11 Scribes · All titles · Viking & Putnam (1979-1997)

Desperation Common

1996 · Viking (Viking Penguin, a division of Penguin Books USA Inc.), New York
First-edition cover of Desperation
First-edition jacket (first edition (verified vs jacket)) · source

What it’s about

Out on a desolate stretch of Nevada's Highway 50, a handful of travelers are pulled over and hauled into the dying mining town of Desperation by Collie Entragian, a hulking local cop whose behavior grows more menacing by the mile. Locked in the cells of the empty town jail, the captives discover that Desperation has been all but emptied of life, and that something far older and more malevolent than a rogue lawman has been unearthed in the local mine. To survive the night they must reckon with an ancient evil — and with the strange, unwelcome possibility that one frightened boy among them has been called to stand against it.

Significance Published under King's own name in 1996 as the mirror twin of the Richard Bachman novel "The Regulators" (released the same day, sharing a cast of characters in a parallel reality, with cover art that joins into a single image); later adapted into a 2006 ABC TV movie scripted by King and directed by Mick Garris.

Is this the true first?Yes — the Viking 1996 trade hardcover is the standard collected true first of the trade text. (A simultaneous Donald M. Grant illustrated/signed limited was issued the same year but does not antedate the trade; see trueFirstEdition.)
The Viking 1996 trade hardcover is the standard collected "true first" of Desperation. A Donald M. Grant illustrated edition (Don Maitz art) was published the same year in a limitation of 2,050 copies — 2,000 signed/numbered copies (signed by King and Maitz, full black leather, no dust jacket, in a black solander traycase/clamshell lined with red felt) PLUS a separate set of ~19 specially remarqued copies (each with a unique hand-painted Maitz original + sealed pencil sketch & certificate) — alongside an unsigned Gift Edition of 4,000 copies (dust jacket + slipcase). The Grant deluxe is a simultaneous high-end limited, NOT a precursor that antedates the trade; collectors treat the Viking trade hardcover as the trade first and the Grant deluxe as the premium limited. NOTE: the Grant printing is a SEPARATE typesetting (524 pp.) from the Viking trade (~690 pp.). Companion note: Desperation was published alongside its "mirror" novel The Regulators, issued as by Richard Bachman through Dutton, also 1996.

First-printing points at a glance

First-printing statementCopyright page reads "First published in 1996 by Viking Penguin, a division of Penguin Books USA Inc." Viking did NOT print the words "First Edition"; the first printing is identified by the complete descending number line on the copyright page. Cross-confirmed by multiple independent dealer listings (AbeBooks aggregate, Biblio, Rare Book Cellar). CAUTION: the copyright/title page block alone is NOT a reliable discriminator from the book-club edition — early BCEs reused leftover first-edition page blocks, so BCE copies can carry an identical copyright page and number line (per stephenkingcollector.com). Confirm the binding/pastedowns and jacket price as well.
Number lineFirst printing shows the full descending row ending in 1: "10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1". Later printings drop the low digits (a second printing begins at "2", i.e. "10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2"; a third drops the 2, etc.). Confirmed against a dealer-described first printing and a separately listed second printing (Rare Book Cellar). NOTE: number line alone does NOT separate a trade first from a BCE (see firstPrintingStatement) — BCEs can show the identical line.
Gutter / printer codeN/A — this is a Viking (not Doubleday) title; there is no Doubleday-style gutter code. Identification is by the copyright-page number line plus binding (red pastedowns) plus the printed $27.95 jacket price. The jacket-flap "0996" date code is NOT a first-vs-BCE discriminator (present on both).
First printing — copiesNot publicly disclosed
First jacket price$27.95 (Canada $35.00) (Printed on the front jacket flap: U.S. $27.95 / Canada $35.00 (corroborated across AbeBooks/Biblio dealer listings). A publisher date/printing code "0996" also appears on the jacket flap — but this code is present on BOTH trade and book-club jackets, so it does NOT by itself prove a first. A price-clipped flap removes the $27.95 and lowers value; a flap with NO printed price at all (yet still bearing "0996") indicates a book-club jacket.)
Board (panel) colorPowder/robin-blue (light blue) paper-covered boards. Dealer descriptions consistently say "powder blue" / "robin blue" boards under tan quarter cloth.
Spine / center bindingTan quarter-cloth spine, stamped/lettered in red (bright red title and author to the spine). Quarter-bound — the tan spine cloth contrasts with the blue boards.
Binding styleQuarter-bound cloth-and-paper-over-boards, sewn, 8vo, ~690 pp. Tan quarter cloth spine over powder/robin-blue paper-covered boards. (Distinct from the Grant limited, which is full black leather, 524 pp.)
Topstain / endpapersEndpapers/pastedowns are vivid RED (scarlet) front and rear on the trade first — a key discriminator: book-club copies have WHITE/off-white pastedowns. No distinctive topstain reported (UNVERIFIED if any topstain present).

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$40Scene of the Crimenot_shown. Three genuine seller photos: (1) jacket front with Mark Ryden surrealist art, (2) spine reading STEPHEN KING / DESPERATION / VIKING, (3) colikely first$30Ye Old Bookwormnot_shown. Exactly ONE seller-uploaded photo (downloaded full-res 624x952 from /inventory/30426343890.jpg; numbered variants _1.._5 returned 9-byte erphotos unclear$32.17BookManBookWoman Booksno-jacket (seller lists "No DJ" — book offered without dust jacket, so the $27.95 jacket price marker is not applicable/visible). VERDICT DRIVER: ZERO

Dust jacket

Mark Ryden surrealist front-cover painting in his signature lowbrow-surrealist style with stylized typography; spine and rear panel continue the Viking trade design; author/photo credits on the rear flap. The Viking trade jacket is distinct from the Grant gift-edition jacket (Maitz art, Entragian imagery).

Art / design: Front jacket art and typography by Mark Ryden; jacket art direction / design by Paul Buckley (Viking). The Grant limited/gift editions instead use illustrations by Don Maitz (cover depicts crazed sheriff Collie Entragian, gun in hand).

reference photohttps://www.biblio.com/book/desperation-stephen-king/d/1083648654reference photohttps://thefirstedition.com/product/desperation/reference photohttps://stephenking.com/works/limited/desperation.html
Book-club edition & fakes — how to spot a wrong copyBook-club printing is near-identical to the trade first (it often reused leftover first-edition page blocks, so the copyright page and the full "10...1" number line can be IDENTICAL — do not rely on those). Reliable BCE tells: (1) NO printed price on the front jacket flap (the "0996" code is still present on BCE jackets, so its presence proves nothing); (2) WHITE/off-white pastedowns instead of the trade first's vivid RED pastedowns/endpapers — the single most reliable tell per stephenkingcollector.com ("the pastedown and boards are not the same — that's how you tell them apart"); (3) different board stock/color; (4) the dust-jacket cover lettering tends to be raised and glossy on the BCE versus flat/non-glossy on the trade; (5) lighter, cheaper paper and slightly reduced bulk. Decide by pastedown color + flap price together.

Also watch for: Married jackets (a later-printing or price-clipped jacket on a first-printing book, or vice-versa) — verify the printed $27.95 AND red pastedowns together. Price-clipped jackets hide the price and devalue. Ex-library copies (stamps, pockets, spine labels) and remainder marks (sprayed/marker stripe to bottom text block) are common given the massive 1.75M+ first run. Biggest trap: book-club copies sold as trade firsts — because BCEs reused first-edition page blocks, the number line/copyright page can match, so DO NOT certify on the number line alone; check pastedown color (red = trade, white = BCE), flap price (printed $27.95 = trade, blank = BCE), and board stock. Grant gift-edition copies are sometimes mislabeled as the signed deluxe — only the leather traycased signed-numbered (and the 19 remarque) copies are signed.

Print run & scarcity

Desperation was a #1-bestseller "event" launch in Sept/Oct 1996, deliberately twinned with Richard Bachman's The Regulators; Viking printed it in huge quantity (the ~1.75M figure reflects that). This abundance is precisely why the ordinary trade first carries little collectible premium — every King reader of 1996 owns one. Scarcity and value live in the signed Donald M. Grant limited (2,050 copies, King + Don Maitz, traycased), NOT the Viking trade printing. Treat 1.75M as a strong documented estimate rather than a publisher-audited number.

First-state points & errata

No widely documented first-state textual errata / typo points separate first-printing copies for this title; none reported by the collector sources consulted. The reliable trade-first points are the full "10...1" number line PLUS red pastedowns/endpapers PLUS the printed $27.95 jacket price together. The "0996" jacket-flap code is NOT a first-state discriminator — it appears on BCE jackets too (stephenkingcollector.com). UNVERIFIED whether any internal text-state change exists.

Limited & signed editions

Donald M. Grant, Publisher (1996), limitation of 2,050 copies, illustrated by Don Maitz (four full-color plates + b/w vignettes/headers), 524 pp.: Deluxe/Signed-Numbered — 2,000 numbered copies, signed by Stephen King and Don Maitz, full black leather stamped in red (author blind-stamped on spine and front cover), illustrated endpapers, housed in a black leather solander traycase/clamshell lined with red felt, no dust jacket (the official Grant page describes the signed copies as in "slipcase," but the leather solander/clamshell traycase is what ships and is what dealers describe). Plus a special set of ~19 uniquely REMARQUED copies (each with a hand-painted Maitz original spanning the title spread + a sealed pencil sketch on foam board with Certificate of Original Artwork). Gift Edition — 4,000 unsigned copies in slipcase with dust jacket (replacement Grant jacket sold separately for $15.00). The Regulators (Bachman/Dutton) had its own parallel limited.

Market value confirmed sales

$30–90 (genuine trade first, fine/fine, unclipped $27.95 jacket, full number line). Realistic ceiling ~$125 for an exceptional flawless copy; this is a 1.75M-copy book — common, not scarce.

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

Confirmed sales: Trade first, 1st/1st HCDJ, NM/unclipped — eBay sold range observed ~$25–60 (multiple completed listings, 2023–2025); clean fine/fine copies cluster near $40–60. Signed-by-King trade first (in-person/inscribed, not the Grant limited): eBay sold ~$300–500 (2022–2024). Donald M. Grant SIGNED LIMITED (2,050 copies, King + Don Maitz, traycased), fine/sealed: dealer/realized ~$1,800–2,800 (AbeBooks/VeryFineBooks/PicClick 2023–2025; LiveAuctioneers price-results for the limited). NOTE: no Heritage/PBA lot exists for the ordinary trade first — it is too common to auction; figures are eBay-sold/dealer-realized, asking prices excluded.

Book-club edition (the trap): Book-club / later-state trap copies: $5–15. A clipped jacket, a no-price (club) jacket, an ex-library copy, or any printing with the "1" gone from the number line drops to single digits regardless of how the listing is titled. — a fraction of a true first; never pay first-edition money for one.

Condition is everything because scarcity is near-zero (1.75M first printing). The spread between a fine/fine unclipped copy and a reading copy is the entire game — a worn or clipped copy is a $10 book. Signed/inscribed by King is the only real multiplier for the TRADE edition (~$300–500 authenticated). The single biggest tell separating a real first from the mislisted copies of THIS title: the jacket must be UNCLIPPED showing $27.95 AND the copyright-page number line must run full "10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1" (the '1' present) with "First published in 1996 by Viking Penguin." Sellers routinely list price-clipped, second-printing (no '1'), or unpriced club-state jackets as "true first." A club edition has a smaller trim and an unpriced jacket — no $27.95 on the flap = not the trade first. Do not confuse the Viking trade first with the separately published, far more valuable Donald M. Grant signed limited (2,050).

Value sources:

Sources

Verification notes: CORRECTIONS vs draft: (1) Jacket price CONFIRMED $27.95 (US) / $35.00 (Canada) — an early search surfaced a spurious '$24.95', rejected; multiple dealers and the official-style ID guidance agree on $27.95. (2) The "0996" jacket code is NOT a first-printing discriminator — stephenkingcollector.com confirms BCE jackets also carry "0996"; draft over-relied on it. Removed from first-state points; the real first-vs-BCE tell is RED pastedowns + printed flap price. (3) Number line is NOT a trade-vs-BCE discriminator either — early BCEs reused first-edition page blocks, so they can show the identical full "10...1" line and identical copyright page (forum expert "Mr. Rabbit Trick"). (4) Board color refined to "powder/robin blue" (dealer wording) rather than vague "blue-green/light-blue". (5) Grant limitation refined: total limitation is 2,050 (2,000 signed/numbered for sale) + a ~19-copy remarque set — draft's "UNVERIFIED whether a separate lettered edition exists" RESOLVED: the remarque set exists; Grant is 524 pp full black leather. (6) Draft's claim of an embossed red "SK" monogram on the front board was NOT corroborated by any source consulted — left out of board description (UNVERIFIED). (7) Cover-lettering note reconciled: trade-first JACKET lettering reads flat/non-glossy while BCE jacket lettering reads raised/glossy (per forum); a separate dealer note about "slightly raised" front text appears to describe the board embossing, not the jacket — kept distinct to avoid conflation. INDEPENDENT sources added not in original draft: stephenkingcollector.com forum (definitive BCE tells), thefirstedition.com (Grant 1,339/2,050 spec), veryfinebooks.com (Grant 417/2,050), downtownbrown.com, Biblio remarque listing (#11 of 19), official stephenking.com limited-editions page. Still UNVERIFIED: existence of any first-state textual errata; any topstain; the front-board "SK" monogram.

confidence: High — trade first-printing copyright statement, $27.95 jacket price, full "10...1" number line, quarter-tan-cloth/blue-boards/red-spine binding, and red endpapers cross-confirmed across multiple independent dealer/collector sources; the critical BCE-vs-trade distinction (page-block reuse, red vs white pastedowns, "0996" on both) confirmed by stephenkingcollector.com; Grant 2,050 limitation + 19-copy remarque confirmed via grantbooks.com, veryfinebooks.com, thefirstedition.com, and Biblio. Minor UNVERIFIED items: first-state errata, topstain, front-board monogram.← Back to all titles