11 Scribes · All titles · Scribner Era (1998-present)

The Institute Common

2019 · Charles Scribner's Sons / Scribner (Simon & Schuster), New York
First-edition cover of The Institute
First-edition jacket (first edition (verified vs jacket)) · source

What it’s about

In the dead of night, intruders murder Luke Ellis's parents and spirit the preternaturally gifted twelve-year-old away to the Institute, a secret facility deep in the Maine woods. There, in a wing called Front Half, Luke joins other abducted children—kids with telekinesis or telepathy—who are subjected to tests, injections, and casual cruelty by a clinical staff, all while learning that those who "graduate" to Back Half are never seen again. As Luke befriends the others and probes the place's locked-down secrets, the question becomes whether a smart kid can outthink an operation built to break children.

Significance A #1 New York Times bestseller and standalone King thriller (no Bachman pseudonym, no co-author), adapted into a 2024 MGM+ limited series; it draws on the kids-with-powers vein of King's own Firestarter and It.

Is this the true first?yes — standard trade hardcover is the first edition. Not a paperback original, not a small-press first.
YES — the Scribner trade hardcover (September 10, 2019) is the true first edition, first printing. No small-press limited PRECEDES it: the Cemetery Dance Publications illustrated limited edition (traycased signed / slipcased gift) was produced AFTER the trade and is a later collectible issue, not the first publication. There is no paperback original. The simultaneous Hodder & Stoughton UK edition appeared the same week; collect the US Scribner as King's true first since King is American.

First-printing points at a glance

First-printing statementCopyright page states "First Scribner hardcover edition September 2019". A true first carries BOTH this statement AND the full number line ending in 1 (see numberLine). Scribner convention: the date-stamped edition line plus the complete number line together mark the first printing.
Number line"1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2" — a first printing shows the FULL line including the "1". Later printings strip low numbers from the left (a "2" at the left end = at least a second printing; absence of the "1" disqualifies it as a first). Standard modern Scribner low-number-removed convention.
Gutter / printer codeN/A (Doubleday gutter codes apply only to 1974–1983 King Doubleday titles; Scribner uses the number line instead)
First printing — copiesNot publicly disclosed
First jacket price$30.00 (US) / $39.99 (Canada) (Upper front jacket flap (top corner): "US $30.00 / Can. $39.99". A price-clipped flap (corner cut off) hides this and reduces value; a $30.00 flap price is a positive first-printing point.)
Board (panel) colorNavy / dark blue paper-covered boards (front and rear panels)
Spine / center bindingBlack cloth spine — quarter-bound (two-tone: black cloth spine over navy blue boards), with bright copper/metallic title and author lettering on the spine
Binding styleQuarter-bound cloth (black cloth spine over navy-blue paper-covered boards), sewn binding; trade hardcover, 561 pages
Topstain / endpapersPlain white (unmarked) endpapers; no decorative topstain reported on the trade first (top edge unstained/plain). The illustrated Cemetery Dance editions add embossed endpapers and a ribbon marker — those features are NOT present on the Scribner trade first.

Dust jacket

Minimalist design: front shows a small lone figure (a boy) dwarfed within stark architecture/lighting, with rail tracks and an institutional/train motif; spare typographic title treatment ("THE INSTITUTE" / "STEPHEN KING") in metallic/copper-tone lettering against a dark field. Wraparound dark imagery; rear panel continues the institutional/track theme with blurb and image credits. Author photo on rear flap.

Art / design: Jacket design by Will Staehle / Unusual Corporation. Composite cover photography from Shutterstock contributors (credited on the rear flap): Train by Ayrat A; Boy by Kosmos111; Room by Kosharaov Dimitri; Tracks by Karin Claus.

reference photohttps://www.thedarktower.org/palaver/showwiki.php?title=Stephen+King+First+Editions:Institute+Thereference photohttps://www.behance.net/gallery/98362917/Stephen-King-The-Institutereference photohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Institute_(King_novel)
Book-club edition & fakes — how to spot a wrong copyNo major US trade book-club (BOMC) edition of The Institute is prominently documented for the 2019 trade (the era of mass King BCEs had largely passed). Generic Scribner/S&S club tells if one appears: "Book Club Edition" printed on the LOWER front jacket flap, NO price on the flap (or price-clipped from manufacture), the number line MISSING or not ending in 1, thinner/lighter/cheaper paper, slightly smaller trim, glued rather than sewn binding, and a small blind-stamp (dot/circle/square) indented on the lower-right of the REAR board. A genuine first will have the $30.00 flap price AND the full "...4 2" number line ending in 1.

Also watch for: Watch for: price-clipped jackets passed as unclipped firsts (the $30.00/$39.99 flap should be intact); married jackets (later-printing or club jacket on a first-printing book, or vice versa — confirm BOTH the number line in the book AND the flap price agree); ex-library copies (stamps/pockets/spine labels — heavily devalued); remainder marks (spray/dot/marker to the bottom text-block edge — indicates an unsold remainder, lowers value); signed copies — verify provenance, as King signatures are frequently forged (genuine signed trades usually come from documented signings or with a reputable dealer COA); do not confuse the illustrated Cemetery Dance limited with the Scribner trade first.

Print run & scarcity

Title verified as Stephen King's THE INSTITUTE, Scribner, 1st Scribner hardcover edition September 10, 2019 (ISBN 9781982110567, 576pp, $30.00 US / $39.99 CA), first printing identified by full number line ending in '1' plus the 'First Scribner hardcover edition September 2019' statement.\n\nFIRST-PRINTING QUANTITY: Not disclosed. No publisher announcement, trade-press figure (Publishers Weekly / BookScan / laydown), Wikipedia, Fandom wiki, or rare-book dealer (First and Fine, VeryFine Books, VJ Books, Stephen King Catalog) states a print-run number for the trade hardcover. This is normal for a modern mass-market Scribner King title — the trade first printing was very large (this was a #1 NYT bestseller and a flagship Fall 2019 release, so the run is presumed in the hundreds of thousands), but no SPECIFIC verified number is published, so none is reported here. Do NOT confuse this with the ~30,000 figure cited for the 1974 Carrie first trade printing — that is a different, much older/scarcer title and does not transfer.\n\nLIMITED EDITIONS: The standard Scribner first edition was NOT a numbered/lettered limited — it is the ordinary trade hardcover. Signed copies on the market are publisher/event-signed trade firsts (e.g., dealer 'signed first edition, first printing, slipcased w/ COA' offerings), not a stated limited print run with a numbered/lettered count. No Donald M. Grant or small-press signed/numbered/lettered limited edition of The Institute was identified in these searches, so no signed/numbered/lettered breakdown applies.\n\nSOURCE AGREEMENT: Sources do not disagree on a number — they are uniformly silent on the quantity. The disagreement risk flagged for early King titles does not arise here because no competing figures exist to reconcile.

First-state points & errata

No widely documented text errata or state changes separating first-state from later-state first printings have been reported for this title. UNVERIFIED whether any internal point distinguishes printing states beyond the number line; treat the full number line + "First Scribner hardcover edition September 2019" statement as the definitive first-printing test.

Limited & signed editions

Cemetery Dance Publications illustrated limited editions (illustrations by Jana Heidersdorf): (1) Traycased oversized Signed Limited Edition — signature sheet signed by Stephen King, Owen King, and illustrator Jana Heidersdorf, two-color printing, two-color hot-foil stamping, satin ribbon marker, embossed endpapers, wraparound art, ~a dozen interior color paintings, in a custom traycase. (2) Oversized Slipcased Gift Edition — UNSIGNED, limited to 1,750 illustrated copies, two-color printing/foil, fine binding, wraparound art, same interior paintings, in a custom slipcase. Exact traycased edition size and issue prices: UNVERIFIED. These post-date and are separate from the Scribner trade first.

Market value confirmed sales

$25–60 unsigned true first (fine/fine, unclipped $30 jacket); $900–1,800 for a verified author-signed first/first in VF/VF

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

Confirmed sales: Reality check on this title: there are essentially NO meaningful auction (Heritage/PBA/RBH) records for an UNSIGNED first of a 2019 King — it is too common to consign. Documented market evidence: (1) stephenkingcollector.com reference values the unsigned first at $20–$30 (cover-price tier); (2) VeryFineBooks dealer-sold/asking $1,795 for a signed first/first VF/VF, slipcased w/ COA from the lone signing event; (3) First & Fine / AbeBooks signed-first fine copies offered in the ~$900–1,500 range; (4) eBay sold listings for unsigned fine first/first w/ DJ cluster ~$25–50. No fabricated auction comps — none of consequence exist for the unsigned trade copy.

Book-club edition (the trap): No true U.S. book-club edition is the dominant trap here (unlike older Doubleday Kings). The trap on THIS title is a price-clipped, reading-copy, or ex-library trade first being relisted as "rare first edition" at $150–500 — it is worth $10–25. UK first (Hodder) and Gallery trade paperback are also routinely mislabeled "first edition"; both ~$15–35, not the U.S. Scribner first. — a fraction of a true first; never pay first-edition money for one.

CONDITION/SIGNATURE DRIVE EVERYTHING here — an unsigned first is so common that value barely clears cover price; the entire collectible premium lives in a verified author signature (single signing event held for this title, COA-backed copies command ~$900–1,800). For the unsigned copy, fine/fine with the UNCLIPPED $30.00 jacket is mandatory — a clipped or facing-page-stickered jacket halves value. THE #1 THING separating a real first from mislisted copies: the number line on the copyright page must END IN "1" (full sequence "1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2"). Reject anything missing that or stamped a later printing. IGNORE the red-herrings baked into many listings (and this brief): there is NO Doubleday "gutter code" on this book (gutter codes apply to old Doubleday club editions, not a 2019 Scribner title), and it was NOT published as Richard Bachman — it is Stephen King, Scribner. A "signed" copy without event/COA provenance should be presumed autopen/secretarial and valued as unsigned.

Value sources:

Sources

Verification notes: Price verified across 3 sources ($30.00/$39.99); number line and copyright statement verified across Palaver + AbeBooks listings; binding (black quarter cloth / navy boards / white endpapers) confirmed by Palaver and dealer descriptions; jacket designer Will Staehle confirmed by Wikipedia + design-portfolio sources + Palaver image credits.

confidence: high — number line ("1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2"), copyright statement ("First Scribner hardcover edition September 2019"), and jacket price ($30.00 US / $39.99 Can on front flap) are each cross-confirmed by 3+ independent sources (TheDarkTower.org Palaver, AbeBooks confirmed-first listings, dealer descriptions). Slightly lower certainty on exact Cemetery Dance traycased edition size/prices (UNVERIFIED) and on the precise spine-lettering color (copper/metallic reported).← Back to all titles