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Dolores Claiborne Common

1993 · Viking (Viking Penguin), New York
First-edition cover of Dolores Claiborne
First-edition jacket (first edition (verified vs jacket)) · source

What it’s about

On a small island off the coast of Maine, a hard-bitten housekeeper named Dolores Claiborne is hauled in for questioning after the death of her wealthy, elderly employer. Refusing a lawyer and a stenographer, she sits down with the local police and delivers a single unbroken confession — not about the death they suspect her of, but about a darker reckoning buried decades in her past, including her abusive marriage and the long-ago day of a total solar eclipse. What begins as an interrogation becomes the raw, unflinching testimony of a poor working woman laying out the whole truth of her life on her own terms.

Significance A 1993 King novel written as a single continuous first-person monologue with no chapter breaks; loosely linked to "Gerald's Game" via the shared eclipse, and adapted into the acclaimed 1995 film starring Kathy Bates and Jennifer Jason Leigh.

Is this the true first?Yes. The Viking trade hardcover is the true first edition. There is NO preceding US small-press limited or signed/numbered edition for this title (unlike the early Dark Tower volumes, The Eyes of the Dragon, or Cycle of the Werewolf). The UK Hodder & Stoughton edition (1992) is a separate first and not the true first; King is American and the US Viking printing is the collected true first.
The Viking trade hardcover is the true first edition, first printing. No US small-press limited precedes it. CAUTION on the year: although the novel reached stores in late 1992 (the UK Hodder edition is dated 1992), the US Viking first-edition copyright page reads "First published in 1993 by Viking Penguin." Collectors should not be alarmed that the stated year is 1993 — that, combined with the full number line, IS the true first. Dealers correctly catalogue it as "1993" for this reason. Confirmed by the official StephenKing.com first-edition identification guide (compiled by Bev Vincent), which lists Dolores Claiborne as Viking, 1993.

First-printing points at a glance

First-printing statementCopyright page reads "First published in 1993 by Viking Penguin" (full wording: "First published in 1993 by Viking Penguin, a division of Penguin Books USA Inc."). A true first carries this statement TOGETHER WITH the complete number line below — both must be present. This wording is confirmed verbatim by the StephenKing.com identification guide.
Number line"1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2" on the copyright page — this exact split/zigzag line is the documented first-printing line per the official StephenKing.com guide (NOT a straight 1-10 sequence). The authoritative rule: the numeral 1 is removed for the second printing, so a second printing reads "3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2." Presence of the 1 anywhere in the string denotes a first printing.
Gutter / printer codeN/A — Viking title. Doubleday/printer gutter codes (e.g., R49, S52) apply only to King's 1974-1983 Doubleday titles, not Viking titles, per the StephenKing.com identification guide. (A book-club code occasionally appears in the rear gutter on BCE copies, but that is a club marker, not a trade-first printer code.)
First printing — copies1,500,000 copies (documented first-printing figure) accepted figure
First jacket price$23.50 (Upper corner of the front dust-jacket flap. The $23.50 US price is the documented first-printing jacket price (confirmed by the StephenKing.com guide and multiple dealer listings). First-printing jackets typically also carry a Canadian price. A price-clipped jacket (corner cut off) hides this and lowers value; a first-printing jacket should be unclipped showing $23.50. Per the official guide, later-printing trade jackets often show a DIFFERENT price, and Book Club jackets have NO price marked inside the front cover at all.)
Board (panel) colorBlack paper-covered boards. Front board carries a red metallic "SK" device (Stephen King initials).
Spine / center bindingBlack cloth spine — quarter-bound: quarter black cloth spine over black paper-covered boards. Spine carries red lettering (title/author) and a gilt (gold) sun/eclipse design.
Binding styleQuarter-bound (two-tone): quarter black cloth spine over black paper-covered boards, with red metallic SK on the front board and gilt eclipse/red lettering on the spine. Sewn binding for the true first; book-club copies are typically glued and cheaper-built. Trade-first trim per the StephenKing.com guide: 5¾ x 9½ x 1¼ inches.
Topstain / endpapersColored endpapers — dealer descriptions vary between peach, orange, and mustard/yellow-orange (no canonical single name; the variance is descriptive, not a state difference). A red headband at the spine top is commonly reported. No top-stain reported on the text block (UNVERIFIED whether any present; likely none).

Dust jacket

Front: a dramatic dark illustration of Dolores Claiborne peering down into a well, with a solar eclipse in the sky above — strong reds/oranges against black. Title and author lettering in red. The interior carries a map of the 1963 solar eclipse path. A striking painterly cover typical of Viking's early-90s King jackets.

Art / design: Jacket illustration by Rob Wood. 1963 eclipse map by Virginia Norey. Book/interior design by Amy Hill. (Credits drawn from dealer cataloguing; cross-cited but not independently appearing in the StephenKing.com guide, which does not list jacket-artist credits.)

reference photohttps://www.rarebookcellar.com/pages/books/186127/stephen-king/dolores-claibornereference photohttps://www.ebay.com/itm/234004083895reference photohttps://johnatkinsonbooks.co.uk/book/stephen-king-dolores-claiborne-first-us-edition-1993/
Book-club edition & fakes — how to spot a wrong copyThe PRIMARY, authoritative book-club tell per the official StephenKing.com guide: a Book Club Edition dust jacket has NO price marked inside the front cover (no $23.50) and typically no rear barcode — this is the single most reliable check. Book Club editions are also often a SMALLER, lighter trim than the trade first, on thinner/cheaper paper, and are usually glued rather than sewn. Many BCE/BOMC copies additionally carry a small blind-stamp (indented dot/circle/square) on the lower-rear board, and some carry a printed code in the rear gutter — but treat these as secondary/era-typical signals, NOT definitive for this specific title. CRITICAL distinguishing checks: a BCE lacks the priced jacket flap; the book itself, however, can still show the "1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2" line and the "First published in 1993" statement on some club printings, so the JACKET PRICE (present on trade first, absent on BCE) is the decisive identifier — confirm it together with the binding/trim.

Also watch for: Watch for: price-clipped jackets passed as untouched firsts (first-printing jacket must show $23.50 unclipped); married jackets (a later/club jacket on a first-printing book, or vice versa) — verify the number line in the book independently of the jacket; book-club editions mis-listed as firsts (the decisive check is the MISSING jacket price, plus smaller/lighter trim; a rear-board blind-stamp is supportive but not definitive); facsimile/reproduction jackets; ex-library copies (stamps, pockets, spine labels) which are heavily devalued; and "signed" copies bearing only the UK facsimile bookplate rather than a genuine signature. Confirm BOTH the "First published in 1993 by Viking Penguin" statement AND the full "1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2" number line, AND the priced ($23.50) unclipped jacket, before paying a first-edition price.

Print run & scarcity

stephenkingcollector.com (the standard King first-edition reference site) lists a first-printing run of 1,500,000 copies for the 1993 Viking hardcover, consistent with King's blockbuster status at that point in his career and a reported ~$750,000 marketing/promotion budget at release. This very large trade printing is why the unsigned first edition holds little collectible scarcity value. No publisher-confirmed (Viking/Penguin internal) figure is published; the 1.5M figure is the widely-cited collector-reference number, not a primary-source publisher statement, so treat it as a strong documented estimate rather than an audited count.

First-state points & errata

No textual errata or first-state/second-state typo points are documented for this title (unlike, e.g., 'Salem's Lot's Father Cody error or Pet Sematary's Caretakers date). The only quirk that surprises collectors is the "First published in 1993" copyright wording on a book that reached stores in late 1992 — this is correct, not a flaw. Note also the unusually NARROW trim: the StephenKing.com guide records 5¾ x 9½ x 1¼ inches, narrower (5¾" wide) than Viking's other early-90s King titles (typically 6¼" wide); this is a normal first-edition trait, not a state point. No micro-state variations are noted in standard collector references.

Limited & signed editions

No US signed/numbered or traycased limited edition was issued for Dolores Claiborne. (No Donald M. Grant, Cemetery Dance, or Charnel House limited for this title.) Note: Suntup Editions has since produced fine-press collectible editions of this title decades later — these are modern presses, NOT the publisher's first-edition limited and irrelevant to first-edition identification. The UK Hodder & Stoughton 1992 first edition exists separately; some UK copies carry a facsimile-signed bookplate, which is NOT a true autograph. Genuine author-signed copies of the Viking first exist but were signed individually after publication, not as a publisher's signed limited.

Market value confirmed sales

$40–$75 unsigned (true first, fine/fine, unclipped $23.50 jacket); $300–$650 signed/inscribed first; $20–$40 typical near-fine unsigned

Assumes a genuine first edition / first printing in near-fine to fine condition (clean copy, unclipped jacket). Lesser condition is worth less.

Confirmed sales: Signed/inscribed first ("For David... Stephen King 2/19/96") SOLD $418 (auction record, per dealer/auction citation); Signed first, inscribed half-title in blue ink — Nate D. Sanders, opened $300 min bid, Oct 2017 (near-fine/near-fine, $23.50 jacket intact); Inscribed fine first ("For C—I— ... Stephen King 6/17/94") SOLD via Bauman Rare Books (Brooks A48, fine copy, price realized undisclosed but dealer-level $400–$600 range); Unsigned true firsts in fine/fine routinely close in the low tens to ~$40 on eBay SOLD / AbeBooks dealer fine copies.

Book-club edition (the trap): $5–$15. Book-club edition (BOMC) is the trap: smaller/lighter board, NO number line, "Book Club Edition" on lower jacket flap and/or a blind-stamp dot/square on the rear board, and a jacket with no $23.50 price. Worth a few dollars; constantly mislisted as "first edition." — a fraction of a true first; never pay first-edition money for one.

Value is condition- and signature-driven. With a 1,500,000-copy first printing the UNSIGNED trade first is common and cheap — fine/fine unclipped tops out around $40–$75 from a reputable dealer, and worn/clipped copies are sub-$20. The real money is the autograph: a signed or inscribed true first runs roughly $300–$650 (inscriptions to named strangers sit lower; clean flat-signatures higher). Price-clipping the $23.50 jacket roughly halves an already-low value. THE #1 DISCRIMINATOR FOR THIS TITLE: it is a VIKING book, so the "Doubleday gutter code" does NOT apply — ignore it. A genuine first requires the full number line "1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2" on the copyright page, "First published in 1993 by Viking Penguin," the unclipped $23.50 jacket, AND no book-club blind-stamp on the rear board. Mislisted copies are almost always (a) book-club editions lacking the number line, or (b) later Viking printings (number line not ending in 2) wearing a first-state jacket.

Value sources:

Sources

Verification notes: VERIFIED against an authoritative INDEPENDENT source not previously in sources[]: the official StephenKing.com "Identifying first editions" guide (compiled by Bev Vincent), https://stephenking.com/other/identifying_first_editions.pdf. Findings vs draft: (1) Copyright wording "First published in 1993 by Viking Penguin" — CONFIRMED exactly. (2) Number line "1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2" — CONFIRMED exactly (draft correct); the canonical first-vs-later rule is "the 1 is removed for the second printing," refining the draft's looser "drops low numbers from the left" phrasing. (3) Jacket price $23.50 — CONFIRMED. (4) ADDED trim size 5¾ x 9½ x 1¼ in. from the guide — note this is NARROWER (5¾" wide) than Viking's other King titles; draft did not state trim. (5) BCE tell CORRECTED/REPRIORITIZED: the guide's authoritative primary tell is "Book Club jackets have NO price marked inside the front cover" (and smaller trim) — the draft's rear-board blind-stamp claim is demoted to a secondary/era-typical signal, not the definitive identifier, since the guide does not cite it and some club books can still carry the number line. (6) Binding/boards (black quarter cloth over black paper boards, red metallic SK, gilt eclipse) cross-confirmed across dealers. (7) ENDPAPER DISCREPANCY: dealers describe peach vs orange vs mustard/yellow-orange — no single canonical color; recorded as variance, lowered certainty from draft's flat "mustard/yellow-orange." (8) No US limited edition for this title confirmed; flagged that modern Suntup fine-press editions exist but are NOT first-edition-relevant. (9) Year quirk (stores late 1992, copyright page states 1993) reconfirmed. (10) Gutter-code N/A reconfirmed by the guide (gutter codes are a Doubleday-only phenomenon for 1974-1983 King). Three dealer pages (parigibooks, brennersbooks, gargoylebooks) returned HTTP 406/redirect blocks and could not be fetched directly, but their corroborating snippets appeared in search results.

confidence: High — the copyright statement ("First published in 1993 by Viking Penguin"), the number line ("1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2"), the $23.50 unclipped front-flap price, the 5¾ x 9½ x 1¼ inch trim, and the BCE "no jacket price" rule are all confirmed verbatim by the official StephenKing.com first-edition identification guide (Bev Vincent) — an authoritative independent source added this pass. Binding (black quarter cloth over black paper boards, red metallic SK, gilt eclipse) and Rob Wood jacket art are cross-confirmed across multiple dealers. Slightly lower certainty only on endpaper color (dealers vary: peach/orange/mustard), top-stain (likely none, UNVERIFIED), the rear-board blind-stamp as a definitive BCE tell (it is secondary, not primary), and the exact value band (asking prices vary).← Back to all titles