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How to Identify a First Edition of The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger

Stephen King

The first edition is the 1982 Donald M. Grant, illustrated by Michael Whelan — not a Viking or Signet copy. It was issued as 52 lettered copies, 500 signed and numbered copies in slipcases, and a 10,000-copy trade hardcover. If yours is the trade issue, the first printing has maroon boards, coloured endpapers, and two prices on the jacket; the second printing has black boards, plain endpapers, and one price.

The first edition at a glance

Publisher
Donald M. Grant, Publisher
Published
1982
Original price
$60.00 (signed and numbered issue)
Pages
224
Edition statement
Donald M. Grant, 1982, illustrated by Michael Whelan. The signed issue carries a limitation sheet stating the edition is limited to 500 copies signed by the author and the artist.

Identification checklist

  • Publisher — the point most copies fail

    Donald M. Grant, 1982. The book was reissued in 1998 and again by Viking in 2003, and those later printings are common. A Gunslinger from any publisher other than Grant is not the first edition.

  • Trade issue — first printing versus second

    Three marks separate them, and they agree with each other. The first printing has maroon cover boards, coloured endpapers, and two prices printed on the dust jacket. The second printing has black boards, endpapers that are not printed in colour, and a single price on the jacket.

  • Signed issue — the limitation sheet

    500 slipcased copies, signed and numbered by King and Whelan, at an issue price of $60. The limitation sheet states the edition is limited to 500 copies signed by the author and artist, with a blank for the copy's number.

  • Lettered issue

    52 copies, marked A–Z and AA–AZ.

  • Illustrations

    Michael Whelan, who also painted the jacket art for the signed issue.

What does not make it a first edition

  • The 1998 reissue

    A third printing of 11,000 copies with a redesigned jacket, sold only as part of a three-volume boxed set rather than singly.

  • The 2003 Viking edition

    A reissue of 60,000 copies, revised throughout by King and carrying a new foreword. A different text as well as a different publisher — it was released to coincide with the fifth Dark Tower volume.

Variants and states

  • Lettered copies

    52 copies, marked A–Z and AA–AZ.

  • Signed and numbered copies

    500 slipcased copies signed by King and Whelan. Issue price $60.

  • Trade hardcover, first printing

    10,000 copies with dust jacket, of which roughly 1,500 were misbound. Maroon boards, coloured endpapers, two prices on the jacket.

  • Trade hardcover, second printing

    10,000 copies. Black boards, plain endpapers, one price on the jacket.

  • Reserved copies

    Copies set aside outside the numbered run and marked accordingly: 12 publisher's copies, 40 author's copies, 10 artist's copies, and roughly 25 presentation copies, which are signed but neither numbered nor slipcased.

Think you have one?

Photograph the cover and the copyright page and FirstFinder will work out the edition and printing, then price it against copies that actually sold. What a specific copy is worth depends on its condition and its jacket, which is why there is no single number on this page.

Check your copy

Other identification guides

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