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Gwendy's Final Task Common

with Stephen King (co-authored; this is a Richard Chizmar + Stephen King collaboration, Gwendy trilogy Book 3)
2022 · Cemetery Dance Publications (trade hardcover, world's first edition). NOT Gallery/Scribner — Gallery Books issued only a later trade PAPERBACK (May 31, 2022, ISBN 9781982191559, $17.99); there is no Gallery/Scribner hardcover.
First-edition cover of Gwendy's Final Task
First-edition jacket (first edition (verified vs jacket)) · source

What it’s about

Decades after a mysterious stranger first handed her the button box, Gwendy Peterson is now a U.S. senator in her sixties, entrusted one last time with the dangerous artifact that can grant wishes and end worlds. Carrying the box aboard a private space station on a clandestine mission, she races to put it forever beyond human reach — even as the device's long toll on her mind threatens the steadiness she needs to finish the job.

Significance Co-authored by Stephen King and Richard Chizmar, this is the third and final volume of the Gwendy's Button Box trilogy, weaving deep into King's interconnected mythos with ties to Castle Rock, Derry, and the Dark Tower web.

Is this the true first?Yes — the hardcover (Cemetery Dance, Feb 15, 2022) is the first edition and predates the Gallery Books paperback (May 31, 2022). The hardcover is the true first; the paperback is a paperback later-edition, not a paperback original.
The Cemetery Dance Publications trade hardcover (Feb 15, 2022, ISBN 978-1-58767-801-1) is the TRUE first edition / world's first printing — CD explicitly published it as the "World's First Edition Hardcover." This is the standard collectible first. Note the trade hardcover is a Cemetery Dance EXCLUSIVE (their own retail trade edition, not a Big-Five trade book), which is unusual for a King-bylined title. There is NO Gallery/Scribner hardcover at all; Gallery Books released only a trade paperback (May 31, 2022) and is a later edition. Two limited/signed states exist alongside the trade hardcover (see limitedEditions), but the trade hardcover is the affordable true-first most collectors seek. The task's framing of 'Gallery-Scribner 2022' is incorrect — Gallery handled only the paperback.

First-printing points at a glance

First-printing statementUNVERIFIED as an exact transcription. Cemetery Dance trade hardcovers typically do not carry a Doubleday-style gutter code, and collector listings for this title identify the first printing by the included promotional bookmark rather than by copyright-page wording. The exact copyright-page statement / printing line for the CD trade hardcover is not documented in the consulted collector references — examine the physical copyright page; do not assume a 'First Edition' line is present.
Number lineUNVERIFIED. No number line is documented for the Cemetery Dance trade hardcover in the consulted sources. Cemetery Dance trade editions commonly omit a Doubleday/Putnam-style number line entirely; the first printing is instead distinguished by the promotional Richard Chizmar bookmark laid in. Confirm against the physical book before asserting a printing line.
Gutter / printer codeN/A — Cemetery Dance is not Doubleday; no Doubleday/printer gutter code applies to this title.
First printing — copiesNot publicly disclosed
First jacket price$28.00 (Upper front dust-jacket flap (standard placement). The $28.00 trade-hardcover price is confirmed by the Cemetery Dance publisher page and corroborated by dealer listings. A price-clipped flap hides this and lowers value. Do NOT confuse with the Gallery Books PAPERBACK price ($17.99) — different edition.)
Board (panel) colorUNVERIFIED — exact board cloth color is not specified in the consulted collector/publisher references (binding is described only as 'cloth ... with hot foil stamping on the front boards and spine'). Do not guess the color; inspect the physical copy.
Spine / center bindingUNVERIFIED — described as full-cloth (one continuous cloth, not quarter-bound/two-tone) with hot-foil-stamped spine lettering, but the specific cloth color is not documented in the consulted sources.
Binding styleCloth-bound hardcover (full cloth) with sewn binding, colored head and tail bands, hot foil stamping on the front boards and spine, printed on acid-free paper, wrapped in a full-color dust jacket.
Topstain / endpapersUNVERIFIED for the trade hardcover (no topstain or endpaper color documented in consulted sources). For contrast, the UK SST limited edition is documented with full-color/offset-printed endpapers and a sewn-in ribbon marker — those are limited-edition features, not the trade hardcover.

Dust jacket

Full-color wraparound dust jacket featuring Ben Baldwin cover art. Front-panel illustration with title and the King/Chizmar byline; interior contains black-and-white illustrations by Keith Minnion. Detailed front/back panel layout description UNVERIFIED beyond artist attribution in the consulted sources.

Art / design: Dust jacket / cover art by Ben Baldwin; interior illustrations by Keith Minnion. (UK SST limited edition has different wraparound jacket art by Vincent Sammy — see limitedEditions.)

reference photohttps://www.cemeterydance.com/gwendys-final-task.htmlreference photohttps://bookshopapocalypse.com/products/gwendys-final-task-by-richard-chizmar-first-edition-first-printing-2022-cemetery-dancereference photohttps://veryfinebooks.com/stephen-king-richard-chizmar-gwendys-final-task-uk-signed-limited-edition-600/
Book-club edition & fakes — how to spot a wrong copyNo traditional Book-of-the-Month-Club edition exists for this title — it was a Cemetery Dance small-press/exclusive trade hardcover, not a Doubleday/Big-Five book club selection, so there is no blind-stamp/BOMC dot to look for. The relevant caution instead is edition CONFUSION: (1) the Gallery Books PAPERBACK (ISBN 9781982191559, $17.99) is NOT the first edition; verify the CD hardcover ISBN 978-1-58767-801-1 and the $28 hardcover jacket price. (2) Ensure the laid-in Chizmar promotional bookmark is present for first-printing claims. (3) Distinguish the trade hardcover from the signed limited/lettered and the UK SST limited (different jacket art, slipcased, signed) — those are separate, higher-value states, not BCEs.

Also watch for: (1) Married/swapped jackets — verify the $28 CD hardcover jacket belongs to the CD hardcover, not a price-clipped or substituted wrapper. (2) Edition substitution — the cheaper Gallery Books paperback (9781982191559) being sold or mistaken as 'the first edition'; it is a later paperback. (3) Missing bookmark — listings sell 'first printings' without the laid-in Chizmar promotional bookmark; its presence is the practical first-printing marker. (4) Limited-edition conflation — copies signed only by Chizmar (or the UK SST trio without King) being represented as the King-signed CD Numbered/Lettered editions; only the CD 450 Numbered and 52 Lettered carry BOTH King and Chizmar signatures. (5) Ex-library / remainder-marked trade copies. (6) Facsimile/reproduction jackets on a jacketless book.

Print run & scarcity

Cemetery Dance is a small press that produces only collectible limited editions, so the load-bearing figures are the signed/numbered (450) and signed/lettered (52) limited counts, confirmed directly on the Cemetery Dance product page. A separate UK limited edition of 600 signed/hand-numbered copies exists (not signed by King). The wide-distribution US trade hardcover of Gwendy's Final Task was published by Scribner (Sept 2022); Scribner does not publish a first-printing quantity, so no reliable trade-hardcover print-run figure exists. Do not conflate the Cemetery Dance limiteds with a trade count — there is no Cemetery Dance trade hardcover.

First-state points & errata

Primary documented first-printing tell: a promotional Richard Chizmar bookmark laid into the book ("1st printing with promotional Richard Chizmar bookmark. Appears to be a printed signature on bookmark but can't be certain" — Bookshop Apocalypse listing). No errata/typo state change is documented for this title in the consulted references; treat the bookmark as the practical first-printing marker. UNVERIFIED whether later CD printings exist or differ.

Limited & signed editions

Cemetery Dance signed states: a Limited (Numbered) Edition of 450 copies signed by BOTH Stephen King and Richard Chizmar, and a Lettered Edition of 52 copies signed by both — both with Ben Baldwin cover art / Keith Minnion interiors, now out of print and stated 'will not be available for purchase again.' A matching custom CD slipcase ($29.95) was sold separately for the trade hardcover (slipcase does NOT include the book; not itself a signed edition). UK SST Publications Signed Limited Edition: 600 numbered copies, signed by Richard Chizmar, Linwood Barclay, and Vincent Sammy (NOT signed by Stephen King), deluxe slipcased binding with hot-foil stamping, wraparound jacket art by Vincent Sammy, frontispiece + seven full-color interior paintings on silk art stock, sewn-in ribbon marker (~$295 issue/secondary).

Market value estimate

~$30–$75

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

No confirmed sale found, so this is rated at no less than its original jacket price — a true first/first should hold at least retail in near-fine/fine condition. Soft estimate from dealer listings (treat as approximate): $30–75 (genuine CD trade first printing, fine/fine, unclipped, unsigned-to-Chizmar-signed). Dual-signed King+Chizmar copies: ~$150–400.

Book-club edition (the trap): No true BOMC/Book-Club edition exists — Cemetery Dance does not produce book-club printings, so the classic "BCE blind-stamp" trap is N/A for this title. The functional equivalents (worth a few dollars, not collectible): the 2023 Hodder & Stoughton UK trade, later/non-first US printings, the 2023 paperback, and the 2025 Gwendy Trilogy Omnibus — all routinely MISLISTED as "first edition." Treat any of these, plus ex-library or married-jacket copies, as ~$5–15. — a fraction of a true first; never pay first-edition money for one.

This is a MODERN, recent, and currently inexpensive collectible — not a scarce vintage King first; do not expect four figures for the plain trade hardcover. Condition sensitivity is moderate but real at this price: a fine/fine UNCLIPPED jacket ($28 price intact) is the baseline; clipped or scuffed jackets and bumped spines knock it toward $20–30. Signed premium: Chizmar-signed alone is COMMON (he signs heavily) and adds little; the genuine premium is a copy signed by BOTH King and Chizmar, which jumps to roughly $150–400+. THE single biggest discriminator for this title: ignore the prompt's generic "Doubleday gutter code" point — it does NOT apply to a Cemetery Dance press book. The true first is identified by the Cemetery Dance trade hardcover itself: ISBN 978-1-58767-801-1, $28 jacket price, Feb 15 2022, 412 pp, Ben Baldwin cover art, full number line / no statement of later printing, and NO "Hodder" UK imprint. The market is full of UK-trade, omnibus, paperback, and later-printing copies sold as "first edition first printing" — verify the CD imprint + $28 unclipped US jacket + ISBN before paying any premium.

Value sources:

Sources

Verification notes: Cross-checks performed: $28 trade-hardcover price confirmed on cemeterydance.com publisher page AND corroborated by dealer/announcement context. Publisher topology (CD hardcover first, Gallery paperback later) confirmed via cemeterydance.com + Gallery/S&S ISBN 9781982191559 paperback listings (BooksAMillion/Goodreads/AbeBooks). First-printing bookmark tell from Bookshop Apocalypse first-edition listing. Limited tiers (450 numbered / 52 lettered, King+Chizmar) from cemeterydance.com signed-editions page; UK SST 600-copy edition from veryfinebooks.com. Fields left UNVERIFIED: copyright-page statement, number line, board/spine color, topstain — not present in any consulted source; flagged, not guessed.

confidence: Medium-high. HIGH confidence on publisher topology (CD hardcover = true first; Gallery = paperback only), the $28 hardcover price (publisher + dealer cross-confirmed), artists (Baldwin/Minnion), Feb 15 2022 date, ISBN, and the limited-edition tiers. LOWER confidence / UNVERIFIED on exact copyright-page wording, number line, board/spine cloth COLOR, and topstain — these specifics are not documented in the consulted collector references, so they are explicitly marked UNVERIFIED rather than guessed.← Back to all titles