Eyes of the Dragon 1st edition Cover. 1st Edition Cover. A first edition of 400,000 copies was issued with a dustjacket and price of $18.95. First edition copies will. Stephen King, The Eyes Of The Dragon Signed First Edition. Dedicated and signed by Stephen King. 'For Jerome- with best wishes, Stephen King 9/4/94'. In the world of horror and (to a lesser extent) sci-fi publishing, there has been for many years a somewhat under-the-radar business in collectible books -- whether they be rare first editions, limited-run deluxe versions of mainstream novels or even stories privately published and circulated by the authors themselves. It should come as no surprise that the biggest and most collectible name in this market is Stephen King, whose huge popularity over his 42-year career as a published novelist has meant that the value of anything less than easy to find on the shelves of your local Barnes & Noble or at Amazon is usually quite high. ![]() It was fairly early in King's career that limited editions of his books began to appear, most notably The Dark Tower cycle; King himself apparently thought those books too weird for his mainstream publisher at the time, so he handed them off to boutique publisher Donald M. Grant and started a frenzy that saw Grant institute a lottery system for each succeeding book in the series. King has done 'em all: rare first editions, signed limited versions, and yes, he's even privately published a few things himself. As you might imagine, the prices for all these items (especially if they're signed) make collecting rare King a rather expensive endeavor, albeit a potentially good investment as well. If you're a fan, however, it's also a deeply satisfying hobby -- I've dabbled myself, and some of the limited or special editions from King and other authors are not just books but works of art. There's no way we can get to all of them here, but below is a sampling of some of the most sought-after and rare Stephen King editions around. If you feel like hunting a few down yourself, make sure your checkbook or credit card is in relatively healthy shape. But it will be worth it. (Special thanks to for invaluable research assistance.). King has been a publishing phenomenon almost since his career began in earnest with Carrie, but many people discovered his early classics like that, 'Salem's Lot (more on that later) and The Shining through paperback editions. Stephen King The Eyes Of The Dragon First Edition![]() As a result, hardcover first editions of his first few novels are much more difficult to find and consequently very expensive depending on their condition. First printings of Carrie can go for $1,700, while signed copies can rocket up as high as $7,500. Signed first editions of The Shining can fetch anywhere from $4,000 to $6,000 (more recent special anniversary limited editions of these books have also started to climb in value). As King has published more books and signed less, firsts of later novels have tended not to increase in value as much. But if someone in your family has an old copy of Carrie collecting dust on a shelf in their house, check it out.and if it's a first edition, politely ask to borrow it (ha ha). Occasionally King has had a desire to publish something himself that he felt did not have huge mainstream appeal, so he set up his own tiny publishing house, Philtrum Press, to do it. ![]() Diamond ati tv wonder 600 pcie tv tuner card windows 10. One of those publications was Six Stories, a paperback collection of half a dozen short works, signed by King, that was released in a very small run of just 1,100 copies. 900 of those were sold through Philtrum, while King distributed the other 200 privately. Copies of both can go from $650 to $1300, while an even smaller batch of 28 'proof' copies and 10 'presentation' copies spike as high as $1,600. Most if not all of the stories are available elsewhere, but King completists will still want this. The Dark Tower series, which in the main consists of eight novels and one novella, is the central linchpin of King's entire published canon -- the glue that holds all the universes of almost all his stories together. He began writing the horror/sci-fi/dark fantasy/Western hybrid early in his career as a series of novellas, three of which were collected as the first novel in the cycle, The Gunslinger (1982). Stephen King The Eyes Of The Dragon First EditionThe book was published in a signed, limited edition by the tiny Rhode Island publishing house Donald M. Grant, but once word got out about the book -- and the succeeding novels -- interest began to spiral upwards, along with the value of the original Grant editions. A complete set of the signed, limited first editions of the core seven books (minus 2012's The Wind Through the Keyhole and the 1998 novella The Little Sisters of Eluria) is going on one site for $22,000; but single copies of The Gunslinger can snag as much as $7,700 at eBay and other outlets. In the early days of King's career, the prolific author published several novels under a pseudonym, Richard Bachman, because publishers didn't like putting out more than one book a year from an author and because these novels weren't horror and might confuse fans of the King 'brand.'
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