11 Scribes · All titles · Viking & Putnam (1979-1997)

Nightmares & Dreamscapes Common

1993 · Viking (Viking Penguin, a division of Penguin Books USA Inc.), New York

First-edition cover of Nightmares & Dreamscapes — First-edition jacket (first edition (verified vs jacket)) · source

What it’s about

Stephen King's third major short fiction collection gathers more than twenty tales spanning his range, from gruesome horror to suspense, dark fantasy, and the occasional swerve into crime or quiet melancholy. Severed hands crawl with murderous purpose, the dead place phone calls, an island holds a brutal secret, and an alternate Raymond Chandler-style detective stalks a noir Los Angeles. Closing with a nonfiction essay on Little League baseball, it's a grab-bag for readers who want King at his most restless and eclectic.

Significance Sole-authored by King (1993); source of the Emmy-recognized 2006 TNT anthology series of the same name, and home to "Dolan's Cadillac," "The Night Flier," and the Castle Rock-adjacent "It Grows on You."

Is this the true first?Yes — the US Viking trade hardcover is the true first edition, first printing. It is not a paperback original and is not preceded by any US small-press limited. (The UK Hodder & Stoughton edition, including a signed facsimile-bookplate limited, is a separate UK printing, not a US point.)
The US Viking trade hardcover (1993) is the true first edition, first printing. There was NO official US publisher's signed/limited/numbered edition. The only contemporaneous "limited" issue was the UK Hodder & Stoughton signed slipcased edition (1 of approx. 2,000; King signature via FACSIMILE bookplate, not a true autograph; green cloth + matching green cloth slipcase) — a separate UK printing, not the true first and not a US point. Any US "slipcased signed" copies in the trade carry DEALER-ADDED custom slipcases, not a publisher limitation. The US first ran a very large trade printing (reported approx. 1,500,000 copies per stephenkingcollector.com), so true firsts are common and inexpensive relative to King's Doubleday-era titles.

I own a copy of this title

My notes — condition, state, price intact, is it a book-club copy?

First-printing points at a glance

First-printing statementCopyright page carries the statement "First published in 1993 by Viking Penguin, a division of Penguin Books USA Inc." A true first printing ALSO carries the complete Viking number line containing the digit 1 (see numberLine). Both the "First published in 1993 by Viking Penguin" statement AND the full number line including the "1" must be present.

Number lineFirst printing shows "1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2" — the presence of the "1" is the load-bearing first-printing marker. Later printings lack the "1"; note a documented Viking second-printing example shows a RESET conventional line "10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2" (lowest digit 2, no 1) rather than a truncation of the original — so the durable rule is simply: a first printing's line MUST contain the "1."

Gutter / printer codeN/A — Viking uses no Doubleday-style gutter/printer code. The draft's "0993" inner-flap jacket code is UNVERIFIED (no source located) and should not be treated as a first-issue identifier.

First printing — copies~1,500,000 copies (first printing, US Viking hardcover) accepted figure

First jacket price$27.50 (US). A Canadian price (commonly "$36.99") is also printed on first-issue jackets. (Upper/top corner of the front jacket flap.)

Board (panel) colorBlack paper-over-boards (panels), with the author's initials gilt-stamped on the front board.

Spine / center bindingBlue cloth spine (quarter cloth) with bright gilt spine lettering. Two-tone quarter binding: blue cloth spine over black paper-covered sides.

Binding styleQuarter-bound, sewn publisher trade binding: blue cloth spine over black paper-covered boards, gilt stamping on the front board (author's initials) and spine.

Topstain / endpapersEndpapers: BLUE endpapers and pastedowns (VERIFIED — corrects the draft's UNVERIFIED note; confirmed across multiple dealer descriptions incl. biblio/minotavrosbooks). Topstain: UNVERIFIED — no reliable source confirms a colored top-edge stain; appears plain/unstained.

Where to buy marker-checked

Live AbeBooks listings, checked against the seller's own photos. ✓ confirmed = a photo shows the decisive first-printing marker; cover only = ask the seller for the copyright-page shot before buying.

✓ 1st/1st confirmed$25The Selected Shelfprice block visible on front jacket flap but exact $27.50 digits not legibly resolved at seller's 300px max image resolution; US issue independently c likely first$30Grendel Books$27.50 US flap price present (stated by seller, not photographed). No seller photos exist on this listing — only the stock AbeBooks ISBN catalog image photos unclear$30Dan Pope Booksprice-intact-per-seller-text-unverified ($27.95 claimed on flap; note marker spec said $27.50 — discrepancy unresolved without photo). Could not retri

Dust jacket

Front: Rob Wood painting of a solitary scarecrow on a deserted road wearing a Castle Rock Rockets shirt, with author name and title in large type. Spine continues the publisher trade design with gilt lettering; rear panel/flaps carry blurbs, book description, and author photo (author-photo credit UNVERIFIED). Title appears as "Nightmares & Dreamscapes" (ampersand) on the jacket.

Art / design: Jacket illustration by Rob Wood (a lone scarecrow standing in the middle of a road wearing a "Castle Rock Rockets" shirt). Jacket designer attribution and author-photo credit: UNVERIFIED.

http://robwoodfineart.com/robwoodfineart.com/Nightmares_and_Dreamscapes.html

https://www.stephenkingcollector.com/1st/nightmares.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nightmares_%26_Dreamscapes

Book-club edition & fakes — how to spot a wrong copyBook club / Book-of-the-Month-Club (and "Stephen King Library") issues: the SINGLE most reliable tell is the dust jacket — NO printed price at the top corner of the front flap (the trade first shows "$27.50"); the BCE jacket is simply printed without a price, NOT price-clipped. Secondary tells: smaller trim and lighter/cheaper paper stock; a small blind-stamp (indented dot/square/circle, typically lower corner of the REAR board — standard BMC practice); copyright page lacks the full Viking number line with the "1"; binding/gilt may be simplified and the block glued rather than fully sewn. The Book-of-the-Month-Club issue is the most common BCE seen for this title (e.g., the Carpetbagger Books BMC listing).

Also watch for: (1) Book club copies mis-sold as firsts — check for NO price on the front flap, smaller trim, lighter paper, rear-board blind-stamp, and a copyright page lacking the full number line with the "1." (2) Married jackets — a first-state $27.50 jacket placed on a later-printing or BCE book; ALWAYS match the jacket to the number line on the copyright page. (3) Price-clipped jackets — a true first must show "$27.50" intact; a clipped flap removes proof of state. (4) Ex-library copies (stamps, pockets, spine labels). (5) Remainder marks on the bottom text-block edge — devalue. (6) Facsimile/reproduction jackets. (7) UK Hodder edition (or UK trade) sold as the US true first. Because the print run was enormous (approx. 1.5M), prioritize condition (fine/fine, unclipped) over scarcity — comparatively common firsts.

Print run & scarcity

The 1.5-million-copy first printing is the defining fact of this title's market: King was at the absolute peak of his commercial fame in 1993, and Viking printed accordingly. That enormous run is precisely why a true unsigned first is near-ubiquitous and inexpensive — scarcity (and therefore value) lives almost entirely in SIGNED copies and in pristine fine/fine condition, not in the 'first edition' status itself. Figure is consistently reported as 1,500,000; treat as a strong trade/collector consensus number rather than a publisher-certified statement of account.

First-state points & errata

No widely-cited textual errata or first-state-vs-later-state typo points are documented for this title. The US first is identified by the intact full number line containing the "1" plus the $27.50 jacket price; no known internal text-change state or errata.

Limited & signed editions

No official US Viking signed/numbered/traycased limited edition. UK: Hodder & Stoughton 1993 signed limited — 1 of approx. 2,000; green cloth, FACSIMILE King signature on a bookplate affixed to the half-title (not a true autograph), housed in a matching green cloth slipcase (a separate UK issue). Any US "slipcased signed" copies in the market are author-signed trade firsts in dealer-made slipcases, not a publisher limitation.

Market value estimate

~$25–$60

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): $25–60

Book-club edition (the trap): $5–15. The BOMC/book-club edition uses the SAME quarter-blue-cloth / black-board binding as the trade first, so binding is NOT the tell. It is worthless as a "first" and is the single most-mislisted trap for this title. — a fraction of a true first; never pay first-edition money for one.

[Audit-corrected from $30-75: value is for a genuine UNSIGNED trade first in fine/fine; signed/limited copies excluded.] Condition is everything because the book is abundant — only crisp fine/fine, unclipped copies command the top of the unsigned range; any clip, fade, or bumping drops it to single digits. Signed copies are the ONLY meaningful money (10–40x the unsigned price); King-signed firsts of this title are genuinely scarce, and an in-person inscription (e.g., the Dec 15 1993 BookMarc's Bangor signings) plus COA pushes toward $1,000–1,400. THE #1 DISCRIMINATOR FOR THIS TITLE: it is a Viking book, NOT a Doubleday book — ignore any 'Doubleday gutter code' point (that's a generic template trap and does not apply). A genuine first requires ALL of: (1) '$27.50' present and UNCLIPPED on the front jacket flap, (2) 'First published in 1993 by Viking Penguin' on the copyright page, (3) full number line '1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2' (ending in 2), and (4) NO BOMC blind-stamp/dot on the rear board and a priced (not blank) jacket. A clipped jacket, a blank/BCE jacket, or the blind-stamp instantly disqualifies it regardless of how the seller listed it.

Value sources:

Sources

Verification notes: VERIFIED across the canonical stephenkingcollector.com reference + multiple independent dealers. (1) Number line "1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2" and "First published in 1993 by Viking Penguin" statement: confirmed by stephenkingcollector.com (NEW independent source, not in original sources[]) and dealer listings. (2) Jacket price $27.50 on front flap: confirmed widely. (3) Binding (quarter blue cloth spine over black paper boards, gilt initials): confirmed. (4) ENDPAPERS corrected from UNVERIFIED to BLUE endpapers and pastedowns — confirmed across biblio/minotavrosbooks/dealer syntheses. (5) LATER-PRINTING number line refined: a rarebookcellar second-printing listing (NEW independent source) shows "10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2" — i.e., later printings do not merely drop the 1 from the original sequence; the durable rule is presence of the "1." (6) VALUE corrected/widened DOWN: stephenkingcollector.com lists unsigned firsts at ~$10-15 (reading-copy), below the draft's $40-125 floor; large 1.5M print run makes firsts common. (7) "0993" jacket code DOWNGRADED to UNVERIFIED — no source confirms it; removed as a stated first-issue point. (8) BCE tell confirmed: NO price at top of front flap (Carpetbagger BMC listing) is the primary distinguisher; blind-stamp is standard BMC practice but not source-specific. NOT independently verified: topstain color, jacket designer, author-photo credit, the "0993" code.

confidence: High on the load-bearing points — jacket price $27.50, number line "1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2" (1 present = first), "First published in 1993 by Viking Penguin" statement, quarter blue-cloth-spine over black paper boards with gilt initials, BLUE endpapers, and the Rob Wood scarecrow jacket — each cross-confirmed across the canonical stephenkingcollector.com reference plus two or more independent dealer descriptions. Medium on later-printing number-line FORMAT (a second printing may show a reset "10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2" rather than a truncated original line). Low / UNVERIFIED on the "0993" jacket code (no source found), exact topstain color, jacket designer, and author-photo credit.← Back to all titles