Gwendy's Final Task

Title:	Gwendy’s Final Task
Author:	Stephen King and Richard Chizmar
Artist:	Ben Baldwin (Cover) and Keith Minnion (Interiors)
Publisher:	Cemetery Dance
ISBN:	978-1-58767-801-1
Publication Year:	15th February 2022
State:	Trade Hardback
Issue Price:	$28
First Edition Identifiers:	CR page states: First Edition
Comments:	Novella Collaboration between Stephen King and Richard Chizmar

About the Book:
When Gwendy Peterson was twelve, a mysterious stranger named Richard Farris gave her a mysterious box for safekeeping. It offered treats and vintage coins, but it was dangerous. Pushing any of its seven colored buttons promised death and destruction.

Years later, the button box entered Gwendy’s life again. A successful novelist and a rising political star, she was once again forced to deal with the temptation that box represented.

Now, evil forces seek to possess the button box, and it is up to Senator Gwendy Peterson to keep it from them. At all costs. But where can you hide something from such powerful entities?

In Gwendy’s Final Task, “horror giants” (Publishers Weekly) Stephen King and Richard Chizmar take us on a journey from Castle Rock to another famous cursed Maine city to the MF-1 space station, where Gwendy must execute a secret mission to save the world. And, maybe, all worlds.



There were two different types of first editions printed. Thanks to member Hunchback Jack for the info and pictures. Also, publishing info from Richard Chizmar of Cemetery Dance:


First hardcover printing: 100,000 copies
Green binding: 80,000 copies
Gray binding: 20,000 copies
Flat signed copies: approx 5,000
Signed Bookplates: 4,000


The two variants are quite different. Same contents, of course.

The gray version has a matte dustjacket, gray boards, the authors’ names - no title! - stamped on the spine, a simple glued binding, and white endpapers. The green version has a glossy dust jacket, green boards stamped on the spine and the front, a more sturdy stitched binding, and black endpapers.

The paper stock and print quality looks to be the same in both editions. The gray version’s page block looks slightly thinner, but that might just be a byproduct of the different binding.