11 Scribes · All titles · Doubleday Era (1974-1983)

Pet Sematary Collectible

1983 · Doubleday & Company, Inc. (Garden City, New York)

First-edition cover of Pet Sematary — First-edition jacket (first (Wikipedia infobox)) · source

What it’s about

When Dr. Louis Creed moves his young family from Chicago to a rural house in Maine, a neighbor introduces them to a children's pet cemetery in the woods behind their property — and to the wilder, older burial ground that lies beyond it. As Louis grapples with the realities of mortality and a busy road that claims local animals, he is drawn toward the ancient ground's terrible promise. A meditation on grief, love, and how far a parent will go rather than let go.

Significance Widely cited as the novel King himself found too disturbing to publish at first; a cornerstone of his canon, twice adapted to film (1989 and 2019) and rooted in his Maine settings near the Castle Rock orbit.

Is this the true first?Yes. The Doubleday trade hardcover (Nov. 14, 1983) is the true first edition, first printing — a straightforward trade hardcover first with a large ~250,000-copy first print run. No preceding small-press limited, no paperback original. It was King's last book published by Doubleday, written to satisfy a contractual obligation during a period when King and Doubleday were on hostile terms.
The Doubleday 1983 trade hardcover IS the true first. No contemporaneous Donald M. Grant / Philtrum / Land of Enchantment limited precedes it (verified against the official stephenking.com identifying-firsts PDF, read verbatim — it lists NO limited-edition publisher in brackets for Pet Sematary, unlike adjacent titles such as Cycle of the Werewolf [Land of Enchantment]). Cemetery Dance and Suntup Editions later produced deluxe/lettered fine-press editions, but those are 21st-century reprints, NOT the first edition. The UK first (Hodder & Stoughton, 1983) followed the US printing and is not 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 statementThe copyright page states "FIRST EDITION" (consistent with all early Doubleday-era King titles). A true first carries BOTH: (1) the words "FIRST EDITION" on the copyright page AND (2) the Doubleday gutter/date code "Y38" near the inner margin at the foot of PAGE 374. Both must be present. Because the "First Edition" statement alone is not decisive (later trade printings can carry similar CP wording, and BCEs differ chiefly by binding/code/page rather than CP wording), the Y38 code is the load-bearing book point. CONFIRMED VERBATIM by the official stephenking.com PDF (downloaded and read directly, not via search snippet): Pet Sematary — "First Edition" on CP, "Y38 on page 374 (see note below)." The PDF's note warns the code is partially obscured in the binding: "Be careful to avoid damaging the book when confirming the presence of the 8 in 'Y38'."

Number lineNo conventional printed number line. Doubleday identified the printing via the alphanumeric gutter/date code, not a number row. The presence of "Y38" on p. 374 (plus stated "FIRST EDITION" on the CP) marks the first printing; later trade printings carry a DIFFERENT date code (e.g., Y46 is a documented LATER Doubleday trade printing, NOT a first), and book-club editions carry their own codes on a DIFFERENT page (e.g., "N47" on PAGE 372 for the first BCE printing; "MP6Z" on page 374 documented on another BCE). The general Doubleday "presence of a 1 in the number line" rule does NOT apply to this title — the date code is the printing identifier.

Gutter / printer codeY38 (on page 374, near inner margin at foot; partially obscured in the binding per the official PDF — verify the trailing "8" carefully). Later trade printing: Y46. First book-club printing: N47 on PAGE 372 (note the different page). Another documented BCE code: MP6Z on page 374.

First printing — copies~250,000 copies (commonly cited first-printing figure) accepted figure

First jacket price$15.95 (Front flap of the dust jacket (front inner flap, upper corner). A first-state jacket also carries the printer/jacket code "1183" on the rear flap.)

Board (panel) colorBlack cloth-covered boards (full cloth), lettered/stamped in gilt. Confirmed full black cloth by Very Fine Books ("Full bound in black cloth"). Contrast: the first BOOK CLUB edition is QUARTER black cloth over black paper-covered boards (Dan Pope Books) — a structural binding tell, NOT full cloth.

Spine / center bindingBlack cloth spine, title and author stamped in gilt. Full black cloth binding throughout (not quarter-bound or two-tone) on the trade first. (Note: the BCE is quarter black cloth with gilt spine lettering over black paper boards — visually similar at the spine but quarter- rather than full-cloth.)

Binding styleFull-cloth binding (black cloth, not quarter-bound/two-tone), sewn, octavo. Official trim size 6¼ x 9½ x 1¼" (per stephenking.com PDF). ~373 pp. text; the date code sits at the foot of p. 374. Book-club editions are a smaller trim, quarter cloth over paper boards, typically glued/thinner stock.

Topstain / endpapersNo notable colored topstain reported (plain). Endpapers plain. Topstain/endpaper specifics beyond "plain" remain UNVERIFIED against a single authoritative bibliographic source.

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.

likely first$240Mattabesset BooksNot shown in any photo. Seller states $15.95 intact/unclipped on front flap in text, but no price-flap photo was uploaded.. CONFIRMED from photos: cor cover only — verify$225James Graham Booksellernot shown — no jacket flap photographed; seller TEXT claims 'unclipped' but the $15.95 flap price is not visible in any photo. Only ONE seller photo e cover only — verify$249.50Pat Cramer Booksellernot shown in any photo; seller TEXT claims "$15.95 original jacket" (no clip mentioned), unverifiable from images. No seller-uploaded photos of the ac cover only — verify$395Do Electric Sheep dream of booksJacket price NOT photographed (no flap shown); cannot confirm $15.95 present or clipped. Listed at $395.. 4 photos, all exterior: front DJ, back DJ (I

Dust jacket

Front panel: the iconic Linda Fennimore illustration — a shrieking/snarling cat's face (Church) above a montage of a dimmed, silhouetted cemetery under a very dark red sky, with a man carrying a small child walking toward the graves; title and author name set above the art. Rear panel carries the blurb/excerpt text bearing the telltale "Caretakers" date line (1982 in earlier state, 1983 in later state). Front flap carries the $15.95 price; rear flap carries jacket code "1183" (re-confirmed by Very Fine Books, which lists "DJ Code 1183").

Art / design: Linda Fennimore (illustrator). Commissioned by Doubleday's art director: a "screaming cat's face" montage over a darkened cemetery with a dark-red sky and a figure carrying a small child toward the graves. Fennimore was a Juilliard-trained pianist turned book-jacket/album-cover/Broadway-poster artist. (King reportedly did not weigh in on the cover but was pleased with the result.)

https://veryfinebooks.com/stephen-king-pet-sematary-first-edition-first-printing/

https://thefirstedition.com/product/pet-sematary-3/

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

Book-club edition & fakes — how to spot a wrong copyDoubleday Book Club Edition tells for this title: (1) NO printed price on the front jacket flap — the single most reliable BCE tell per the official King PDF ("Book Club edition dust jackets are easily identified because they do not have a price marked inside the front cover"); confirmed on real BCE listings (First Edition Rare Books: "lacking retail price on front flap"). (2) QUARTER black cloth over black paper-covered boards with gilt spine lettering — STRUCTURALLY different from the trade first's FULL black cloth (Dan Pope Books). (3) A DIFFERENT gutter/date code on a DIFFERENT page: the first BCE printing reads "N47" on PAGE 372 (not the trade's "Y38" on p. 374); another BCE shows "MP6Z" on p. 374. (4) Smaller trim than the trade hardcover. (5) Sometimes a blind-stamp dot/square on the lower-right rear board (not always present). NOTE: a BCE jacket is sometimes placed on a trade first to replace a damaged one — so check the BOOK's code/page and binding structure (full vs quarter cloth), not just the jacket.

Also watch for: Married jackets — a later-state, BCE, or facsimile jacket on a first-printing book, OR a first-state ("Caretakers 1982" / "1183") jacket placed on a later-printing book (e.g., a Y46 trade reprint): always confirm the jacket matches a Y38 book. Price-clipped jackets (corner cut to hide $15.95 — lowers value and can mask a club jacket whose flap never had a price). BCE sold as "first" (no flap price + N47-on-p.372 [or other] gutter code + quarter-cloth binding = club). Facsimile/reproduction jackets (the thin Doubleday jacket stock chips easily, so repros circulate). Later-printing trade books (Y46 etc.) misrepresented as firsts. Ex-library copies and bottom-edge remainder/spray marks. ALWAYS confirm BOTH "FIRST EDITION" on the copyright page AND "Y38" on page 374 — and verify the trailing 8 in Y38, which hides in the gutter.

Print run & scarcity

By 1983 King was a top-tier bestselling author, so Doubleday ran a deliberately large first printing — the ~250,000 figure recurs across dealer listings and collector references. This large run is precisely why a genuine trade first is plentiful and modestly priced relative to King's scarcer 1970s firsts (Carrie, 'Salem's Lot, The Shining). Treat the 250k figure as the consensus collector/dealer number rather than a Doubleday-audited production statement; no per-printing breakdown from the publisher is publicly verified, so the exact figure should be cited as approximate.

First-state points & errata

Per the official stephenking.com identifying-firsts PDF (verbatim), the first edition exists in TWO dust-jacket states: (1) "Caretakers listed as 1982" (earlier) and (2) "Caretakers listed as 1983." This is the "Caretakers" copyright date printed in the rear-panel blurb/excerpt. IMPORTANT: BOTH jacket states are found on the genuine first edition / first printing — the Caretakers date is a JACKET-state distinction, NOT a first-vs-later-printing distinction. The decisive printing point is the Y38 gutter code on p. 374 (plus stated "FIRST EDITION"). The 1982-Caretakers jacket is the more desirable earlier state and dealers (First and Fine, Red Herring Books) call it the "first state wrapper" and price it at a premium, but a Y38 book in the 1983-Caretakers jacket is still a true first. The draft's earlier framing that 1982 = first-state and 1983 = "later corrected printing" was imprecise; the canonical source treats both as jacket states of the SAME first edition. The book block itself has no separately documented first-state-only text errata beyond the Y38 code; some dealers loosely call the 1982 date a "Caretakers 1982 error" but per the canonical source it is simply the earlier jacket state.

Limited & signed editions

No contemporaneous 1983 signed/limited; Doubleday issued only the trade hardcover (slipcased copies on the market are dealer/custom-made, not publisher-issued). Modern fine-press limiteds came decades later: Cemetery Dance Publications deluxe/special edition (signed/limited/lettered, traycased) and Suntup Editions (Artist/Numbered/Lettered states, using Linda Fennimore's art) — all 21st-century, NOT first editions.

Market value confirmed sales

$300–600 (true first, fine/fine, unclipped, unsigned); signed adds a large premium — $900–1,800+

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 first edition/first printing — Nate D. Sanders Auctions, ~$732 (auction blog record, recent). Unsigned US first, sold on eBay ~$250 (completed listing, April). Unsigned first, fine/near-fine+ DJ unclipped in slipcase — VeryFineBooks dealer at $395 (out of stock / sold-through). Signed/first-state-DJ copies catalogued by Second Story Books and Bauman in the four-figure asking range (dealer retail, not auction).

Book-club edition (the trap): $15–40. Book Club Editions (BCE/BOMC) are extremely common and near-worthless: smaller boards, NO printed price on the front jacket flap, a 5–7 digit number on the rear DJ panel, and a different gutter code (N47/Y49 etc., NOT Y38). These are the copies constantly mislisted as "first edition." — a fraction of a true first; never pay first-edition money for one.

Condition-driven: the binding is sturdy and survives Fine often, so the DUST JACKET (unclipped, no chips/tanning) and the slipcase (when present) drive nearly all the value — a clipped or facsimile/married jacket cuts a true first to BCE-money. Signed lifts it sharply (Nate D. Sanders ~$732 vs. ~$250–395 unsigned); a dated inscription or association copy more so. THE #1 SEPARATOR for this title: confirm the gutter code "Y38" on page 374 AND the $15.95 price printed on the front jacket flap. BCEs have no jacket price and a different code; later trade printings change the rear-flap "Caretakers" date from 1982 to 1983. No book-club blind-stamp on the rear board. Because the first printing was huge (~250k), this is one of King's more affordable major firsts — premium money requires Fine/Fine + unclipped + ideally signed.

Value sources:

Sources

Verification notes: SECOND adversarial pass. The canonical stephenking.com PDF was downloaded and READ VERBATIM via local pdftotext (prior pass relied on a snippet); verbatim text for Pet Sematary: trim 6¼ x 9½ x 1¼"; DJ price $15.95; "'First Edition' on CP"; "Y38 on page 374 (see note below)"; "Two dust jacket states: 1) Caretakers listed as 1982, 2) Caretakers listed as 1983"; note: "For Pet Sematary, the code is partially obscured in the binding. Be careful... when confirming the presence of the 8 in 'Y38'"; and the BCE rule "Book Club edition dust jackets are easily identified because they do not have a price marked inside the front cover." DRAFT CORRECTED #1 (BCE code PAGE): draft said the BCE "N47" code is on page 374 — WRONG. Independent BCE listing (Dan Pope Books) places "N47 on page 372" (first BCE printing); a separate BCE shows "MP6Z on page 374." So the BCE code lives on a DIFFERENT page (372) than the trade Y38 (374) for the first-BCE case. DRAFT CORRECTED #2 (BINDING STRUCTURE — new BCE tell the draft missed): the trade first is FULL black cloth (Very Fine Books: "Full bound in black cloth"); the first BCE is QUARTER black cloth over black paper-covered boards (Dan Pope Books) — a structural tell stronger than the draft's "smaller trim / glued" alone. DRAFT CORRECTED #3 (jacket-state framing): 1982/1983 Caretakers are two JACKET states of the SAME first edition, not first-vs-later printing. NEW INDEPENDENT SOURCES added this pass and NOT in the draft: First and Fine (firstandfine.com — Y38 p374 + first-state 1982 wrapper $15.95), Dan Pope Books BCE (AbeBooks 32284478124 — N47 p372 + quarter-cloth binding), eBay/WorthPoint listings (Y38/$15.95/1183 — returned 403/timeout to direct fetch but corroborated via search extracts), and the BCE on thefirstedition.com/pet-sematary-4 (MP6Z p374, no flap price). Could NOT independently re-verify exact topstain/endpaper color (left UNVERIFIED) and value bands remain dealer-listing estimates. The draft's $15.95, Y38, 1183, Linda Fennimore, ~250k run, and full-black-cloth trade binding all re-confirmed.

confidence: High — the four load-bearing points (stated "FIRST EDITION" on the copyright page, gutter code "Y38" on p. 374, $15.95 front-flap price, two documented jacket states "Caretakers 1982"/"1983") are corroborated directly by the CANONICAL authority — the official stephenking.com "Identifying first editions" PDF, downloaded and READ VERBATIM this pass (not merely via search snippet) — AND by independent dealers (Very Fine Books, First and Fine, Dan Pope Books, First Edition Rare Books). Full black cloth (trade) vs quarter cloth (BCE) and the BCE "N47 on page 372" code are independently confirmed. Jacket artist (Linda Fennimore) and ~250,000-copy first run confirmed. Lower-confidence: exact topstain/endpaper color (plain assumed, UNVERIFIED) and precise current value bands (estimated from listings, not a single dedicated price guide).← Back to all titles