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Gerald's Game Common

1992 · Viking (Viking Penguin), New York
First-edition cover of Gerald's Game
First-edition jacket (US first edition — Viking, 1992 (first printing, $23.50). Jacket design by Neil Stuart.) · source

What it’s about

Hoping to rekindle their marriage, Jessie Burlingame and her husband Gerald retreat to a remote lakeside summer house in Maine, where a bedroom game escalates: Jessie ends up handcuffed to the bed. When the situation goes catastrophically wrong, she finds herself alone, restrained, and unable to free herself — with no one within earshot and her own mind beginning to turn against her. What follows is a harrowing chamber piece about survival, memory, and the voices a person hears when stranded at the edge of their endurance.

Significance A solo Stephen King novel (no Bachman/co-author involvement), loosely linked to its companion book Dolores Claiborne via a shared eclipse; famously adapted into Mike Flanagan's acclaimed 2017 Netflix film starring Carla Gugino.

Is this the true first?Yes. The Viking trade hardcover (1992) is the true first edition, first printing. It is NOT a paperback original and is NOT preceded by a small-press hardcover limited. The only thing that physically predates the trade book is a 1992 ABA (American Booksellers Association) convention ADVANCE promotional issue (~2,000 copies, black cloth with gilt-stamped spine, issued in a plain cardboard slipcase WITHOUT a dust jacket, with a facsimile/reproduction handwritten King letter to booksellers printed on the front free endpaper). That ABA copy is a separate advance/promotional collectible; the recognized TRADE first for general collecting is the jacketed Viking hardcover. NOTE: some dealers (e.g., Bauman) catalog the ABA copy itself as the "first edition / advance" — a framing nuance, not a contradiction. (Confirmed: Bauman Rare Books, Robert Gavora, John W. Knott.)
The Viking trade hardcover is the true first edition. There is no Donald M. Grant, Phantasia, Philtrum, or other fine-press hardcover preceding it (unlike the early Dark Tower / Eyes of the Dragon / Cycle of the Werewolf cases). The 1992 ABA-convention advance (~2,000 copies; black cloth, gilt spine; cardboard slipcase; facsimile King letter on the front free endpaper; no jacket) is an earlier PROMOTIONAL state, treated as a separate advance collectible rather than the trade first. A Signet/NAL mass-market paperback followed in July 1993 (ISBN 0-451-17646-4) — a reprint, not a first. (Confirmed: Robert Gavora, Bauman, stephenkingcollector.com, Signet 1993 listings.)

First-printing points at a glance

First-printing statement"First published in 1992 by Viking Penguin" on the copyright page, accompanied by the full number line below. (Some copies read "Viking Penguin, a division of Penguin Books USA Inc." — this does not affect first-edition status.) Viking did NOT print the words "First Edition"; identification rests on the copyright statement plus the complete number line. Cross-confirmed by thefirstedition.com, stephenkingcollector.com, bookstellyouwhy.com, and multiple dealers.
Number lineFirst printing shows the complete line: "1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2" (Viking's characteristic odd-ascending-then-even-descending layout, with the 10 sitting between the 9 and the 8). The presence of the numeral 1 is the operative point; a later printing drops the 1 so the lowest number becomes 2 (etc.). Cross-confirmed by thefirstedition.com, stephenkingcollector.com, jwkbooks.com, and dealer listings.
Gutter / printer codeNot documented
First printing — copies~1,500,000 copies (first trade printing) accepted figure
First jacket price$23.50 (On the front dust-jacket flap (upper area). A first-printing jacket also carries the code "0992" at the bottom/foot of the front flap (a Viking date/print code reading as Sept 1992; the book's stated publication month is June 1992, so the two are not in conflict — pub date vs. printing code). A price-clipped jacket (corner cut away) hides the $23.50 and reduces value. Confirmed by thefirstedition.com and multiple dealers.)
Board (panel) colorBlack boards (quarter-bound; paper-over-boards panels), with the author's initials ("SK") stamped in red on the front board.
Spine / center bindingBlack cloth spine with the title stamped in red. Quarter-bound: black cloth spine over black boards (two-tone, but both elements black with red lettering). Confirmed by thefirstedition.com, jwkbooks.com, abebooks dealer listings.
Binding styleQuarter cloth over boards, sewn binding. Octavo, 332 pp. ISBN 0-670-84650-3. Trim approx. 6¼ x 9½ in. Includes a half-title, illustrated title page, and a map of Maine in the preliminaries.
Topstain / endpapersUNVERIFIED — consulted dealer/collector sources do not specify topstain color or endpaper color/design for this title; no notable or decorated endpapers are reported. (NOTE: the SEPARATE 1992 ABA advance prints a facsimile King letter on its front free endpaper — that is a different issue, not the trade first.)

Dust jacket

US Viking first jacket: stark dark typographic/photographic design (title and author treatment over a dark field), credited to designer Neil Stuart. The front flap carries the $23.50 price and the "0992" code at the flap foot; the rear flap carries the author photo and bio. Distinct from the UK first-edition jacket, which uses different art and is sometimes married onto US copies.

Art / design: Jacket DESIGN by Neil Stuart (Viking art director/designer) — cross-confirmed across multiple dealer listings. The US Viking first jacket is a dark, typographic/photographic treatment (not a painted-art cover). Disregard occasional search-engine attributions of "Rob Wood" art / "Bill Russell" interiors — those bleed in from other King titles and are NOT corroborated by any Gerald's Game source. The UK first edition (Hodder & Stoughton) carries different jacket art; do not confuse a UK jacket on a US book.

reference photohttps://thefirstedition.com/product/geralds-game/reference photohttps://www.stephenkingcollector.com/1st/geraldsgame.htmlreference photohttps://www.rarebookcellar.com/pages/books/138493/stephen-king/geralds-game
Book-club edition & fakes — how to spot a wrong copyBook Club Edition tells for THIS title (and Viking BCEs generally): (1) NO price on the front jacket flap (the $23.50 and the "0992" code are absent) — the single fastest tell; (2) often "Book Club Edition" printed on the lower front flap, and frequently NO barcode/ISBN block on the rear jacket; (3) a small blind-stamp (debossed dot/circle/square/maple-leaf) on the lower-right REAR board — the specific shape is not separately title-documented for Gerald's Game; (4) frequently a smaller trim than the ~6¼ x 9½ trade size, lighter/cheaper paper, thinner bulk, often glued/perfect-bound rather than sewn; (5) the copyright page lacks the trade number line / may carry book-club imprint language. CAUTION: a BCE jacket (no price) is sometimes married onto a true-first book to replace a damaged jacket — always verify the BOOK's copyright page and number line independently of the jacket.

Also watch for: (1) Married jackets — a UK first jacket or a later-printing/price-clipped jacket placed on a true US first; match the $23.50 + "0992" US flap to the book. (2) Price-clipped jackets passed off as firsts — clipping removes the price evidence and lowers value. (3) BCE jacket (no price) on a first-edition book, or vice versa. (4) Ex-library copies (stamps, pockets, spine labels) — low value. (5) Remainder marks (spray/marker on the bottom text-block edge) — still firsts but worth less. (6) "Facsimile" signatures — the ABA advance contains a REPRODUCED letter, not a real autograph; do not pay signed-copy prices for it. (7) Because the first printing ran ~1.5 million copies, true firsts are extremely common and cheap — be skeptical of inflated "rare first edition" pricing.

Print run & scarcity

The widely cited first-printing figure of approximately 1.5 million copies is reported by stephenkingcollector.com, the standard hobbyist reference for King first-edition points. This is a publisher-scale trade run typical of King's early-90s Viking releases and is the direct reason the unsigned first/first carries almost no scarcity premium. Separately, the pre-publication ABA convention edition was limited to ~2,000 copies handed out at the 1992 American Booksellers Association convention (printed paper slipcase, facsimile signed King letter, issued without a dust jacket) — that 2,000 figure is the only tightly-bounded, genuinely scarce print quantity for this title. No exact first-printing figure appears in a Viking/Penguin colophon, so the 1.5M number should be treated as a well-circulated collector-community figure rather than a publisher-verified statistic.

First-state points & errata

No documented first-state errata or textual variants for this title. Identification is by copyright statement + complete number line "1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2" + unclipped $23.50 jacket with the "0992" flap code. Any claim of a textual first-state variant is UNVERIFIED — not reported by the official King guide, thefirstedition.com, or stephenkingcollector.com.

Limited & signed editions

No signed/numbered/traycased fine-press limited was issued for Gerald's Game (no Grant/Phantasia/Donald M. Grant edition). The only special pre-trade issue is the 1992 ABA-convention ADVANCE: ~2,000 copies; black cloth with gilt-stamped spine; issued in a plain cardboard slipcase WITHOUT a dust jacket; with a FACSIMILE handwritten King letter to booksellers on the front free endpaper (facsimile-signed, not a real autograph). Genuinely author-SIGNED copies of the ordinary trade first exist (signed in person) and command a premium, but they are signed trade firsts, not a separate signed/limited edition. (Confirmed: Robert Gavora, Bauman Rare Books, John W. Knott.)

Market value estimate

~$20–$60

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): $20–60 (true first, fine/fine, unclipped $23.50 jacket) — signed copies $250–500; scarce ABA convention variant $200–400

Book-club edition (the trap): No true book-club edition is the trap for this title. With a ~1.5M-copy first trade printing, the market is flooded with cheap first/firsts — an unsigned reading copy in VG jacket is a $10–15 book, and that mass of copies (not a BCE) is what dealers inflate to "rare first edition" at $75–150 asking. Ex-library and price-clipped copies are effectively worthless ($5–10). — a fraction of a true first; never pay first-edition money for one.

Condition matters far less than for scarce titles because the book is genuinely common — even fine/fine copies stay modest. The single biggest value separator is NOT a points-of-issue subtlety (the trade first is easy to ID) but rather AUTHORSHIP PROVENANCE: an authentic King signature/inscription jumps the book from ~$30 to $250–500+, and the genuinely scarce ABA convention edition (printed paper slipcase, facsimile signed King letter, no dust jacket as issued, ~2,000 copies) is worth $200–400 and is the variant collectors actually chase. For the ordinary trade first, demand the $23.50 / "0992" UNCLIPPED jacket and the correct number line "1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2" with "First published in 1992 by Viking Penguin" — a clipped jacket or ex-library stamp halves or kills the value. Beware fake/secretarial King signatures, which are rampant; require PSA/JSA or trusted-dealer provenance before paying the signed premium.

Value sources:

Sources

Verification notes: VERIFY tier resolved with new independent sources added beyond the draft set. CONFIRMED unchanged: price $23.50 (thefirstedition.com, stephenkingcollector.com, jwkbooks.com, abebooks/biblio dealers); number line "1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2" (thefirstedition.com, stephenkingcollector.com, jwkbooks.com); copyright statement "First published in 1992 by Viking Penguin"; binding (quarter cloth, black boards/spine, red title + red SK initials); "0992" front-flap code; ISBN 0-670-84650-3; ~1.5M print run (stephenkingcollector.com); jacket DESIGNER Neil Stuart (multiple dealers). CORRECTIONS / DISCREPANCIES vs draft: (a) value range LOWERED — stephenkingcollector.com documents ~$10-$15 for a clean copy, so the floor is below the draft's $10-$40 framing; range widened/anchored accordingly. (b) The "Rob Wood art / Bill Russell interiors" attribution that surfaced in one aggregated snippet is REJECTED as cross-title contamination — no Gerald's Game source corroborates it; designer remains Neil Stuart. (c) UK first jacket: draft attributed it to "Paul Bryn Davies"; I could not independently confirm that specific UK artist from collector sources, so the UK-artist name is left UNASSERTED (UK first = Hodder & Stoughton, different art) rather than repeated unverified. (d) ABA advance: a June-1992 trade pub date vs the "0992" (Sept) flap printing code is a metadata/printing-code distinction, not a contradiction. (e) Signet paperback dated more precisely to July 1993 (ISBN 0-451-17646-4). STILL UNVERIFIED: topstain color and endpaper notes for the trade issue; the exact blind-stamp SHAPE used on any Gerald's Game BCE. NEW independent sources merged: bookstellyouwhy.com, jwkbooks.com, robertgavora.com, baumanrarebooks.com, lwcurrey.com, biblio June-1992 listing.

confidence: High on the two verify targets (price $23.50 and number line "1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2") — cross-confirmed by the major collector guide sites plus several independent dealers. High on copyright statement, binding colors, ISBN, ~1.5M print run, and jacket DESIGNER Neil Stuart. High on the ABA-advance specifics (~2,000 copies, black cloth/gilt spine, slipcase, facsimile King letter) — now confirmed by Bauman + Robert Gavora + Knott. Medium on value range (dealer asks vary widely; floor anchored to stephenkingcollector.com). Low/UNVERIFIED on topstain/endpaper notes, the exact BCE blind-stamp shape for this title, and the specific UK jacket artist name.← Back to all titles