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The Tommyknockers Common

1987 · G. P. Putnam's Sons (New York)

First-edition cover of The Tommyknockers — First-edition jacket (first (Wikipedia infobox)) · source

What it’s about

In the small Maine town of Haven, writer Bobbi Anderson trips over a strange metal object buried in the woods behind her farmhouse and begins compulsively digging it free. As the excavation grows, the townspeople fall under an eerie influence — gripped by sleepless inspiration, building bizarre gadgets, and changing in ways they barely notice — while Bobbi's friend, the alcoholic poet Jim Gardener, becomes the one man whose dependency leaves him oddly immune and increasingly afraid of what is rising from the ground.

Significance A 1987 Stephen King novel (published under his own name, not Bachman) that King has openly called a product of his late-1980s addiction; it was adapted into a 1993 ABC two-part TV miniseries starring Jimmy Smits and Marg Helgenberger.

Is this the true first?yes — the G. P. Putnam's Sons trade hardcover (1987) is the true first edition. No small-press limited or paperback original precedes it; the Putnam trade HC is the first appearance in any form. ISBN 0-399-13314-3, published November 10, 1987.
The Putnam trade hardcover IS the true first edition. Unlike several King titles that had preceding small-press editions (the early Dark Tower volumes from Donald M. Grant, The Eyes of the Dragon from Philtrum Press, or Cycle of the Werewolf from Land of Enchantment), The Tommyknockers had no preceding small-press limited or signed/numbered edition at publication. The 1987 Putnam first printing is the first appearance. The UK first by Hodder & Stoughton (1988) is a separate, later printing and 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 statementNo explicit "First Edition" line is printed. First printing is identified by the complete number line "1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10" on the copyright page, PLUS — for the desirable first state — the words "Permissions to come" printed beneath the number line. Page also reads "Printed in the United States of America." ISBN 0-399-13314-3.

Number line"1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10" — a true first printing shows the complete line running fully down to 1 (the "1" present). Later printings drop the low digits (a second printing begins at "2", etc.). The number line is the PRINTING marker; the "Permissions to come" line is the STATE marker within the first printing. (Some dealers express the line as the mfg/printer code "10-1" — same thing, full line.)

Gutter / printer codeN/A — Putnam title; the Doubleday gutter-code system (e.g., The Shining's "R49") does not apply.

First printing — copies~500,000 copies for the first printing (documented), split 250,000 gold author-name / 250,000 red author-name jacket states — both first-state with "Permissions to come" on the copyright page. A subsequent ~500,000 were printed after permissions were secured (number line intact, "Permissions to come" line gone). accepted figure

First jacket price$19.95 (Top of the front (upper) dust-jacket flap, printed "$19.95". The first-printing US jacket is NOT price-stickered. A price-clipped jacket (corner cut) hides this and lowers value. Book-club jackets carry NO printed price.)

Board (panel) colorGreen boards (green paper-over-boards panels) with green pastedowns/endpapers. Because of the two-tone quarter binding, copies are sometimes described as "green and black boards." Stephen King's facsimile signature is embossed on the front board.

Spine / center bindingBlack — the book is QUARTER-BOUND: black spine over green boards (two-tone quarter binding). Spine title is stamped in gilt (one dealer notes "bold gilt stamp lettering along spine").

Binding styleQuarter-bound hardcover: black spine over green boards, sewn binding. Octavo, 558 pages. Author's facsimile signature embossed on the front cover; spine lettering in gilt.

Topstain / endpapersGreen pastedowns/endpapers (matching the green boards), confirmed by Palaver wiki. Topstain color is not consistently documented across sources — UNVERIFIED; do not assume.

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$200Dan Pope Booksunclipped $19.95 (US) printed on front flap, intact and readable. Genuine trade first edition, first printing, FIRST STATE — the most desirable issue.cover only — verify$200GoldBookShelfSeller TEXT states 'price unclipped DJ' and $19.95-era jacket, but the price flap is NOT shown in any photo — price unverified from images. Listing pr

Dust jacket

Dark/black background field with bright eerie green design evoking the glowing alien "Tommyknockers" theme. Author name and title in metallic lettering — issued in two simultaneous color states for the author name: RED metallic and GOLD (equal precedence, both first-edition). Rear panel and flaps carry the standard Putnam synopsis/blurb; $19.95 price at the top of the front flap. Author photo on rear flap is UNVERIFIED in the sources reviewed.

Art / design: Jacket design credited to One Plus One Studio (jacket designer), confirmed by Palaver wiki and Charles Agvent. Any separate cover-illustration/photographic credit beyond the design studio is UNVERIFIED.

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

https://www.rarebookcellar.com/pages/books/36709/stephen-king/the-tommyknockers

https://thefirstedition.com/product/the-tommyknockers/

Book-club edition & fakes — how to spot a wrong copyThis is a Putnam (not Doubleday) title, so the Doubleday gutter-code convention does NOT apply — do not look for a missing gutter code. Book Club Edition tells for this title: NO printed price on the front flap (true firsts print "$19.95"); "Book Club Edition" frequently printed on the lower front jacket flap; typically a smaller trim size on lighter/cheaper paper; glued rather than sewn; and a small blind-stamped indentation (dot/circle/square/maple-leaf) usually on the lower-right of the rear board. A BCE will ALSO lack the "Permissions to come" first-state point and lacks the gilt-spine/green-board + embossed-signature trade build. Quickest tell: unclipped jacket WITH "$19.95" on the front flap + "Permissions to come" + complete "1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10" number line = trade first; absence of the printed price plus a rear-board blind stamp = book club. CAUTION: a rear-board blind stamp can occasionally denote an extra trade-printing house, so corroborate with the missing price and copyright page.

Also watch for: Cautions: (1) Price-clipped jackets — corner removed to hide a club origin or later price; clipping removes the "$19.95" verification. (2) Married jackets — a first-state "Permissions to come" book paired with a non-matching/facsimile jacket, or a club book given a trade jacket. (3) Facsimile/reproduction jackets (common on a $19.95 1980s King). (4) Ex-library copies (stamps, pockets, spine labels) — heavily devalued. (5) Remainder marks (sprayed/marker on the bottom text-block edge). (6) Restored/recolored jackets. Always confirm BOTH the "Permissions to come" line AND the unclipped "$19.95" front-flap price together before paying a first-state premium.

Print run & scarcity

The 500,000 first-printing figure is reported by stephenkingcollector.com (the standard King first-edition reference site) and is consistent with King's late-1980s blockbuster print runs (Putnam printed huge first runs for King at this point). It is a collector-source/dealer-attested figure rather than a publisher-issued statistic, so treat ~500k as the documented working figure, not a Putnam press release. The key collecting consequence: because both the first and the post-permissions printing carry the same "First Edition" / full number line, only the "Permissions to come" copyright line cleanly separates the true first printing — and even within it there is no priority between the gold- and red-letter author-name jacket states.

First-state points & errata

FIRST-STATE POINT: the earliest copies carry "Permissions to come" printed below the number line on the copyright page (King had not yet cleared all song-lyric/quotation permissions at press time). Per stephenkingcollector.com the "Permissions to come" first state comprised ~500,000 copies (split ~250,000 gold-lettered jackets / ~250,000 red-lettered jackets), followed by a second/corrected run of another ~500,000 copies in which the permissions line was replaced with the actual acknowledgments text (again split gold/red). Palaver wiki and dealer Charles Agvent instead cite a single 750,000-copy first printing; the run figure is NOT reliable as a point — only the printed text matters. The presence of "Permissions to come" is the key first-state point. IMPORTANT: the two jacket-lettering colors (red metallic vs gold for the author name) were issued SIMULTANEOUSLY with NO established priority across BOTH states — jacket color is therefore NOT a state marker; both are correct first-edition jackets.

Limited & signed editions

No contemporaneous signed/numbered, slipcased, or traycased limited edition was issued by Putnam at the 1987 publication. Signed first editions exist only as author-signed copies of the standard trade first. Much later, Cemetery Dance issued a "New Cover Series" (No. 54) Glenn Chadbourne cover-art print (1/500, with Poppy Z. Brite flap text) — a later collectible cover-art piece, NOT a 1987 limited edition of the book.

Market value estimate

~$30–$75

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): $30–75 unsigned (true first state, Fine/Fine, unclipped $19.95 jacket); $350–800 for a verified signed first. This is a high-print-run, common King first — value is modest unless signed or exceptional.

Book-club edition (the trap): $3–10. The Book-of-the-Month/book-club edition is the dominant trap: near-worthless, frequently mislisted as a "first edition." Tells — small blind-stamp (dot/square/maple-leaf) in the lower-right corner of the REAR board, slightly smaller trim, cheaper paper/binding, and a dust jacket with NO printed price (a real first's jacket shows $19.95). — a fraction of a true first; never pay first-edition money for one.

Condition is everything on a common title: fading/rubbing to the green boards, any jacket lettering flaking (the gold/red author name flakes easily), price-clipping, or ex-library marks collapse it toward the $5–15 floor; only a crisp Fine/Fine unclipped copy holds $30–75. Signed is the real multiplier (5–15x), but King's signature is heavily forged — demand provenance/COA. THE SINGLE BIGGEST DISCRIMINATOR FOR THIS TITLE: the true first printing has the full number line 1–10 AND the line "Permissions to come" on the copyright page. A copy with the full 1–10 number line but WITHOUT "Permissions to come" is the later state (printed after permissions were secured) — still labeled "first edition" and routinely sold as a first, but it is NOT the true first printing. Also confirm the $19.95 jacket and the absence of any rear-board blind stamp.

Value sources:

Sources

Verification notes: INDEPENDENTLY RE-VERIFIED (June 2026). New source added not in original draft: Gary's Vintage Books listing — independently confirms green/black boards, embossed Stephen King signature on cover, and "bold gilt stamp lettering along spine" plus "Permissions to come." (1) Price $19.95 at TOP OF FRONT FLAP — confirmed by stephenkingcollector.com, Palaver wiki, Edwards Rare Books, and search corroboration ("$19.95 on the front flap"). Draft's flap-location claim CONFIRMED. (2) Number line "1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10" — confirmed by Edwards, Palaver, stephenkingcollector.com; one dealer expresses it as mfg code "10-1" (same full line). (3) First-state "Permissions to come" below number line — confirmed by stephenkingcollector.com, Palaver, Charles Agvent, Gary's Vintage Books. (4) Binding: quarter-bound, black spine, green boards, green pastedowns — confirmed VERBATIM by Palaver wiki; gilt spine title refined in from Gary's. (5) Jacket: One Plus One Studio design; red vs gold author-name lettering issued simultaneously with no priority — confirmed by Palaver + Agvent; stephenkingcollector.com further documents that BOTH lettering colors appear in BOTH the first-state and second-state runs (so jacket color is NOT a state marker — draft was correct). DISCREPANCY RECORDED: print-run figure conflicts — stephenkingcollector.com gives 500,000 (first state) + 500,000 (second state) = ~1,000,000 total; Palaver wiki and Charles Agvent give a single 750,000-copy first printing. Unresolved; treated as "very large run" and explicitly NOT used as an identification point. Gutter-code field correctly N/A (Putnam, not Doubleday). No corrections to draft's core ID points were required; refinements added: gilt spine lettering, "green and black boards" dealer phrasing, mfg-code "10-1" equivalence, and print-run conflict sharpened.

confidence: high — price ($19.95, top of front flap), number line ("1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10"), the "Permissions to come" first-state point, the quarter-bound black-spine/green-boards binding with green pastedowns and gilt spine lettering, the embossed facsimile signature, and the One Plus One Studio jacket design are each cross-confirmed across 4+ independent sources (stephenkingcollector.com, TheDarkTower.org Palaver wiki, Edwards Rare Books, Gary's Vintage Books, Ernestoic/Atkinson AbeBooks listings, thefirstedition.com). Lowered only on topstain color and author-photo presence, marked UNVERIFIED rather than guessed.← Back to all titles