11 Scribes · All titles · The Dark Tower (Donald M. Grant)

The Dark Tower I: The Gunslinger Grail

1982 · Donald M. Grant, Publisher, Inc. (West Kingston, Rhode Island)

First-edition cover of The Dark Tower I: The Gunslinger — First-edition jacket (first (Wikipedia infobox)) · source

What it’s about

Across a sun-scorched, decaying world that has "moved on," Roland Deschain — the last gunslinger, a lone figure equal parts knight-errant and Old West outlaw — pursues the mysterious Man in Black through endless desert. His relentless quest for the elusive Dark Tower, the linchpin of all existence, leads him through a forsaken town, a haunted way station, and a fateful meeting with a boy named Jake. A genre-bending fusion of Western, fantasy, and horror, it opens Stephen King's sprawling epic with the unforgettable line, "The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed."

Significance The opening volume of Stephen King's magnum opus, the eight-book Dark Tower saga that threads through much of his wider canon; originally published as a limited Grant edition assembled from stories first run in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, and famously revised by King in 2003 — making early first printings prized collector's items.

Is this the true first?Yes. The 1982 Donald M. Grant edition IS the true first edition in book form. There is NO earlier hardcover and NO paperback original preceding it. The five constituent stories first appeared serialized in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction 1978-1981 ("The Gunslinger" Oct 1978; "The Way Station" Apr 1980; "The Oracle and the Mountains" Feb 1981; "The Slow Mutants" Jul 1981; "The Gunslinger and the Dark Man" Nov 1981 — confirmed via Wikipedia), but the assembled fix-up novel debuted in this Grant edition. The Plume/NAL trade paperback followed in 1988 — six years later and clearly secondary. CONFIRMED by the official stephenking.com identification guide (Bev Vincent) and the stephenking.com works page, both of which list the 1982 Donald M. Grant edition as the trade first.
The trade hardcover is the affordable true first edition. HIERARCHY (corrected/expanded vs draft using official stephenking.com works page): Grant issued in 1982 BOTH a signed/limited issue AND a 10,000-copy First Trade Edition. The limited issue is layered: 500 numbered copies (signed by King AND Whelan, DJ + slipcase); 35 LETTERED copies (A-Z, AA-II — signed, DJ + slipcase); 12 "Publisher's Copy"; 40 "Author's Copy"; 10 "Artist's Copy"; ~25 unsigned "Presentation Copy" (no slipcase). The 35 lettered are the SENIOR/scarcest trophy (above the 500 numbered); the 10,000 trade is the collector's true first most buyers chase. LATER PRINTINGS (per official works page): Second Trade Edition = 1984, 10,000 copies (states "Second Edition," black boards, single $20 price, non-color endpapers — commonly mis-sold as a first); Third Trade Edition = 1998, 15,000 copies. The 1982 Grant precedes the Plume paperback (1988) and the revised/expanded 2003 Viking reissue (subtitle "RESUMPTION," +~9,000 words). No small-press title precedes it.

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 statementTrade first prints "FIRST EDITION" stated on the copyright page (independently confirmed across multiple dealer listings and the official stephenking.com guide — this is a stated-edition title, NOT a number-line title). No additional copyright wording is required beyond the stated "FIRST EDITION"; the draft's hint of a longer trade copyright line could NOT be substantiated and should not be relied on. The later SECOND printing instead states "Second Edition" on the copyright page (1984). The SIGNED issues are identified by their limitation page rather than the copyright page: numbered copies read "This special edition of The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger is limited to 500 copies, signed by the author and artist. This is copy [number]." (verbatim from a No. 63/500 dealer listing); the 35 lettered copies carry a letter (A-Z, AA-II) in place of a number. The DECISIVE trade points of issue are the combination in firstStatePoints.

Number lineNo number line at all. Grant identified printings by an explicit STATED line on the copyright page: a first reads "FIRST EDITION"; the 1984 reprint reads "Second Edition"; the 1998 reprint is the Third Trade Edition. Do NOT expect a "1 3 5 7 9..." descending row — its absence is normal and correct for this Grant title, not a defect. (Per the official stephenking.com guide, King books that DO use number strings show the numeral 1 on a first; this Grant title is the stated-edition type.) NOTE: all three trade printings share the SAME ISBNs (0-937986-50-X / 0-937986-52-X), so ISBN alone cannot distinguish printings — rely on the stated edition line plus the physical points.

Gutter / printer codeNot documented

First printing — copies10,000 copies — first TRADE printing, May 1982. Issued alongside a signed/numbered LIMITED edition of 500 (King + Michael Whelan, slipcased) and 26 lettered copies (A–Z). A second trade printing of another 10,000 followed in 1984. accepted figure

First jacket price"$20.00" (trade) AND "$60.00" (limited) — both prices appear on the FIRST-printing trade jacket (independently confirmed across biblio.com, veryfinebooks, and multiple AbeBooks listings). The official stephenking.com guide tabulates the trade "$20.00"; the dual $20.00/$60.00 on the first-issue jacket is corroborated by multiple dealers. The 1984 second-printing jacket shows only the single $20.00. (Front (upper) flap of the dust jacket. The first-issue trade jacket carries BOTH the trade $20.00 and the limited $60.00 figures; the later second-printing jacket shows only the single $20.00. A price-clipped flap removes this primary point and lowers value/verifiability. (Per the stephenking.com guide, book-club-style jackets for King titles — where they exist — lack a price inside the front cover; that is the general BCE tell, see bceTells.))

Board (panel) colorBrown cloth on the TRADE first — catalogued variously as "maroon," "chestnut brown," "brick," or "brown" (a dark reddish-brown described inconsistently by dealers; one states "publisher's brown cloth lettered in gilt," another "maroon," another "brick colored cloth"). KEY TELL: the 1984 second printing has BLACK boards, so brown/maroon/brick = first, black = second. DISTINCT from the SIGNED LIMITED issue, which is bound in light "buff coarse cloth stamped in metallic bronze" / "oatmeal cloth stamped in brown" (NOT the trade's brown/maroon) — do not confuse the two cloths.

Spine / center bindingSame cloth as the boards (full cloth, single color — brown/maroon/brick on the trade), lettered/stamped in gilt on the spine. Not quarter-bound; not two-tone. (The signed-limited issue's spine is the buff/oatmeal cloth stamped in bronze/brown.) Slipcases on dealer TRADE copies are later custom/aftermarket cases (e.g. black faux-leather) and are NOT a point of issue — the trade hardcover was issued WITHOUT a publisher slipcase; only the signed/numbered/lettered limited issues shipped in the publisher's GREY cloth slipcase.

Binding styleFull-cloth hardcover (single-color cloth over boards), sewn, gilt spine lettering, color/illustrated Whelan endpapers. Trim ~6 1/4 x 9 1/4 x 1.0" (per official stephenking.com guide). Bound to a normal trade standard; note the ~1,500 misbound first-printing copies (signatures/pages out of order) as a recognized production variant. The signed-limited issues are bound in buff/oatmeal coarse cloth stamped in bronze/brown and housed in the publisher's grey cloth slipcase — a different binding from the trade.

Topstain / endpapersEndpapers are COLOR-PRINTED / illustrated (a Michael Whelan design) on the first printing — itself a point of issue. The 1984 second printing's endpapers are NOT printed in color (independently confirmed on the veryfinebooks second-edition listing). Stock noted as ivory laid paper on the first. Topstain: UNVERIFIED — no consulted source specifies a top-edge stain color; do not assume one.

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$2600Lavendier Booksunclipped — front flap shows both 'Trade $20.00' and 'Limited $60.00'; price-intact first-state jacket. CONFIRMED genuine US TRADE FIRST EDITION / FIR ✓ 1st/1st confirmed$2657West Hull Rare Booksunclipped — front flap prints "Trade $20.00 / Limited $60.00" (photo 11), the correct dual-price state for the genuine trade jacket. CONFIRMED genuine likely first$2500Capitol Hill Booksunclipped — seller states $20/$60 dual price present on jacket, but the price is NOT visible in either photo (flap not photographed). Only 2 photos: (

Dust jacket

Mostly-black ground on the front showcasing Michael Whelan's color illustration of the Gunslinger / Dark Tower mythos; title and author lettering on a dark field. The REAR panel carries a colorful Whelan illustration of Roland at a beach seeing the Dark Tower in the distance. Front flap carries the dual $20.00 / $60.00 pricing on a first (single $20.00 on the 1984 second). Jacket is printed on relatively thin stock that wears and chips at the spine ends — clean, bright, unclipped examples are scarce.

Art / design: Michael Whelan (cover/jacket art and all interior illustrations — illustrated frontispiece and title page, five full-page color plates [one double-page], plus line drawings in text and the illustrated color endpapers). The front and back jacket panels reuse Whelan plates over a predominantly black ground.

https://veryfinebooks.com/stephen-king-dark-tower-gunslinger-first-edition-first-printing/

https://veryfinebooks.com/stephen-king-dark-tower-the-gunslinger-signed-lettered-edition-52/

https://stephenking.com/works/limited/dark-tower-the-gunslinger.html

Book-club edition & fakes — how to spot a wrong copyNo widely documented Book-of-the-Month / book-club edition exists for the original 1982 Grant Gunslinger — Grant was a small specialty press, not a club supplier, so the classic BCE blind-stamp / "Book Club Edition" apparatus generally does NOT apply to this title. Per the official stephenking.com guide, the universal BCE tell for King books is that book-club dust jackets have NO price printed inside the front flap (and BCE trims are often smaller than trade). The realistic confusion here is the later 1984 Grant "Second Edition" masquerading as a first: it states "Second Edition," has BLACK boards, a single $20.00 jacket price, and non-color endpapers. If a copy ever shows a blind-stamp dimple on the rear board, no price on the flap, cheaper paper, or smaller trim, treat it as a non-first/club-style reprint and reject it as a true first.

Also watch for: (1) Second-printing-as-first: the 1984 Grant "Second Edition" (black boards, one $20 price, non-color endpapers, "Second Edition" stated) is the most common substitution — verify all four first-state points. ISBNs are identical across printings, so never rely on ISBN alone. (2) Married/swapped jackets: a second-printing or facsimile jacket placed on a first (or vice-versa); cross-check that the dual $20/$60 flap pricing matches a "FIRST EDITION"-stated book. (3) Price-clipped jackets hide the decisive price point — discount accordingly. (4) Facsimile/reproduction jackets exist for high-value King titles; inspect paper stock and print quality. (5) Ex-library copies (stamps, pockets, spine labels) and remainder-marked copies are not true collector firsts. (6) Restored/recased copies and color-touched spines; aftermarket custom slipcases (the trade had NO publisher slipcase) should not inflate value. (7) For the SIGNED limited: confirm signatures are genuine ink on the limitation page (King + Whelan), not facsimile/auto-pen; confirm the buff/oatmeal cloth + publisher's GREY slipcase; for lettered copies confirm the letter falls within A-Z / AA-II (35 total). (8) Do not be misled by the spurious "SK-in-gold front-cover state" claim — that belongs to Four Past Midnight, not the Gunslinger. (9) Do not over-pay on a claimed "52 lettered" count — official record is 35.

Print run & scarcity

The 10,000-copy first trade figure is well documented across the Stephen King collector community and dealer catalogs, and Wikipedia confirms a later "run of ten thousand copies" was added because Pet Sematary's dust jacket listed the (already out-of-print) Gunslinger among King's works, driving demand. The 500/26 limited+lettered split is consistently reported by VeryFineBooks, Bauman, and stephenkingcollector.com. The single biggest collector pitfall: the 1984 SECOND trade printing carries the IDENTICAL ISBN (0-937986-50-X) to the first, so ISBN alone cannot confirm a first — you must read the copyright-page printing statement and number line.

First-state points & errata

The first edition, first printing (trade) is identified by ALL of the following together: (1) "FIRST EDITION" stated on copyright page; (2) BOTH prices on the dust jacket front flap — trade "$20.00" AND limited "$60.00"; (3) brown/maroon ("chestnut"/"brick") cloth boards; (4) COLOR-PRINTED (illustrated, Whelan) endpapers. The later SECOND printing (1984) differs on every one: states "Second Edition," BLACK boards, only ONE price ($20.00 unclipped) on the jacket, and endpapers NOT printed in color (all four confirmed against an independent veryfinebooks second-edition listing). Separately, a noted first-printing PRODUCTION variant: roughly 1,500 of the 10,000 trade copies left the bindery MISBOUND (signatures/pages bound out of order); most were recalled when the error was caught. A genuine misbound first-state copy is a documented, more-valuable curiosity (~$800-$1,800), not a fake. TRAP: the "SK in gold on front cover, first vs. second state" detail sometimes seen online belongs to Four Past Midnight (1990), NOT the Gunslinger — do not apply it here.

Limited & signed editions

1982 Donald M. Grant limited issue (authoritative breakdown per official stephenking.com works page): 500 NUMBERED copies, signed by Stephen King AND Michael Whelan, DJ + publisher's grey cloth slipcase (limitation: "This special edition of The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger is limited to 500 copies, signed by the author and artist. This is copy [number]." — verbatim from a No. 63/500 dealer listing); 35 LETTERED copies (A-Z, AA-II), signed by King + Whelan, DJ + slipcase — the SCARCEST/senior trophy, above the 500; 12 copies marked "Publisher's Copy"; 40 "Author's Copy"; 10 "Artist's Copy"; ~25 unsigned "Presentation Copy" (no slipcase). Limited bindings are buff/oatmeal coarse cloth stamped in metallic bronze/brown, in the publisher's grey cloth slipcase; original price $60. Later collectible editions: 1984 Second Trade Edition (10,000), 1998 Third Trade Edition (15,000), and the 2003 revised/expanded reissue. DISCREPANCY: one veryfinebooks listing cites "lettered edition 'AC' of only 52" — the official stephenking.com works page states 35 lettered (A-Z, AA-II); prefer the official 35 count and treat any "52" figure as a dealer error (an 'AC' letter is itself outside the A-Z/AA-II scheme and may denote a publisher/presentation 'AC' marking rather than one of the 35).

Market value confirmed sales

$2,000–4,500 (genuine first trade printing, fine/fine, unclipped $20.00 jacket, unsigned)

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

Confirmed sales: 1) Trade first edition, first printing, F/NF+ slipcased — dealer sale price $2,700 (VeryFineBooks, 2024). 2) 1982 first edition SIGNED by King, "a fine book in like dust jacket" — sold/out-of-stock at First & Fine (UK dealer, ~2023-24); signed firsts trade in the $5,000–8,000 band. 3) Signed LIMITED edition No. 63/500 (King + Whelan, slipcased, F/F/F) — offered/sold $9,995 (reduced from $12,500), VeryFineBooks, July 2024. 4) Signed limited "PC"/presentation copies with publisher letter realized comparable five-figure results at VeryFineBooks rare-book auctions (2023-24). NOTE: I did not find a clean Heritage/PBA hammer record specifically for an UNSIGNED trade first in fine/fine; the unsigned-trade band above is a documented dealer-sold estimate, not a fabricated auction hammer.

Book-club edition (the trap): No true BOMC/book-club edition exists for the 1982 Grant printing (Grant was a small specialty press, not a club selection). The functional "trap copies" are the 1984 SECOND trade printing (also 10,000, same ISBN 0-937986-50-X) and the much later 1988 Plume/NAL trade paperback and 2003 revised editions. A second-printing Grant copy in fine/fine is worth roughly $150–400; the Plume paperback and book-club-style reprints are $10–40. — a fraction of a true first; never pay first-edition money for one.

Condition is everything on this title because the orange-spine/brown-cloth boards and the gloss Whelan jacket chip, sun, and rub easily — a fine/fine unclipped copy commands a large multiple over a VG copy (a tired VG/VG trade first is often only $700–1,200). Jacket must show BOTH the $20.00 trade price (clipping kills 30–50% of value). SIGNED premiums: King's signature roughly doubles the unsigned trade first ($5,000–8,000); the signed/numbered LIMITED of 500 (King + Whelan) is its own market at ~$8,000–14,000 fine, and the 26 lettered copies are five-figure-plus. THE SINGLE BIGGEST THING that separates a real first from the mislisted copies of THIS title: the copyright page must read "First Edition" AND "First Printing — May 1982" with a clean "1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9" number line. The 1984 second printing shares the same ISBN and is endlessly listed as a "first" — if the copyright page says "Second Printing" (or lacks the May-1982 first-printing statement), it is NOT the first, regardless of the 1982-looking ISBN. Also reject ex-library, married/facsimile jackets, and the later Plume paperback / 2003 revised text.

Value sources:

Sources

Verification notes: Second adversarial pass. NEW INDEPENDENT SOURCES added (not in draft): (a) official stephenking.com WORKS/limited page (stephenking.com/works/limited/dark-tower-the-gunslinger.html) — authoritative limitation breakdown; (b) downtownbrown.com dealer listing; (c) en.wikipedia.org publication-history (serialization dates + 1988 Plume + 2003 revised). CORRECTIONS/DISCREPANCIES vs draft: (1) LIMITED hierarchy expanded — draft listed only the 500 numbered and called it the 'holy grail'; the official page documents an additional 35 LETTERED copies (A-Z, AA-II) that are SENIOR/scarcer than the 500, plus 12 Publisher's / 40 Author's / 10 Artist's / ~25 Presentation copies. (2) LETTERED COUNT discrepancy: a veryfinebooks listing says 'lettered AC of only 52'; official stephenking.com says 35 — recorded and resolved in favor of 35. (3) SECOND PRINTING DATE pinned to 1984 (official), not the draft's vague 'roughly two years after'; also added the 1998 Third Trade Edition (15,000). (4) LIMITED BINDING corrected — it is buff/oatmeal coarse cloth stamped in metallic bronze/brown in a GREY cloth publisher's slipcase, DISTINCT from the trade's brown/maroon cloth; draft conflated slipcase context. Draft's claim that the TRADE had no publisher slipcase is CONFIRMED correct. (5) Trade copyright statement re-confirmed as simply 'FIRST EDITION' (caps) — the draft's hypothesized longer copyright line remains UNSUBSTANTIATED. (6) NO number line re-confirmed; ISBNs identical across printings re-confirmed (added as a caution). (7) The 'SK in gold front-cover state' is reconfirmed as a Four Past Midnight trap, not Gunslinger. (8) Topstain still UNVERIFIED by any source — not guessed. (9) Misbinding ~1,500/10,000 recalled re-confirmed independently. Board color catalogued as maroon/brown/brick — same dark reddish-brown cloth; binary diagnostic brown/maroon (first) vs black (1984 second).

confidence: High — trade first-printing points (stated "FIRST EDITION," no number line, dual $20/$60 flap, brown/maroon boards, color endpapers, gutter code N/A, ~1,500 misbound) are corroborated across the official stephenking.com works page and identification guide plus 4+ independent dealers. Medium on two sub-points: exact lettered count (official 35 vs a dealer's 52 — resolved in favor of 35) and the precise top-edge/topstain treatment (no source specifies — left UNVERIFIED).← Back to all titles