That is because there were/are none. Unless a person wrote in a letter on one of the possibly blank sig sheets.Originally Posted by tippy4
That is because there were/are none. Unless a person wrote in a letter on one of the possibly blank sig sheets.
This is pretty much how I see the world of Lettered editions as well, although I'd include TCK as well if that is the original intention of the publisher.
Also, I tend to view a Lettered edition that completely matches its sibling Numbered edition to be a money grab. I believe those who purchase Lettered editions ought to get something extra for the higher price they pay.
I'd say Tippy's list looks pretty good. Although you left off the Lettered edition of Cemetery Dance's "Century's Best Horror Fiction." If you want to count books like the Lettered FDNS and IT, then I would add Century's Best since King has already signed the signature sheet for that Lettered edition, even though the release date is still TBD.
"Smile... It is a fine day..."
Motto of Calvin's Corner: No picture, it does not exist.
So what about Artist Editions/Copies? Tippy put the AE of Talisman on the list, which I would certainly consider to be the equivalent of a Lettered edition in that it has a completely different signature sheet and had a limited run.
However, I've got one of the Artist's Copies of Eyes of the Dragon marked as 1 of 10 in the book itself. It's certainly different, but I do not know that I would group it along with the Lettered editions. I've always thought of that one in the same terms as my Proof copy of Six Stories (1 of 28 copies). In both of those cases, I always considered the books more than a Numbered but less than a Lettered.
Then again, I have always passed on the opportunity to purchase "Lettered" copies of books that were in no way different than the Numbered edition (Lettered/Numbered The Stand vs. Lettered/Numbered The Regulators) due to the fact that these copies are essentially the same as the Numbereds other than their perhaps being association copies (I had the chance to buy a Lettered copy of The Stand about eight years ago for $1,000.00 over the going rate for a Numbered copy and I balked at the premium).
Of course, I do consider a Publisher's Copy or Presentation Copy of a book with a unique Lettered state to be the same as the Lettered copies of that book. For example, I have a Publisher's Copy of the Lettered state of From a Buick 8 as well as a Presentation Copy of the zippered state of Skeleton Crew, both of which I regard as Lettered editions despite their not having a letter A-ZZ.
"Smile... It is a fine day..."
The Talisman AE is not the equivalent of a Lettered edition, because there is an actual Lettered edition with the same signature sheet.
I've got a copy of DT7 with an unnumbered signature sheet that I suppose could magically become a LetteredThat is because there were/are none. Unless a person wrote in a letter on one of the possibly blank sig sheets.
"Smile... It is a fine day..."
I suppose that if one wants to be technical about it, the semantics break down to the difference between a Lettered "Copy" and a Lettered "State." A Lettered The Stand is a Lettered Copy of the Numbered State. My copy of the zippered edition of Skeleton Crew is a Presentation Copy of the Lettered State of that book.
Personally, I see no distinction, provided that the book be the proper state, signed, and not have some sort of damage or defect that caused it to receive a designation other than a Letter (e.g. a Publisher's Copy). Of course, if a Lettered copy has some special provenance that has actually been documented (e.g. a Lettered book's having been given to Stephen King by the publisher who then personally gifted the book to another author, friend, family member, or acquaintance), I suppose that would make me view it differently. However, to view two books of the same state with the exact same signature page as being completely different simply because one has an actual Letter on the sheet and the other a P/C (or equivalent) when the books were taken from the same batch produced during the same run is beyond the distinctions I personally make. I might pay a slight premium to have a Lettered copy over a Publisher's Copy, but not much.
In the case of my Publisher's Copy of the Lettered state of From a Buick 8, the difference literally comes down to a Lettered copy's being marked as such and sold to a Cemetery Dance customer directly at retail price and my Publisher's Copy being marked as such and sent to Barry over at Gauntlet Press free of charge by Richard Chizmar from Cemetery Dance, after which Barry sold it to me.
I view my Artist's Copy of The Eyes of the Dragon as slightly different in that it once belonged to the artist (Kenny Ray Linkous) himself, who personally wrote in the limitation by hand prior to giving them away or selling them (at least I'm pretty sure that Linkous wrote it in, although it may have been Alpert). Similarly, I view my Proof copy of Six Stories as slightly different in that Michael Alpert wrote in the Proof designation and limitation by hand. Both of these books have a story that goes along with their inception. Then again, I view my three unsigned, unnumbered PC copies of the Numbered state of Skeleton Crew as completely different from and the lesser of both the Lettered and Numbered states in that it has no King signature. Still, this was by design; these copies were never meant to be signed or numbered.
That copy of DT7 that I have with no number, on the other hand, is a fluke that arose from the person doing the shipping's having accidentally neglected to write in the number before sending it out. Of course, someone could technically identify that as a completely different, rare, "1 of ???" copy that a true completist simply must have if he or she is to claim that his or her Stephen King collection is truly complete; but as I said, I personally do not make such distinctions.
"Smile... It is a fine day..."
wow
it is a bit overwhelming when you see it all together like that
I don't have a problem with publishers copies as long as they don't get out of control like they did with Dark Harvest! I like the way Grant does them. For example DTII DOTT has a limitation of 850, 800 of which are for sale some of the other 50 are used as replacement copies the remainder are marked author's copies, artist's copies, and publisher's copies, etc. and distributed to those people to present to whomever they want. I think it is cool to get one of these particularly one that went to the author or artist. It would be really cool if it became the norm for these to have additional limitation in them, even if it is hand written, stating this is 1of twelve artist's copies or 1 of 28 publisher copies. I don,t know if Cemetery Dance, Subterranean, or any of the others differentiate out of series copies other than labeling them all PC or how many they usually have but it would be cool to find out! I know I saw one of the PC copies of one of the CD King publications that Glenn Chadbourne illustrated and it had artist's copy written above the PC and was remarqued. I do not know if Glenn wrote this himself in his copies, but how could you not think something like that as a very cool and special copy! Sorry about the long winded post, lettered editions are lettered although roman numeral copies and the tray-cased TCK are not lettered they are the equivalent of the lettered.Pretty much, via the KISS method.
I don't think PC copies of Slinger should be considered Lettered either way. Further more, I don't even consider PC copies of any edition as official copies of said edition. I know why they are needed--as extras in case there is damage to one or more of the copies of the set. But after all copies have been distributed, any remaining PC copies should be destroyed. I don't like how all of these PC are left running around, inflating the number of the set. Publishers should stick to the actual number that is released, not use these PC copies to supplement their income.
Ken
Glenn wrote that himself, I asked him to
actually,
I, V & X are letters, as are P & C
123456789 are numbers
syntax is everything...
O is the only question... is it an O or a 0
I have to admit you have a point there, roman numerals are letterers. The O vs. 0 is easy if you put the / across the zero.
Was that a copy that belonged to Glenn or one you owned and asked him to Remarque?
Ken
Sorry I should have explained better, it was one of Glenn's copies & I asked him to mark it so
I, V and X are letters, but when used in the Roman numeral system they designate numbers.
0123456789 are the 10 single digit numbers in our "base ten" system.
We as humans likely use the base ten since we have 10 digits on our two hands.
Speaking of numbers Terry, 1's and 0's are what you should be using...
having received the Latin achievement award two years in a row in high shool way back when Latin was still taught.... I'm aware of the roman numeric system...I, V and X are letters, but when used in the Roman numeral system they designate numbers.
0123456789 are the 10 single digit numbers in our "base ten" system.
We as humans likely use the base ten since we have 10 digits on our two hands.
Speaking of numbers Terry, 1's and 0's are what you should be using...
and when in ancient rome speaking Latin... I'll use numbers as the romans did... til then, to me... VIX is short for Vixon
01001000 01000001 01001000 01000001 01001000 01000001
- 01010011 01101001 01110010 01000010 01101111 01101111 01101101 01101101 01100101
I treat lettered copies as being the same if they're from the same print run... "A-Z, PC, no limitation" etc... all the same... To me a PC copy is an "out of series" copy of the lettered publication, but it is still part of the lettered run. That said, as you know, A-Z sells better than PC, unless said PC copy has some provenance...
www.hyraxia.com - Specialist sellers of Speculative Fiction Modern First Editions.
This may be true, but I also think that PC copies of a lettered state drag down the value of the regular lettered copies, which may be one of the reasons that Lettered copies of Cemetery Dance books frequently sell below the issue price on the secondary market.
"Smile... It is a fine day..."
This seems a highly debatable point because the "PC" had to be printed to allow for damage, etc. However, I see your point. Fortunately, I do not own any "Lettered" editions which makes it a bit easier for me to share my three beans!! LOLThis may be true, but I also think that PC copies of a lettered state drag down the value of the regular lettered copies, which may be one of the reasons that Lettered copies of Cemetery Dance books frequently sell below the issue price on the secondary market.
28 in 23 (?)!!!!
63 in '23!!!!!!!!!!
My Collection: https://www.thedarktower.org/palaver...ion-Merlin1958
The Houston Astros cheated Major League Baseball from 2017-18!!!! Is that how we teach our kids to play the game now?????
Debate some more please.
To the point raised previously ("lettered" vs. "lettered state"):
I own several Subterranean Press titles that have the attributes of the lettered state, but do not have a letter on the limitation page. Does the fact that they have a different binding and are traycased make them "lettered" copies?
My take is that, No, they should not be considered such unless they are actually lettered, and that the ones I have should be considered PCs/out of series copies in the lettered state.
A-Z, AA-ZZ are lettered.
PC is PC and not lettered.
Numbered is numbered and not lettered.
PC copies are extras for artist, author, etc...not part of the run.
To the point of first editions, I consider the first appearance of any story: short, novella, novel to be a first edition. I don't consider galley, proof or ARC's since they are promotional tools for review purposes. The exceptions are The Plant (which was signed/numbered and lettered but also given away) and DT7 ARC (which is signed/numbered). The first edition of The Plant 4-6 was the download in 2000. Firsts of short stories are in magazines, fanzines, books, etc...not the collection later on. Night Shift is a first but most of the stories are reprints.
Are AAA-ZZZ lettered?
To a purist, only A-Z are lettered. Everything else should be considered important and valuable, but nothing compares to 1-26 (or less-see Danse Macabre).
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