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Black House Common

with Peter Straub

2001 · Random House (New York) — trade hardcover (US true first). UK first: HarperCollins, London (£65). Signed limiteds (2002): Donald M. Grant, Publisher.

First-edition cover of Black House — First-edition jacket (first (Wikipedia infobox)) · source

What it’s about

In the quiet town of French Landing, Wisconsin, a serial child-killer dubbed "the Fisherman" is terrorizing the community, and the police are out of their depth. Their only hope is Jack Sawyer, a brilliant retired homicide detective who has buried memories of a strange, otherworldly childhood — and who must confront the fact that this case reaches far beyond any ordinary crime. A dark-fantasy horror-thriller that blends small-town police procedural with a creeping intrusion of forces from another world.

Significance Co-written by Stephen King and Peter Straub as the sequel to their 1984 collaboration "The Talisman," it deepens the duo's ties to King's Dark Tower mythos and is one of only two novels the two horror titans wrote together.

Is this the true first?Yes. The Random House 2001 trade hardcover is the first hardcover and the true first edition of the text. (A simultaneous/near-simultaneous UK first was published by HarperCollins London in 2001 at £65; US Random House is the accepted true first.)
The Random House 2001 trade hardcover is the true first edition. No paperback-original or small-press hardcover precedes it. The Donald M. Grant, Publisher limiteds are LATER (dated 2002, illustrated by Rick Berry): (1) the signed/numbered limited of 1,520 in full leather with traycase, and (2) the 3,500-copy gift slipcase set paired with The Talisman. Both Grant editions are collectible but are NOT the true first of the text. The HarperCollins UK 2001 (black cloth, silver spine titling, de-bossed crow to front board, £65) is a separate first issue, not the US true first.

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 statementCopyright page is STATED "First Trade Edition" (Random House language for the first printing), accompanied by the Random House number line. A true first printing requires BOTH the "First Trade Edition" statement AND the correct number line ending in 2. NOTE: a two-letter printer code (e.g., "DC", "DH", "Q") often appears below the "First Trade Edition" statement — these identify which of three printers produced the copy and are NOT edition/printing points.

Number lineRandom House convention: the number line DROPS toward "2" and a first printing's line terminates in "2" (lowest number is 2, NOT 1) — e.g., "9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2" pattern; do NOT expect a "1". A later printing has the lower numbers stripped from the right (line lacking the "2" / starting higher = later printing). CRITICAL CAVEAT: the BOOK CLUB EDITION ALSO carries a number line starting with/ending in "2", so the number line alone CANNOT separate a trade first from a club copy — confirm via silver spine lettering + priced jacket.

Gutter / printer codeN/A for a Doubleday-style gutter code. HOWEVER: this Random House title carries a two-letter PRINTER code (e.g., "DC", "DH", "Q") printed below the "First Trade Edition" statement on the copyright page — three different printers were used and these letters merely identify the printer, NOT a different edition or printing.

First printing — copies~2,000,000 copies (first trade hardcover printing, Random House, 2001). Separately, Donald M. Grant signed/numbered limited (2002): 1,520 leather-bound traycased copies; a reported gift edition of ~3,500. accepted figure

First jacket price$28.95 (Front dust-jacket flap (upper/top of the front inner flap). The Canadian price ($43.95 CAD) typically also appears. A price-clipped jacket (corner cut) hides this and lowers value AND can mask a Book Club copy — but note a true club jacket was printed with NO price at all, while a clipped trade jacket shows a cut corner.)

Board (panel) colorBlack paper/cloth-covered boards. NOTE: the Book Club Edition ALSO has black boards, so board color does NOT distinguish a trade first from a club copy.

Spine / center bindingBlack spine with SILVER spine titling on the trade first edition. This is a key first-vs-BCE point: the trade first has SILVER spine lettering; the Book Club Edition has GOLD spine lettering. (Boards are black on both.)

Binding styleSewn trade hardcover, cloth/paper over boards, 625pp, ISBN 0375504397 / 9780375504396. Very large Random House first printing (reported ~2,000,000 copies), so true firsts are common and inexpensive. The Book Club Edition shares the same general binding (black boards) and differs mainly in spine-lettering color (gold) and the unpriced jacket.

Topstain / endpapersNo notable topstain reported (plain). Endpapers reported plain. UNVERIFIED to a single canonical binding reference for any decorative endpaper or stained edge.

Dust jacket

Sparse, eerie design: predominantly black with shades of black/gray; title and authors in silver and black; imagery evoking the "black house" (silhouette/architectural motifs; a shoe/boot-print element). Author photos of King and Straub typically on the rear flap. (The UK HarperCollins first uses a different design with a de-bossed crow-in-flight to the front board.)

Art / design: UNVERIFIED for the Random House trade-jacket designer/photographer credit (not named on the collector pages consulted). NOTE: the SEPARATE Donald M. Grant limited/gift editions are illustrated throughout by Rick Berry (22 full-color plates; art © 2002 Rick Berry) — that Berry art does NOT appear on the Random House trade jacket.

https://www.stephenkingcollector.com/1st/blackhouse.html

https://veryfinebooks.com/stephen-king-peter-straub-black-house-signed-limited-first-edition-929-1520-sealed/

https://johnatkinsonbooks.co.uk/book/stephen-king-and-peter-straub-black-house-first-uk-edition-2001/

Book-club edition & fakes — how to spot a wrong copyPer the Stephen King collector community (stephenkingcollector.com forums), the trade first and the BOMC Book Club Edition are essentially IDENTICAL except for two tells: (1) SPINE LETTERING COLOR — trade first = SILVER, Book Club Edition = GOLD; and (2) DUST JACKET PRICE — trade first jacket is PRICED ($28.95 front flap), Book Club jacket has NO printed price. CRITICAL CORRECTION: both the trade first AND the BCE carry a number line that starts with/terminates in "2" — the number line does NOT distinguish them, so do not rely on it to rule out a club copy. Board color (black) is also identical on both. Some BCEs may carry a small blind-stamp on the rear board, but the SILVER-vs-GOLD spine + priced-vs-unpriced jacket are the documented, reliable tells.

Also watch for: (1) BOOK CLUB EDITIONS mis-sold as firsts are the #1 hazard — the number line does NOT help (both start with "2"); check SILVER (trade) vs GOLD (club) spine lettering and a PRICED ($28.95) vs UNPRICED jacket. (2) PRICE-CLIPPED jackets hide the $28.95 and can disguise a club copy (clipped trade = cut corner; true club = no price ever printed). (3) MARRIED jackets — a priced trade jacket placed on a gold-spine club book or vice versa; verify spine lettering color + copyright statement independently of the jacket. (4) Ex-library copies (stamps/pockets) and remainder marks (sprayed/marker dot to bottom edge) reduce value. (5) Print run ~2M, so true firsts are abundant and cheap — premiums attach only to fine/fine unclipped (especially signed) copies; beware inflated "first edition" pricing on plain reading copies. (6) Don't confuse the UK HarperCollins first or the Grant 2002 limiteds with the US Random House true first.

Print run & scarcity

Format: hardcover trade first edition (Random House, 0-375-50439-7, Sept 2001). Quirk noted by collectors: the Random House first printing carries a number line beginning with "2" (not "1"), which is the true first state. Trade first printing announced at ~2 million copies. The signed limited edition was published the following year (2002) by Donald M. Grant, Publishers (not Random House): 1,520 signed & numbered, full-leather, traycased copies. No lettered-state count was surfaced. A ~3,500-copy gift edition was mentioned in one listing summary. No precise official figure beyond the announced 2M trade run is published by Random House; the 2M number originates from trade/collector reporting (e.g., stephenkingcollector.com).

First-state points & errata

No widely-documented internal first-state-vs-later-state TEXT erratum (typo/correction) is recorded for this title in standard collector references. The first-printing identity is the COMBINATION of: "First Trade Edition" stated + the Random House number line ending in "2" + SILVER spine lettering + the unclipped $28.95 priced jacket. The two-letter printer codes below the statement (DC/DH/Q etc.) are printer variants, NOT distinct states/printings. UNVERIFIED as to any internal text-state variant.

Limited & signed editions

Donald M. Grant, Publisher (Hampton Falls, NH; 2002): (1) Signed/Numbered LIMITED of 1,520 copies, bound in full deep-black textured leather with silver-impressed cover/spine titles, housed in a matching black leather wrap-around/clamshell traycase, signed by Stephen King, Peter Straub, AND illustrator Rick Berry, illustrated throughout, issued WITHOUT dust jacket; (2) GIFT edition of 3,500 copies — a two-volume slipcased set (black slipcase, each volume with illustrated DJ) pairing Black House with a matching The Talisman, signed by Peter Straub and Rick Berry only (NOT signed by King), with 22 Rick Berry full-color plates, issue price ~$150. A lettered state is UNVERIFIED.

Market value confirmed sales

$15–60 (true First Trade Edition, fine/fine, unclipped $28.95 jacket, silver spine lettering). Signed-by-both trade firsts $200–500; the Grant signed limited (separate book) $700–1,400.

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

Confirmed sales: Unsigned First Trade Editions in collectible fine/fine routinely close $15–40 on eBay sold (2024–2025) — e.g. multiple HC/DJ "First Trade Edition" sold listings in the $20–35 band. Signed-by-both trade firsts (King+Straub) have sold roughly $250–450 on eBay sold/AbeBooks (2024–2025). Grant signed limited (1,520 traycased, signed King/Straub/Berry) trades ~$675–999 dealer, with sold/closed examples ~$700–900 (eBay sold, 2024–2025). No Heritage/PBA auction record located for the trade first — it's too common to consign; absence is itself the signal.

Book-club edition (the trap): $5–12. The Book Club Edition (BOMC) is near-identical to the trade first — same black cloth, debossed crow — which is exactly why it's the #1 trap on this title. Distinguish it by: (1) GOLD spine lettering on the BCE vs. SILVER on the true trade first, and (2) NO printed price on the jacket flap (true first jacket is priced $28.95). A BCE is essentially worthless as a collectible. — a fraction of a true first; never pay first-edition money for one.

PROMPT CORRECTION: this is a King/Straub Random House title, not Bachman/Doubleday — no Doubleday gutter code exists for it; that point belongs to King's Doubleday-era books (Carrie/Salem's Lot/The Shining). THE SINGLE BIGGEST TELL separating a true first from the mislisted copies of THIS title: SILVER spine lettering + a PRINTED $28.95 price on the unclipped jacket flap + number line "2 4 6 8 9 7 5 3" with "First Trade Edition" stated on the copyright page (note the deceptive line — there is NO '1', so sellers wrongly call it 'not a first' or call a later state a first). GOLD spine lettering and/or no jacket price = Book Club Edition, the trap. Condition sensitivity is mild on the unsigned trade first because supply is effectively infinite at 2M copies — even fine/fine tops out low; a price-clipped or jacketless copy is a near-zero book. Signed premium is where ALL the value lives: a clean signature of BOTH King and Straub on a trade first lifts it to the low-mid hundreds; King's signature alone is the value driver (his autograph is far scarcer than Straub's). Verify signatures against known exemplars — forged King signatures are rampant on this exact title because the cheap, ubiquitous trade first makes an ideal forgery substrate. For real money, buy the Grant signed limited, not a trade first.

Value sources:

Sources

Verification notes: CORRECTIONS vs draft, preferring documented collector sources: (1) BCE TELLS REWRITTEN — draft claimed the Book Club Edition "LACKS the number line" and relied on blind-stamps; FALSE per stephenkingcollector.com forums (t=866, t=276): BOTH the trade first and the BCE carry a number line starting with "2", and the BCE has black boards too. The reliable tells are SPINE LETTERING COLOR (trade=SILVER, BCE=GOLD) and JACKET PRICE (trade=priced $28.95, BCE=unpriced). (2) Added a previously-missing point: a two-letter PRINTER CODE (DC/DH/Q etc.) appears below "First Trade Edition" = printer identifier across three printers, NOT an edition point (forum t=866, moderator: "all they stand for is the different printers. No other meanings"). (3) numberLine caveat added — cannot separate trade from club. (4) spineColor confirmed SILVER on trade first. (5) Gift set re-confirmed via veryfinebooks: 3,500 copies, signed by Straub + Berry but NOT King, Grant 2002, paired with The Talisman, ~$150 issue (draft correct). (6) Grant 1,520 leather/traycase signed King/Straub/Berry re-confirmed via veryfinebooks. (7) Added UK first (HarperCollins, £65, black cloth, silver spine, de-bossed crow) as a separate edition — NOT the US true first (johnatkinsonbooks). INDEPENDENT NEW SOURCES merged: stephenkingcollector forum threads t=866 & t=276 (used as primary BCE evidence), johnatkinsonbooks.co.uk (UK first), veryfinebooks 1,520 listing. OPEN/UNVERIFIED: exact trade-jacket designer/photographer credit; topstain/endpaper specifics.

confidence: High on the core, multi-source-verified points: "First Trade Edition" statement, number line ending in 2 (present on BOTH trade + BCE), $28.95 jacket price, true-first status, the SILVER-vs-GOLD spine tell for trade-vs-BCE, the two-letter printer codes (not edition points), and the Grant limiteds (1,520 leather/traycase signed King+Straub+Berry; 3,500 gift set with The Talisman signed Straub+Berry only). Medium/low on the exact trade-jacket designer credit and topstain/endpaper specifics (left UNVERIFIED).← Back to all titles