Stephen King Proofs

[jhanic]

THAT'S THE ONE!!!

I want one!

John

[Darkmaniscoming]

Clearing out some proofs, Deal for anyone here who wants all three.
Make an offer...

http://cgi.ebay.ca/Stephen-King-THE-...713.m153.l1262

http://cgi.ebay.ca/Stephen-King-GERA...713.m153.l1262

http://cgi.ebay.ca/Stephen-King-DOLO...713.m153.l1262

[Mr. Rabbit Trick]

Under the Dome SKMB
The cover art is still being developed to the best of my knowledge. The bound manuscripts (it's in three parts) only have the basic information, i.e. author, title, Volume number with pertinent info, publisher and November 2009 on the cover, and For Your Eyes Only

[jhanic]

We should start seeing the proof (ARC) of this toward the end of August or the beginning of September.

John

[herbertwest]

there are 2 LEGACIES proofs on Bett's...

[jhanic]

It's the same proof, just listed in two different places.

John

[jhanic]

I got out-bid on this one:

Stephen King Goes to the Movies ARC

I hope someone here got it!

John

[gsvec]

I saw that one, too, John, but I was a little leary since I didn't see any text on the cover to indicate that it was an ARC and was afraid it was just a plain ol' paperback!

[carlosdetweiller]

I got out-bid on this one:

Stephen King Goes to the Movies ARC

I hope someone here got it!

John

John,
Deep down inside aren't you glad you got outbid on this? I think others will be available in the future at a much lower price. I had it on my watch list but didn't bid when I saw that it was over $100. I think you were lucky you didn't win. Time will tell, I guess.

[jhanic]

That's the first of those I've seen. I guess I did go a little crazy.

John

[biomieg]

I'm the owner of a mere two ARCs but this topic did fire up my collector's hunting instincts! Great work John, I'm sure this is the most exhaustive overview of ARCs/proofs existing on the web. My tiny suggestion would be to add some kind of indication on the availability of these items, e.g., very scarce - scarce - common - very common. Just so we, aspiring ARC collectors, have an idea where to start

[jhanic]

That's a good idea, except that in a lot of cases, there's no good way of determining just how scarce (or not) a particular proof is. I tried to indicate the ones I was sure of in the listing, but even those figures are "educated guesses" a lot of the time. The publishers seldom issue statements on the numbers of the proofs. One exception to this, however, has been those from the UK's Hodder & Stoughton, who issued some of their proofs numbered (such as Lisey's Story, DTVII and Duma Key). Even then, though, these numbers cannot always be relied upon. I enquired of the person at H&S regarding the numbering of the Lisey's Story proof and was told that every proof was numbered. I've since seen (and I own one) at least two that are NOT numbered. Does this make the unnumbered ones more scarce? I think so so, but...

One US proof that is very scarce is that of Cell. There were comments made that no proof of that edition had ever been issued, but, again, I own one. I'm sure there are others out there too, but I would say those are VERY scarce.

John

[biomieg]

That's a good idea, except that in a lot of cases, there's no good way of determining just how scarce (or not) a particular proof is. I tried to indicate the ones I was sure of in the listing, but even those figures are "educated guesses" a lot of the time. The publishers seldom issue statements on the numbers of the proofs. One exception to this, however, has been those from the UK's Hodder & Stoughton, who issued some of their proofs numbered (such as Lisey's Story, DTVII and Duma Key). Even then, though, these numbers cannot always be relied upon. I enquired of the person at H&S regarding the numbering of the Lisey's Story proof and was told that every proof was numbered. I've since seen (and I own one) at least two that are NOT numbered. Does this make the unnumbered ones more scarce? I think so so, but...

One US proof that is very scarce is that of Cell. There were comments made that no proof of that edition had ever been issued, but, again, I own one. I'm sure there are others out there too, but I would say those are VERY scarce.

John

Point taken, John In that case I'd better just start hunting and see how things turn out along the way...

[jhanic]

Feel free to ask me any specific questions you have regarding proofs, etc. I'll do my best to answer you.

John

[neo_trinity]

[quote=carlosdetweiller;290991]

Could someone post pictures of the following UK proofs:

The Stand (NEL) 1979
The Stand (H&S) 1990 full proof
Everything's Eventual (H&S) 2002

I want to know what to look out for.

I am attaching my photos of The Stand (H&S) 1990 full red proof with a bit of provenance that I have been able to ascertain.

My copy was obtained from George Locke (antiquarian bookseller in London - Feret Fantasy) who received it from Dave Tate at Hodder in 1990. Inside the proof is the inscription "32 of 33 copies done.... all to Dave Tate ... Hodder's". That would lead me to believe that 33 copies were printed and were hand delivered to various bookdealers in and around the London area before publication. George kept his copy in his collection until 2006 when such time he sold a large portion of his collection via Sotheby's. There were several signed copies personally inscribed to himself, but most important was a signed UK 1st Edition of The Stand that came via the editor at Hodder's with page numbers of where mistakes were found during proof reading. These differed from the proof version. I have not been able to verify with my other copy of the UK 1st to see if these made it to the final print version as it is not at my disposal at this time. I will describe one mistake and ask if any other collectors, and Bob Jackson could check with his red proof version.

Chapter 56 (line 81)
US proof
P.832: .... But they didn't find them, and she wouldn't say where no matter how much they tried to explain how important it was."

UK edition:
P. 732 ... But they didn't find them, and she Couldn't say where no matter how much they tried to explain how important it was."

UK proof:
P. 718-9 ... But they didn't find them, and she couldn't say where no matter how much they tried to explain how important it was."

There are various other discrepancies but that is one that stood out. The meaning of the sentence takes on a rather different twist with the slight variation.

Also with this UK 1st was a variant dustjacket with a £16.95 price sticker as opposed to the £14.95 price. The ISBN bar code is not present, the spine is slightly different with the forks of lightning extending further onto the spine and the blurb about Stephen and Tabitha is slightly different.

Finally the red proof has the 29 March date crossed out and replaced with 3 May.

Hope you found that interesting and if you could check with your copies, I would appreciate it.

Gerald

[Matt]

Those photo's are amazing, thanks for posting them neo.

I really love to see this kind of stuff out there.

[jhanic]

Very, very interesting, Gerald. The only other copy of the UK red proof that I know of belongs to Carolosdetweiler. I don't know if his copy is inscribed or not, but it does not have the date change.

I also own the proof dust jacket, which is identical to the one you have illustrated, including the blank ISBN code box.

I'll be updating the listing for this item in the first post of this thread with the quantity.

John

[carlosdetweiller]

No. Mine is not inscribed. It's very interesting to now have some idea as to the number of copies printed. Yours, neo_trinity, is only the second one I have heard of in a collectors hands.

[neo_trinity]

Likewise Bob, I have not heard or seen another copy other than yours (assuming you purchased Chris Cavalier's copy as his was the only other one I heard of). It makes me assume that although 33 copies was mentioned, possibly not all 33 were distributed. George only got his copy due to a close friendship with Hodder and after several requests. Nobody in his circle of friends received one at the time. If they did leave the building I am assuming they are still in the private libraries of established antiquarian bookdealers in London.

[carlosdetweiller]

Yes, I bought Chris's copy. I am pretty sure he got it through Roy Robbins. I'll follow up on that and see if I can trace it back any further.

[Mr. Rabbit Trick]

Thanks for posting this Gerald. It's most enlightening.

[Mr. Rabbit Trick]

Picked up a "Nightmares in the Sky" proof and a proof dust jacket for $100 on ebay.

[jhanic]

That was a GREAT deal! Congratulations!

John

[carlosdetweiller]

Picked up a "Nightmares in the Sky" proof and a proof dust jacket for $100 on ebay.

Those are very scarce. I bought the one out of Chris's collection. I've not seen another. Congratulations!

[Cutter]

A very interesting story neo_trinity, thanks for sharing the information!