"BEYOND THE LIGHTS, THERE IS ONLY DARKNESS": LIMITED FIRST EDITION, SIGNED BY STEPHEN KING

KING, Stephen. Joyland. (London): Hard Case Crime, (2013). Octavo, original black paper, original dust jacket. $3500.

Limited signed first edition, number 307 of 724 numbered copies, illustrated by Robert McGinnis and signed by King on the limitation page.

Set at an amusement park in North Carolina in 1973, "Joyland is a far gentler, deeper, more thoughtful book than the one it masquerades as. More a coming-of-age mystery than a horror-filled thriller, it's closer to the tone of King's short story 'The Body'—on which the film Stand By Me is based—than it is to the author's real forays into horror, and all the more intriguing for it" (Guardian). One of three limited editions issued in the same year, the other two a signed, lettered edition limited to 26 copies and a gift (unsigned) edition limited to 1500 copies. Illustrated with a front-cover painting and nine full-page pencil drawings by Robert McGinnis—a master of pulp art—and with a map of the Joyland amusement park created by Susan Hunt Yule especially for the hardcover editions.

Fine condition.