preferred way to read is the audio version.  What does this mean?  It means I pay two or three times for each book!

Formats King's books come in:
1. Hardcover first edition.  Would anyone really read their first edition?  My wife read my Dark Tower Seven first edition.  But then she bought an artist edition.

2. Audio book.  The audio edition is usually released the same day as the hardcover.  Audible had 11.22.63 at midnight the day of it's release.  By the way, transferring the audible format to disk is very easy, for those of us who still have CD players in our car!

3. Kindle.  Also usually released the same time as the book, the Kindle edition is instant.  In fact, you can start reading with Kindle quicker than the hardcover.  Why?  Because how many bookstores are open at midnight for a Stephen King book?  I must be very old, but e-books are still difficult for me!  I feel like the words are stuck under glass.

4. Paperback.  When King wrote as Bachman, his books were released as simple paperbacks.  It's hard to imagine a King book now coming out in paperback.  Of course, King gave us "Stephen King Goes To The Movies" which was a paperback.  But it was a set of stories that had already be released.  Often the selling point for a paperback is either a new introduction or a preview of the upcoming Hardcover.

5. Special publishers.  Cemetery Dance and Donald M. Grant sometimes offer a special edition of King's newest book.  Cemetery Dance did a beautiful job with Full Dark, No stars!  And, this was the format I chose to spend money on, instead of the hardback first edition.  Let's face it, there is only so much room on shelves that loved ones are willing to devote wholly to Stephen King!  There still has to be room for Dickens, Bradbury and McCammon.  Wind Through The Keyhole will be offered by two publishers, Donald M. Grant and Scribner. 

6. British editions.  Some collectors make sure to buy the British edition since the cover is different and there might be other minor changes.  I am not sure that other foreign editions are really collectible.  (However, there is a German bootleg edition of IT that's worht a pretty penny.)

7. Signed editions.  Signed come in two types: Signed first editions from the publishers, and signed first editions that the reader has taken to a bookstore and gotten signed.  Sometimes the latter had special inscriptions included with the signature.  "Flat signed" is more valuable, but I always think the ones that are actually inscribed by King are a lot cooler!  These days, to get a signed copy from the publisher usually means entering a lottery.  They limit these -- because the author can only humanly sign so many copies, and to retain the value of the book.  Scribner actually prints a different price on the flap of the book if the book is signed.  So Under The Dome, signed, is marked as $200.  I like that because I think it helps the book retain at least that base value!  Also, it helps me remember which book cover goes with which book.

8. Single volumes previously published in a collection.  Sometimes popular stories that were part of a larger collection are later released individually as small paperbacks.  This usually happens when the story becomes a movie.  Thus there are single, paperback editions of books like The Mist. The Bachman books were released under the Bachman name as single paperbacks, then in a big collection with King's name on them.  You can now buy them individually under the King name.  All, except Rage, which King pulled from publication.

9. Single volumes later published together.  Green Mile fits this description best.  It was given to the public one small paperback at a time and only later as a first edition hardcover.

10. Gimmicks.  That's all I can call some editions!  Desperation and The Regulators released shrink wrapped together with a night light.  I have this somewhere. . . but who knows where!  Because to keep it "cool" it can't be taken out of the shrink wrap.  Personally, I am not a fan of keeping things shrink wrapped.  Other gimmicks have included a My Pretty Pony with a clock, Cemetery Dance's Blockade Billy with a baseball card (cool!). . . and a lot more!

11. Red Leather Bound editions.  I don't know if the Stephen King Library is still making these, but they were interesting!  No book cover, the selling point is the red leather binding with gold letters.  I have a few copies, but again, do not think I want to devote the shelf space to the entire set because they are all kind of the same!

12. Short stories.  Short stories can appear in magazines or anthologies.  These usually don't jump in value a lot.  I like the magazines, actually.  Old Twilight Zone magazines and stuff like that.  Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction published the true first editions of The Gunslinger.  They are fun to try to hunt down -- but that first one is a doozy to try and get your hands on!  King's short stories often appear in anthologies.  The Mist first appeared in Dark Forces. 

13. Introductions.  Ever notice that the old books are re-released with new introductions.  Does that make me buy the book again?  Not usually.  There is a new introduction to Salem's Lot.

14. Revisions.  Some books have been changed!  Gasp.  In particular, The Stand and the first Dark Tower come to mind.  I'm not clear if changes were made to the entire series of Dark Tower books throughout, or just the first novel.  I am not a pureist and always enjoy it when king gives us another version or edition of a story we love.

15. Movie tie-ins.  What the cover of your Different Seasons looks like might depend on which movie was coming out at the time. 

Under The Dome Special Edition

The moment the $75 special editin of Under The Dome was available from Scribner, I ordered it. Mark this under: Lessons learned. I then purchased UTD Signed Limited edtion -- $200.
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On November 10, I stopped at a chain bookstore and discovered a pile of the "limited" editions. But they weren't $75. Try more like 25% off, using store discounts. And there were other bargains. Buying from the publisher did not save any money.
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The signed edition arrived at the house on November 10. No extra fee was paid to rush shipping. The "special" edition arrived today, November 16.
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The difference in the books? NOTHING except the signature. It's the same book. Exactly. Only, one is marked $75 and is unsigned, the other has printed on the inside sleeve $200.
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What's the lesson? Buy the signed item and forget the "limited" editions. At least when they come out from the publisher. And extra $125 for King's signature is well worth it.
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Of course, Betts already noted that Scribner refused to offer the signed and special editions at a special rate for bookstores. This gave the publisher all of profit and left the small bookstore out in the rain. Nice of them, huh!
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Bottom line is this: Immediately when the sales closed on the signed editions, their value DOUBLED. While the unsigned special editions were selling BELOW their marked price. Just do the math.
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There, I will say no more about it.

Stephen King "Ex Library"

So here's two copies of carrie sold by the same seller (Betts). Note the gigantic difference in price between the ex library and the signed british edition.

CARRIE - UK First Edition - FLAT SIGNED - Hardcover in Dust Jacket as issued. On title page: Flat signed by Stephen King in blue felt tip pen. Condition: Near Fine in Near Fine D/J with some slight chipping in corners. sp (2,500)

CARRIE - Doubleday First Edition - Ex-Library BUT with no pocket - One stamp on Title page - Small sticker on Spine. - Excellent copy otherwise - dk ($600)

So the key differences:
1. British edition.
2. Signed.
3. Not a ex library.

But note how often an ex library edition cuts the price way, way, way down. The lesson to learn? Be careful when buying on Amazon and ebay. Some sellers either don't know, or won't say up front that they're selling an ex-library edition. --Yes, send them under the Dome also.

Of course, you can buy a later edition of Carrie (reporduction) for about $32.00. I see these appear on the market from time to time being billed as a "First Edition." The clue: The copright page. What might we say to those sellers? Yes, send them to the Dome as well.

Do "First" Editions Matter?

If you want to read Stephen King just for the pleasure of reading, does it really matter if you get a first edition or a tenth? Probably not. I wanted my daughter to read Eyes of the Dragon this summer. Of course, we bought a paperback -- there is no way she is reading and dragging around my first edition!

When collecting, first editions are essential. Why?

1. A first edition gives you a feel for the era it was prented in. Books looked different in the 70's than they did in the 80's or 90's. Notice how nice a King book looks these days, compared to how cheap they were in "the day." This may sound strange, but the truth is, when I get a first edition I look at the date and think: "I remember what was going on in the world when this book was on the shelves."

This was particularly true of IT. As a child, I remember walking by a stack of books titled "IT" and thinking I would never know what that was all about! Now I own that very copy that could possibly be one of those copies I saw sitting there.

2. First editions are more rare. This naturally makes them more valuable. The hunt is on when searching for the true "first."

3. In some cases, first editions are almost unobtrainable. I have all of the Dark Tower Books first edition -- except . . . THAT one. You know which one, right? The Gunslinger. I have a second edition. And a third edition. But my wife just can't see putting out a thousand dollars for a first. Sigh. It is also especially hard to get first editions of: alem's Lot (with the boo boo), Carrie The Shining, and even nightshift.

4. Bachman books are hard to find in first edition simply because they were published without the King name attached. I found one for five dollars a few years back in a local used bookstore (God bless them).

5. British First Editions add another element to the hunt. I have not tried hard to find British editions, but I have bumped into a few and bought them. Usually at used bookstores that didn't know one King book from another.

I am not sure that books about King are valuable as first editions, though the rule seems to apply for anything: It is worth more in its original state.