Danse Macabre Common

1981 · Everest House, New York (both the trade hardcover and the signed limited are Everest House)

First-edition cover of Danse Macabre — First-edition jacket (first edition (verified vs jacket)) · source

What it’s about

Danse Macabre is Stephen King's book-length nonfiction survey of the horror genre across roughly three decades (1950–1980), spanning fiction, film, radio, and television. Part criticism, part memoir, King traces what frightens us and why, dissecting the archetypes that recur throughout the field while weaving in his own formative encounters with the macabre. It's an opinionated, conversational tour guided by the genre's most successful practitioner explaining the machinery of fear from the inside.

Significance King's first full-length nonfiction work — a foundational genre study still cited as essential horror criticism, and the precursor to his later craft memoir On Writing.

Is this the true first?Yes. The Everest House trade hardcover is a hardcover first. A signed limited (also Everest House, 1981) exists as a premium issue, but no paperback original or separate small-press first precedes the trade.
The true first edition is the Everest House trade hardcover (1981), identified by the printer's code "RRD281" on the copyright page (no spelled-out "First Edition" statement). CONFIRMED against the official Stephen King "Identifying first editions" guide (stephenking.com, compiled by Bev Vincent), which lists Danse Macabre / 1981 / Everest House / trim 6.25 x 9.5 x 1.25" / DJ price $13.95 / first-edition identifier "RRD281 on CP." NOTE on the prompt's "Land of Enchantment" cue: it does NOT apply to this title — the same official guide lists Land of Enchantment as the publisher of Cycle of the Werewolf (1983), NOT Danse Macabre. The Danse Macabre signed limited was published by Everest House itself (SAME publisher as the trade), so unlike the Dark Tower/Grant or Eyes of the Dragon/Philtrum cases, no separate small press precedes the trade; the limited is the premium issue, the trade is still a legitimate first edition. UK first (Macdonald/Futura, 1981) is a separate, secondary edition — the US Everest House printing is the 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 statementNo "First Edition" or "First Printing" words appear on the copyright page. Everest House first printings are identified ONLY by the printer's code "RRD281" on the copyright page (R.R. Donnelley printer code: RRD = R.R. Donnelley, 28 = week, 1 = year 1981). Presence of "RRD281" with NO statement of a later printing = first printing. The official stephenking.com guide states the identifier verbatim as "RRD281 on CP." Some dealer descriptions render it "RRD28I" — the final character is the numeral 1, not a capital I.

Number lineNo traditional descending number line. Everest House used a printer code instead of a number string. A first printing shows "RRD281" on the copyright page with NO added printing statement. Later printings drop/alter the code or add a printing line; book-club copies lack the code entirely. (Per the official guide's general note, for King titles that DO use number lines the key is presence of the numeral 1 — but Danse Macabre is a code-only title, no number line at all.)

Gutter / printer codeRRD281 (R.R. Donnelley printer code on the copyright page — the Everest-House analog to a Doubleday gutter code; it IS the first-printing point for this title). Confirmed verbatim as "RRD281 on CP" by the official stephenking.com identification guide.

First printing — copiesNot publicly disclosed

First jacket price$13.95 (Front dust-jacket flap (upper corner). Multiple dealers describe "$13.95 on the front flap" / "price ($13.95) intact on the front flap." The official guide frames a book-club jacket as one that does NOT have a price marked inside the front cover — so the unclipped "$13.95" on the front flap is the trade first-printing indicator. A price-clipped jacket (corner cut) hides this and reduces value.)

Board (panel) colorRed — textured/grained (faux-leather pattern) paper over boards. (Distinct from the LIMITED edition, which has jet-black fine cloth boards with a gilt facsimile King signature to the front board — do not confuse the two.)

Spine / center bindingQuarter-bound: maroon/burgundy cloth spine lettered in bright gilt, over the red grained-paper boards. Two-tone quarter-cloth binding, not full cloth. Dealers variously call the spine "burgundy" or "maroon" quarter cloth with gilt spine titles — consistent.

Binding styleQuarter-bound (two-tone) hardcover: maroon/burgundy cloth spine + red grained-paper boards, gilt spine lettering; sewn text block; ~6.25 x 9.5 in (1.25 in thick per the official guide), 400 pp. (The signed limited is full black cloth, slipcased.)

Topstain / endpapersCONFLICTING across sources — treat as UNVERIFIED for the TRADE copy. Red topstain + red endpapers are reliably documented for the LIMITED (publisher's black-cloth, red leather spine label, red topstain, red endpapers, red slipcase). For the TRADE first, at least one dealer describes WHITE endpapers, while other dealer copy (likely cross-contaminated from the limited's description) reports red topstain/red endpapers. Because dealers disagree and the red-stain/red-endpaper description maps onto the limited, trade-copy topstain and endpaper color should be treated as UNVERIFIED to a second consistent authority.

Where to buy marker-checked

Live AbeBooks listings, checked against the seller's own photos. ✓ confirmed = a photo shows the decisive first-printing marker; cover only = ask the seller for the copyright-page shot before buying.

✓ 1st/1st confirmed$250Dan Pope BooksPRICE-CLIPPED jacket (genuine first book block; $13.95 corner cut off). CONFIRMED true trade first edition / first printing — RRD281 code clearly phot likely first$250Type Punch MatrixNot shown in photos. Seller text states 'original unclipped ($13.95) dust jacket' but no price-flap photo is provided to verify.. CONFIRMED from photo cover only — verify$220Do Electric Sheep dream of booksnot shown — no jacket front flap photographed, so the $13.95 price is neither visible nor confirmed clipped. CONFIRMED: it is the Everest House Danse

Dust jacket

Bold red-and-black graphic/typographic design (title-driven rather than pictorial horror art). Front panel carries the title and author; rear panel and flaps carry blurb/bio text. Dealers consistently describe the palette as red and black design elements; finer pictorial details of the front art are not richly described across sources — exact front-art elements UNVERIFIED beyond the red/black graphic treatment.

Art / design: Dust jacket designed by Sam Gantt (corroborated by a dealer/listing reference; some dealer descriptions omit the credit, so treat as probable, not fully cross-verified). Frontispiece author photograph of Stephen King credited to Joseph Leonard.

https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/danse-macabre-stephen-king-81-hc-true-508092563

https://www.bbrarebooks.com/pages/books/SK049/stephen-king/danse-macabre

https://www.stephenkingcollector.com/limited/danse.html

Book-club edition & fakes — how to spot a wrong copyBook-club edition tells: (1) copyright page LACKS the "RRD281" printer code — the fastest disqualifier; (2) the dust jacket has NO price (the official guide's stated BCE test: BCE jackets "do not have a price marked inside the front cover"), vs. the trade's "$13.95"; (3) "Book Club Edition" frequently noted on the lower front jacket flap; (4) typically blind-stamped on the rear board (small indented dot/square, lower corner); (5) printed on thinner/cheaper paper and often a slightly smaller trim (the guide notes BCEs are "often smaller than trade editions"); (6) often glued rather than sewn. Caution: BCE dust jackets sometimes get married onto a first-printing book to replace a lost/damaged jacket — verify the RRD281 code in the book, not just the jacket.

Also watch for: (1) Conflating the LIMITED (black cloth, slipcased, glassine, signed, red topstain/endpapers) with the trade first — a "slipcased glassine" copy is the limited, not a trade copy in a dust jacket. (2) Price-clipped jackets hiding the $13.95 (lowers value, weakens proof of first state). (3) Book-club copies sold as firsts — verify RRD281 present and no "Book Club Edition" on the flap; the official guide warns BCE jackets can be married onto first-printing books, so check the code in the book. (4) Married/facsimile/later-printing jackets paired with a first-printing book. (5) Ex-library copies (stamps, pockets, blind-stamp/ownership stamps — one cataloged copy carries a "Library of Wayne Alan Edwards" title-page blind stamp). (6) Forged King signatures on "signed" trade copies — the legitimate signed issue is the numbered/lettered limited; an unsigned trade in a jacket is the norm. (7) UK Macdonald/Futura copies mis-described as the US first.

Print run & scarcity

Danse Macabre is King's nonfiction survey of the horror genre, published in hardcover by Everest House on April 20, 1981 (400 pp.). It is NOT a Bachman title and was never a paperback original. Two issue forms exist: (1) the trade hardcover with dust jacket, first printing denoted by "RRD281" on the copyright page — no announced/first-printing copy count is published in collector references; and (2) a signed limited edition of 250 numbered + 15 lettered copies, housed in a slipcase without a dust jacket. Per instructions, I did not invent a trade-edition number; report it as "No reliable figure published" if a single number is required.

First-state points & errata

No cataloged textual/jacket errata or first-state points exist for this title. The authoritative stephenking.com guide lists ONLY "RRD281 on CP" for Danse Macabre — it does not note any dust-jacket states or text errata (in contrast to titles it flags, e.g. 'Salem's Lot's Father Cody/Callahan jacket states or Pet Sematary's caretaker-year states). The "RRD281" code plus absence of any later-printing statement is the sole decisive point. Any internal typo state: UNVERIFIED / not documented.

Limited & signed editions

Everest House signed limited, 1981 — 250 copies numbered 1-250 plus 15 lettered A-O ("for private distribution"), all signed by King; some references also note unsigned publisher's-state copies. Bound in publisher's black (jet-black) fine cloth with a gilt facsimile King signature to the front board, a red leather label to the spine lettered in gilt; red topstain and red endpapers; housed in a red publisher's slipcase with a fragile glassine paper cover INSTEAD of a printed dust jacket (so a slipcased copy should NOT have a printed DJ). Sources: official stephenking.com + stephenkingcollector.com + veryfinebooks/AbeBooks. (No Donald M. Grant, Philtrum, Cemetery Dance, or Land of Enchantment edition exists for this title.)

Market value estimate

~$75–$175

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

No confirmed sale found, so this is rated at no less than its original jacket price — a true first/first should hold at least retail in near-fine/fine condition. Soft estimate from dealer listings (treat as approximate): $75–175 (genuine trade first, fine/fine, unclipped $13.95 jacket, RRD281 code). NOTE: the SIGNED/NUMBERED limited (250 copies, slipcased) is the real money at ~$1,200–1,800.

Book-club edition (the trap): $8–25. The Book Club Edition (BCE/BOMC) is the dominant trap here — it lacks the RRD281 code, has a blind-stamp dot/square on the rear board, smaller/thinner boards, and a jacket with NO $13.95 price. Worthless as a collectible; reading copy only. — a fraction of a true first; never pay first-edition money for one.

THE ONE THING that separates a real trade first from the mislisted copies: the printer code "RRD281" on the copyright page. First printing = RRD281; second printing = "2RRD481" (visually near-identical, constantly mislisted as a first). A Book Club Edition has NO RRD code at all, a rear-board blind-stamp, smaller boards, and a price-less jacket. Jacket must show $13.95 and be UNCLIPPED — clipping or a married/facsimile jacket roughly halves value. Condition sensitivity is high relative to the low absolute price: a fine/fine unclipped copy ($100–175) vs. a VG copy with edge-worn or clipped jacket ($30–60). SIGNED premium is enormous and category-defining: a King signature or the numbered limited issue jumps the book from ~$150 to ~$1,200–1,800+. Inscribed/association copies higher. Ex-library (stamps, pockets, mylar-glued jackets) kills collectible value — reading copy only.

Value sources:

Sources

Verification notes: INDEPENDENT source added and used as the top authority: the official stephenking.com "Identifying first editions (updated 2024)" PDF (compiled by Bev Vincent), not present in the original draft sources[]. It confirms verbatim: Danse Macabre, 1981, Everest House, trim 6.25 x 9.5 x 1.25", DJ price $13.95, first-edition identifier "RRD281 on CP" — and independently corroborates the Land-of-Enchantment correction (it lists Land of Enchantment as the publisher of Cycle of the Werewolf, 1983, not Danse Macabre). DISCREPANCIES vs draft resolved toward sources: (a) Topstain/endpapers — DRAFT leaned "likely-red"; sources CONFLICT, with red topstain/red endpapers documented for the LIMITED and at least one dealer reporting WHITE endpapers for the TRADE, so downgraded to UNVERIFIED/conflicting rather than likely-red. (b) Errata — confirmed NONE are cataloged (official guide lists no DJ/text states for this title, unlike 'Salem's Lot or Pet Sematary), reinforcing that RRD281 is the sole point. (c) Price location — corroborated on the FRONT FLAP by rarebookcellar/laureatefinebooks/AbeBooks dealer copy ("$13.95 on the front flap"); the official guide phrases the BCE test as "no price marked inside the front cover," consistent. (d) Binding — red grained/faux-leather boards + maroon/burgundy quarter cloth + gilt spine confirmed by citynightsbooks, B&B Rare Books, worthpoint, and AbeBooks dealer descriptions. Jacket designer Sam Gantt corroborated by one additional listing reference but not universally cited (kept as probable).

confidence: High on the core points — "RRD281 on CP" and the "$13.95" front-flap price are confirmed by the OFFICIAL stephenking.com identification guide (Bev Vincent) plus multiple independent dealers (rarebookcellar, laureatefinebooks, worthpoint, citynightsbooks, B&B Rare Books, Richard Dalby) and stephenkingcollector.com for the limited. The trade trim (6.25 x 9.5 x 1.25") and DJ price are confirmed verbatim by the official guide. Medium on the jacket designer (Sam Gantt). LOW / UNVERIFIED on trade-copy topstain and endpaper color (dealers disagree; red maps to the limited, one trade source says white endpapers). The prompt's "Land of Enchantment" cue is incorrect for this title and was corrected against the official guide.← Back to all titles