Hi all,
One quick note today, and one response to a previous comment.
Note: RF made me aware of an entire thread dedicated to custom bound editions of
Salem's Lot, which contains way more information and lots of pictures and is in general superior to my comments on the matter. As I noted in the thread, I consider the custom bound editions non-canonical and I didn't include them in the bibliography that I am building, but I know it's an important book and wanted to reference them. I have updated my original post to link to that thread, it is definitely the better place to talk about rebinds.
And, related to rebinds, a comment:
Originally Posted by
Ben Mears
I think there still may be some confusion on the 2/2 clasped edition and the $12,000 deluxe leather package. Back in summer of 2008 Jared travelled to Bob Jackson's home to photograph some of Bob's artwork for Knowing Darkness. During that trip he showed the 2/2 clasped edition to Bob but he didn't purchase the book. It was then shipped to me for consideration but I elected not to purchase as well due to the fact that the block used was from the limited edition, not the deluxe, that utilized the Saunders Waterford paper and which helped to make it such an incredible book. The asking price at that time was $7500. It was a very unique item and I appreciated the opportunity to evaluate it.
As for the $12,000 package, that was the deluxe edition (not sure if signed), not one of the clasped versions, along with all of the goodies mentioned. The value added attraction there was the Shining proposal which helped bump the asking price as I believe the deluxe SL was valued around $7000-8000 at that time. Since the clasped 2/2 version didn't surface until nearly four years after official publication of the CP 'Salem's Lot I'm not sure is can be considered an official state. Ultimately it is a custom bound block similar to Stu's and any other custom CP 'Salem's Lot block and probably should be treated the same.
Thank you for joining the thread, and I hope you'll stay!
I do however, respectfully disagree that this is a rebound and will continue to rank it as an ultra-deluxe limited edition in the bibliography. I have a couple of small reasons for this, and a big one. The small reasons have to do with the timing - although Jerad first shopped
his copy of the book around in 2008, the book was produced prior to that, being finished possibly as early as 2006, maybe even sooner. Given the enormous amount of effort that went into the book, from multiple craftsmen around the US, I don't think the time difference is that great. It's not unusual for a lettered edition to follow months or more after a numbered edition, so I'm willing to allow some grace in the production time for a book of this stature. But that's just my opinion.
My bigger reason for designating it as a limited edition, is because Jerad said so, and gave it a limitation page. Unlike my franken-copy, which is signed on the title page, or other rebound copies that may have been signed later, the ultra-deluxe goat skin copy has its own limitation page that was produced for, signed, and bound into the book. I have permission from the owner to share the following picture in this thread only, which gives folks a chance to see a clearer version of the limitation page than is available in The Catalog:
Jerad chose to designate the books "the first of two" and "the second of two", which I consider to be limitation numbers, and thus include as official S/L editions in the bibliography. Believe me, as a Centipede Press wanna-be completist, it pains me that there is a limited state that I will never own. But alas, it is thus.
I expected that this post would generate a lot of discussion, being one of the most important books in the Stephen King S/L canon, and I hope that everyone will stick around to see what's next!