"AS SATISFYING AS DRACULA OR THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES OR STRANGE CASE OF DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE": FIRST EDITION OF 'SALEM'S LOT, INSCRIBED BY STEPHEN KING

KING, Stephen. 'Salem's Lot. Garden City, New York: Doubleday, 1975. Octavo, original half black cloth, original dust jacket; housed in a custom slipcase. $11,000.

First edition of King's rare second novel, inscribed on the title page by the author: "For Greg–With all good wishes, Stephen King / June 23, 1979," in second-issue dust jacket, as always (virtually no first-issue jackets exist).

King's breakthrough second novel "gave birth not only to gaggles of vampire stories… but also all kinds of creepy works in general…'Salem's Lot, because of its genuineness, its verve, its originality, its willingness to reflect, expand and celebrate its sources, and, most importantly, its establishment of Stephen King… as a pioneer in a field ripe for re-invention, was germinal and originative of the entire boom in horror fiction" (Horror: 100 Best Books 72). "The dread that passes over its pages like a lengthening shadow is still profoundly disquieting and some of the narrative's key scenes (the levitation at the window; the temptation of the old priest; the death of a key ally) remains shocking. It is entirely satisfying—as satisfying as Dracula or The Hound of the Baskervilles or Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde—and, viewed from the vantage of a half a century later, it may well be Stephen King's best book" (Times Literary Supplement). King has said, "In 'Salem's Lot, the thing that really scared me was not vampires but the town in the daytime, the town that was empty, knowing that there were things in closets, that there were people tucked under beds, under the concrete pilings of all those trailers. And all the time I was writing that, the Watergate hearings were pouring out of the TV… I was thinking about secrets, things that have been hidden and were being dragged out into the light." "King's ability, through the overlayering of seemingly irrelevant mundane details, to generate a sense of wrongness found its first full flowering in this novel" (Clute & Grant, 537). First issue dust jackets (of which only a very few are known to exist) had the incorrect printed price of $8.95 and the incorrect "Father Cody" on the front flap. The price mistake was quickly caught while still at the printer, and prices were clipped off these early dust jackets. A new price of $7.95 was added but the incorrect "Father Cody" remained, making them second-issue jackets. Third-issue jackets were completely reprinted, with the correct price and the priest's name corrected to "Father Callahan." Barron 60-203. Brooks A3. Tymn 4-133. Evidence of bookplate removal to front free endpaper.

Minor shelfwear to book and dust jacket extremities. A near-fine inscribed copy.