Stephen King Proofs

[shnnrc01]

search,search and search again:bobs way!

[Patrick]

Out of curiosity, why do you refer to the pages as "signatures"? Is that proof lingo? Or are you referencing something else?

Definition: Several folios collected together for sewing as part of the bookbinding process make up a signature. Multiple signatures usually make up a book.

Are they the same as 'F&Gs'? And I haven't seen any prepublication states of graphic novels but is the 'blue ink' stage common to all of them? Very interesting...

In this case they are similar to F&Gs in that they are unbound folded and gathered signatures. But I don't think that "blues" (blue line proofs) are always in F&G format. I have seen some that were bound with black tape spines or with those clasps that hold pages with 2 punched holes in the pages. Nor are they limited to graphic novels. They are used in the process of printing most books, I think.

Here is a definition I found online: A proof made from the actual printing plates, so-called because of its blue color. A chance to get one more look at a printing job before it goes to the press.

I'm not an expert on this type of terminology by any means. I've just seen the term used over the years but have very little real knowledge on the process of publishing books.

Great information. Thanks for another interesting lesson, Bob!

[herbertwest]

Very nice!

Was the last illustration published? I dont remember seeing it before...

[carlosdetweiller]

Was the last illustration published? I dont remember seeing it before...

I think so. Those pages are all just like the finished book, AFAIK.

[carlosdetweiller]

Getting these pre-publication copies reminded me of another related item in my collection acquired long ago. It is a seven page original typed manuscript of King's introduction to the book. This is the carbon copy of the original typescript and came from Kirby McCauley's office. Material like this is outdated by today's word processing standards and today you can never tell if you have a first generation photocopy, second generation, et cetera. But with the good old typewriter and carbon paper you pretty much know you are getting the real thing right from King's desk. I don't have much material like this. Maybe a couple of other things. To me this is the really special stuff.

[ur2ndbiggestfan]

Wow, really nice! I must visit the great state of Texas one of these days.

I used to buy from Lloyd Currey quite a lot back in the good old days. He was the one who sold me a signed CARRIE for about $35, and most of the other early King US and UK firsts for around the same price. I wish I had bought multiple copies now myself!

[jhanic]

Very, very nice, Bob!

John

[Patrick]

I agree, that really is the special stuff! Thanks for sharing.

[jhanic]

I added the blue cover spiral bound UK proof of Needful Things to the list. For some reason, though, I am unable to save the image of the proof in my files.

John

[biomieg]

Right click this picture and choose 'save as'?

[jhanic]

Thanks. For some reason when I tried it with the auction, it wouldn't work. I was able to save your picture, though.

John

[carlosdetweiller]

Here is something that I had not seen before. A proof by Scribner of Robin Furth's DT Concordance, Vol. I. with white taped spine. I collect pretty much anything with original writing by King and this, to me, is significant for the introduction by King. If the seller is to be believed he says in his listing "A genuinely scarce edition. Scribner printed only a handful of copies of the proof and then recalled them all, presumably because the printing process somehow deleted almost all punctuation in the entire book, rendering the text pretty much unreadable." I scanned through the book and, indeed, there are no periods, commas, etc. throughout the book.

Photo of the cover and of the first page of King's introduction.

[Bev Vincent]

I have two copies of this one. I heard about but never got the "recall" notice. Apparently there's a despackling process used to clean up scanned documents and this one was so thorough that it got all the punctuation.

[jhanic]

That's a neat one, Carlos! I've never even heard of it.

John

[Patrick]

Interesting. Thanks for sharing that.

[herbertwest]

Very nice grab! and thanks Bev for explaining. It sounds weird though..

[carlosdetweiller]

For as long as I have been collecting King proofs I have thought that the only UK proof of NEEDFUL THINGS that Hodder & Stoughton produced was in the 'TWICE THE POWER' proof that also included a story from FOUR PAST MIDNIGHT. I was really surprised to see a stand alone proof of NEEDFUL THINGS on eBay. I got it recently. The seller is from the UK but said that he got the proof long ago from a Hodder rep in South Africa. It is long pages with two book pages per proof page and a plastic comb binding.

[Pasiuk57]

Bon
NICE pickup!
Not one I have either!

[carlosdetweiller]

UK proofs of THE EYES OF THE DRAGON are pretty scarce and the plain white wrappers are easily soiled. This is a nice one because it was protected by a dust jacket. The dust jacket is just a regular dust jacket identical to those found on the trade editions. What I found interesting was that the printed price on the dust jacket and the price on the review slip are both 10.95 pounds. But there is a sticker on the rear flap of the dust jacket that wraps around to the rear panel stating that the price will be 9.95 pounds. I'm probably in the minority in being intrigued by this.

[jhanic]

I think it's interesting also. To me, that means it's a proof dust jacket!

John

[ur2ndbiggestfan]

Count me in as also being intrigued. Very interesting additions to your collection!

[Stockerlone]

Great new additions !!!

[The Library Policeman]

A picture of this last one? :-)

Front:



Back:



John

I just got one of these on ebay for under £4.00

[jhanic]

A GREAT buy! Congratulations!

John

[The Library Policeman]

A GREAT buy! Congratulations!

John

Thanks John. I expected it to go a fair bit higher than it did. I'm very happy.