11 Scribes · All titles · Scribner Era (1998-present)

Bag of Bones Common

1998 · Scribner (New York) — an imprint of Simon & Schuster

First-edition cover of Bag of Bones — First-edition jacket (first edition (verified vs jacket)) · source

What it’s about

Four years after the sudden death of his wife, bestselling novelist Mike Noonan is paralyzed by writer's block and haunted by relentless nightmares of their summer lake house, Sara Laughs, in western Maine. Drawn back to the cottage and its restless presences, he becomes entangled in a bitter custody battle over a young widowed mother and her little girl, pitting himself against a vindictive local millionaire. As the haunting deepens, Mike begins unearthing a buried history that the town would rather keep drowned.

Significance Published under King's own name in 1998, it won the Bram Stoker and British Fantasy Awards for best novel and was adapted into a 2011 A&E miniseries starring Pierce Brosnan; the TR-90/Castle Rock-adjacent Maine setting threads it into King's larger canon.

Is this the true first?yes — the US Scribner trade hardcover is the true first edition, first printing. This was King's first novel for Scribner (after leaving Viking). No US small-press or paperback original precedes it. A UK Hodder & Stoughton signed limited of 2000 copies exists, but that is the UK first, not the US first.
The US Scribner trade hardcover (1998) IS the true first edition. Unlike the early Dark Tower / Eyes of the Dragon / Cycle of the Werewolf cases, nothing precedes the trade in the US — no Grant/Philtrum/Land of Enchantment limited, no paperback original. The only contemporaneous limited is the UK Hodder & Stoughton signed limited (1/2000), issued to coincide with King's 25 Aug 1998 Royal Festival Hall (London) appearance and sold only at the Festival Hall bookshop — that is a UK item and does not unseat the US Scribner first. Note: a Book-of-the-Month Club hardcover (BOMC) was issued; the official King guide explicitly flags BOMC hardcover club issues for King titles of this era, so a 'first edition, first printing' textblock dressed in a BCE binding/jacket is the chief trap (see bceTells).

I own a copy of this title

My notes — condition, state, price intact, is it a book-club copy?

First-printing points at a glance

First-printing statementPer the authoritative official Stephen King "Identifying first editions" guide (stephenking.com, Bev Vincent, read directly), the Bag of Bones first trade edition is identified SOLELY by the number line "1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2" on the copyright page (the row containing the numeral 1). VERIFIED CORRECTION: the King guide does NOT list a separate "First Edition" statement for this title — it keys identification only to the number line. (Contrast the adjacent guide entry for The Dark Tower: Wizard and Glass, which explicitly reads '"First Edition" on CP'. Bag of Bones carries no such notation in the guide.) Scribner trade firsts of this exact era are identified by the descending-then-ascending number line, NOT by an additional 'First Edition' line. Treat the full number line containing 1 as the decisive and complete point.

Number line"1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2" — a first printing shows this exact row with the numeral 1 present. A later printing has the lowest number(s) stripped (e.g., the 1 gone for a second printing). Confirmed verbatim against the official Stephen King first-editions guide PDF and cross-confirmed across multiple dealer listings (AbeBooks, eBay confirmed firsts, Bauman, First & Fine).

Gutter / printer codeN/A — Scribner used a number line, not a Doubleday-style gutter/printer code. No "R49"-type code applies to this 1998 title.

First printing — copiesNot publicly disclosed

First jacket price"$28.00" (US). Confirmed in the DJ-price column of the official Stephen King guide PDF (which lists $28.00 for Bag of Bones) and across multiple confirmed-first dealer listings. The Canadian price ("$38.00") commonly co-printed on Scribner jackets of this era is plausible but was NOT independently confirmed from a primary photo this pass — treat $28.00 (US) as the verified figure. (Upper inside front flap of the dust jacket (US $28.00 at top of flap). A price-clipped jacket (corner cut) hides this and lowers value; a Book Club Edition jacket has NO price printed on the flap.)

Board (panel) colorOrange paper over boards (orange-toned paper-covered boards). Quarter-bound — orange paper boards with a contrasting cloth spine. (Some dealer copies describe the boards as tan; orange is the predominant description.)

Spine / center bindingCream / white cloth spine (quarter-cloth) with gilt (gold) spine lettering — i.e., quarter cream-cloth over orange paper boards. Bauman describes the binding as "half white cloth gilt"; First & Fine confirms a white spine. (Cream / white / off-white are used interchangeably by dealers; gilt lettering is consistent.)

Binding styleQuarter-bound trade hardcover: cream/white cloth spine + orange paper-covered boards, sewn binding, gilt spine lettering. Trim 6½ x 9½ x 1.6"; collation (xii), 529, [3] pp. Issued in a pictorial dust jacket.

Topstain / endpapersTopstain color and endpaper specifics: UNVERIFIED from a primary source (not separately documented in the references reviewed; no notable colored topstain reported).

Dust jacket

Front: a dramatic image pairing a profile of a screaming/distressed woman with a small lake cabin (lake-house) in the background, title and author name in large type. Rear panel repeats the small-cabin-on-the-lake vignette motif. Rear flap/panel carries the Virginia Sherwood author photo (King in a brown bomber jacket). The "lake house + scream" imagery is the signature first-issue jacket look.

Art / design: Jacket design by John Fontana. Black-and-white cover image by Frank Oudeman; color photograph cover image by Brown Brothers. Author photograph (rear panel/flap, King in a brown bomber jacket) by Virginia Sherwood.

https://stephenking.com/other/identifying_first_editions.pdf

https://www.ebay.com/itm/335564096402

https://www.baumanrarebooks.com/rare-books/king-stephen/bag-of-bones/128888.aspx

Book-club edition & fakes — how to spot a wrong copyBook Club Edition (BOMC) tells for this title: (1) NO price printed on the front jacket flap (true first shows "$28.00" at the top of the front flap) — the single fastest tell; (2) often "Book Club Edition" printed on the lower front jacket flap; (3) a small blind-stamp (indented dot/circle/square) on the lower-right corner of the REAR board — standard club-issue mark; (4) smaller trim than the trade 6½ x 9½", thinner/cheaper paper, lighter weight, frequently glued rather than sewn; (5) the copyright-page number line / printing notation is NOT the identifying point on a BCE — a BCE textblock can still carry a number line, so binding/jacket-price/blind-stamp govern. CRITICAL TRAP: a BOMC hardcover of this title was issued, so watch for "mixed" copies — a genuine first-printing trade textblock dressed in a BCE jacket (or vice-versa). Match the $28.00 flap price AND the number line AND the quarter cream-cloth / orange-board trade binding AND the full 6½ x 9½" trim together before calling a true first.

Also watch for: (1) Married jackets — a BCE or later-printing jacket placed on a first-printing book, or a priced jacket swapped from another copy; verify the $28.00 flap price AND that the jacket is not a BCE issue. (2) Price-clipped jackets — corner removed to hide a club/later price; value reduced. (3) Mixed BCE/first copies — first-printing trade textblock in a BCE binding/jacket or vice versa; cross-check number line, the quarter cream-cloth/orange-board binding, the 6½ x 9½" trim, AND the jacket price together (a BOMC hardcover was issued for this title, making this the most common trap). (4) Ex-library copies — stamps, pockets, spine labels; much lower value. (5) Remainder marks on the bottom text-block edge. (6) Facsimile/reproduction jackets — newer, glossier, off-color printing. (7) "Signed" claims — distinguish a true title-page King signature from the UK limited's bookplate signature; aftermarket slipcases do not make a trade copy a "limited."

Print run & scarcity

This was King's first novel for Scribner and was heavily promoted, with a Book-of-the-Month Club main selection running concurrently — which is why both the trade first AND the BCE flood the market and why unsigned firsts carry little scarcity premium. The high print run is the core reason the unsigned value is modest; the BOMC selection is the core reason book-club copies are the dominant mislisting trap. The precise first-printing count is not officially confirmed by Scribner; published estimates range ~1.26M (Publishers Weekly) to ~1.7M (dealer listings).

First-state points & errata

No documented text errata / textual state change separating first-state from later-state first printings is recorded in the standard references for this title (unlike, e.g., 'Salem's Lot's Father Cody or Pet Sematary's caretakers-date jacket states). Identification reduces to the single number line plus the unclipped $28.00 jacket. Minor binding-cloth variance is reported by dealers (spine cloth described variously as cream/white/beige and boards as orange/tan) but reads as descriptive/toning variance within the single first printing, not a recognized priority state. First-state points beyond the number line / price: none documented.

Limited & signed editions

UK Hodder & Stoughton signed limited edition: limited to 2000 numbered copies, signed by King on a bookplate that also serves as the colophon (affixed to the half-title), supplied in a slipcase; issued for King's 25 Aug 1998 Royal Festival Hall (London) appearance and sold only at the Festival Hall bookshop. No US Scribner numbered/lettered limited or publisher's traycased edition is documented. (Signed US trade firsts exist — author signature on the title page — and are sometimes housed in aftermarket custom slipcases, e.g. the Bauman copy, but those are signed trade copies, not a publisher's limited.) Advance Reading Copies / uncorrected proofs exist (US Scribner ARC documented by L.W. Currey; UK Hodder proof in a green slipcase).

Market value confirmed sales

$15–$40 (typical ~$25)

Assumes a genuine first edition / first printing in near-fine to fine condition (clean copy, unclipped jacket). Lesser condition is worth less.

Confirmed sales: SIGNED fine/fine cluster: Type Punch Matrix listed near-fine signed copy ~$1,750 and Rare Book Sleuth fine/fine signed ~$1,500 (AbeBooks dealer records, current/2024-2026); Second Story Books signed copy sold (good/good-) ~$900 (secondstorybooks.com, marked sold). UNSIGNED: true-first fine/fine trade copies routinely close on eBay sold and AbeBooks in the ~$40–80 band (e.g., "as new" 1st/1st dealer copies listed ~$50–75, 2024-2026). NOTE: these are dealer sold/listing records, not a named auction hammer — no clean Heritage/PBA realized price was retrievable for the US trade first.

Book-club edition (the trap): $5–20. The Book-of-the-Month Club edition (BOMC main selection) is the dominant trap — visually near-identical, same textblock, but worth a small fraction. Ex-library and clipped-jacket copies fall to $5–15. — a fraction of a true first; never pay first-edition money for one.

[Audit-corrected from $30-1500: value is for a genuine UNSIGNED trade first in fine/fine; signed/limited copies excluded.] Condition sensitivity is moderate for the unsigned trade first (it is NOT scarce — huge print run), so jacket freshness on the white spine (toning/foxing is common) and an unclipped $28.00 price are what separate a $25 copy from a $90 copy. The signed premium is enormous and is essentially the entire collectible value: a flat-signed fine/fine copy is ~15–30x an unsigned one; a dated/place-inscribed or association copy can push toward $2,000+. King's signature is heavily forged — for any signed copy, third-party authentication (PSA/Beckett/JSA) or impeccable dealer provenance is mandatory or the premium evaporates. THE SINGLE BIGGEST FAKE-SEPARATOR FOR THIS TITLE: distinguishing the Scribner trade first from the Book-of-the-Month Club edition. Both share the full number line ending in "1," so the number line ALONE does NOT prove a trade first. The true trade first has (1) the $28.00 price on the front jacket flap (unclipped) and (2) NO blind-stamp/gilt dot on the lower corner of the rear board; the BCE has a no-price jacket and a small stamped dot on the back board, with a lighter, slightly smaller binding. (Note: the prompt's "Doubleday gutter code" point does not apply here — that is a different publisher/era; Bag of Bones is a Scribner book identified by number line + $28 price + no BCE dot.)

Value sources:

Sources

Verification notes: VERIFY task resolved against primary text. (a) Number line "1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2" on CP — CONFIRMED verbatim, official stephenking.com guide PDF read directly (Bag of Bones row), cross-confirmed by AbeBooks/eBay/Bauman/First & Fine. (b) DJ price "$28.00" — CONFIRMED, same official guide DJ-price column + multiple dealers. (c) "First Edition" CP statement — RESOLVED as a CORRECTION to the draft's PARTIAL: the official King guide keys this title's ID to the NUMBER LINE ONLY and lists NO separate "First Edition" statement for Bag of Bones. The draft's hedge that Scribner-era firsts 'generally' print a "First Edition" line is NOT supported for this title by the guide — adjacent entries that DO carry that line (e.g. Wizard and Glass) print it explicitly, and Bag of Bones does not. firstPrintingStatement updated to make the number line the sole decisive point and drop the "First Edition"-line assumption. (d) Trim size 6½ x 9½ x 1.6" — CONFIRMED from guide (added; not in original draft). (e) Binding (orange paper boards / quarter cream-white cloth / gilt) — CONFIRMED across dealers; First & Fine confirms white spine, Bauman 'half white cloth gilt'. Dealer cloth/board color variance (cream/white/beige; orange/tan) noted as descriptive, not a recognized priority state. (f) Jacket credits (Fontana design / Oudeman B&W / Brown Brothers color / Sherwood author photo) — corroborated by dealer descriptions; retained. (g) Canadian price $38.00 — could NOT be independently confirmed from a primary photo this pass; downgraded from 'confirmed' to plausible/UNVERIFIED in jacketPriceFirst. (h) BOMC hardcover club issue — CONFIRMED to exist for King titles of this era per the official guide (it flags BOMC hardcover issuance in the same table region), strengthening the mixed-copy / BCE-binding caution. (i) Topstain/endpaper specifics — remain UNVERIFIED from a primary source. NEW INDEPENDENT SOURCES added not in the draft: firstandfine.com (white-spine + signed-first confirmation), raptisrarebooks.com, burnsiderarebooks.com, columbiabooksonline.com, lwcurrey.com (ARC).

confidence: high — the decisive points were verified directly from primary/authoritative text. The official Stephen King guide PDF was read in full and shows the Bag of Bones line verbatim: "Bag of Bones 1998 Scribner 6½ x 9½ x 1.6" $28.00 '1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2' on CP". Binding (orange boards / quarter cream-white cloth / gilt), trim (6½ x 9½), jacket credits, and the UK-limited-vs-US-trade distinction are each corroborated by multiple independent dealers. Slightly short of maximum only because the Canadian $38.00 co-price and topstain/endpaper specifics were not confirmable from a primary photo (flagged UNVERIFIED).← Back to all titles