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The Dead Zone Collectible

1979 · The Viking Press (New York)
First-edition cover of The Dead Zone
First-edition jacket (first (Wikipedia infobox)) · source

What it’s about

After years in a coma following a near-fatal car accident, schoolteacher Johnny Smith wakes to find he can perceive hidden truths and glimpse the future simply by touching a person or object. As his unsettling gift draws public attention and upends his quiet life, a chance encounter with a rising populist politician confronts Johnny with a vision he cannot ignore — and a terrible question about what a person should do with knowledge no one else can have.

Significance A cornerstone of King's early canon, it became his first hardcover New York Times bestseller and was adapted into David Cronenberg's acclaimed 1983 film starring Christopher Walken, plus a long-running USA Network TV series (2002-2007).

Is this the true first?Yes. The Viking Press trade hardcover (published August 30, 1979; 426 pp.) is the true first edition. There is no preceding small-press limited and no paperback original. The Signet/NAL mass-market paperback and the UK Macdonald/Futura editions are all later. ISBN-10 0-670-26077-0 / ISBN-13 978-0-670-26077-5.
The US Viking trade hardcover is the true first edition, first printing. No Donald M. Grant, Philtrum, or Land of Enchantment limited precedes it — unlike the Dark Tower / Eyes of the Dragon / Cycle of the Werewolf cases. The UK first (Macdonald & Co., 1979) is a separate, later printing and not the true first.

First-printing points at a glance

First-printing statement"First published in 1979 by The Viking Press" on the copyright page, standing ALONE with no reference to any subsequent printing/impression. A true first carries the publication statement only and bears no "Second printing"/reprint line and no number line.
Number lineNo number line on a first printing. Identification rests entirely on the "First published in 1979 by The Viking Press" statement standing alone with no reprint statement. Later printings DO add a number line: the third printing is identifiable by a number row descending to 3 (i.e., a "...5 4 3"-style line present), and other later states add explicit reprint statements. (Do not expect a Scribner-era "1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2" row — that is the post-1998 convention, not 1979 Viking.)
Gutter / printer codeN/A as a Doubleday-style gutter/printer code (this is a Viking, not Doubleday, title). HOWEVER the jacket bears a Viking date code "0879" at the bottom of the FRONT flap (= 08/79, the August 1979 publication month) — present and intact on a first-state jacket. This is a jacket code, not a text-block gutter code.
First printing — copiesNot publicly disclosed
First jacket price$11.95 (Bottom of the FRONT (inner) dust-jacket flap, accompanied by the date code "0879" also at the bottom of the front flap. The ISBN (0-670-26077-0) appears separately at the BOTTOM-RIGHT of the BACK jacket flap (NOT the front flap). A price-clipped jacket (corner cut from the front flap) removes the $11.95 and materially lowers value.)
Board (panel) colorBlack paper-covered boards, with the author's initials ("SK") blind-stamped / debossed on the front board.
Spine / center bindingBlack cloth spine with bright gilt (gold) spine lettering. Quarter-bound (black cloth spine + black paper boards).
Binding styleQuarter-bound, sewn: black cloth spine over black paper-covered boards. Top edge plain. Dealers describe this variously as "black quarter cloth to black boards" / "black cloth spine wrap over black boards" — both describe the same quarter-binding.
Topstain / endpapersTop edge unstained (plain); no notable topstain color. Endpapers plain/unprinted. UNVERIFIED as to any decorative endpaper.

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.

cover only — verify$200Yes BooksSeller TEXT claims 'Unclipped' but NO jacket-flap photo exists to verify the $11.95 price; price not shown in any image. NO seller-uploaded photos exicover only — verify$250James Graham Booksellernot shown in photo (front flap not photographed); seller TEXT claims unclipped, but image does not show the $11.95 price or whether the flap is clippe

Dust jacket

Front panel: a half-shadowed visage intersecting a numbered circular ("magically numbered") device, on a black background with red-and-gold titles; no review blurbs on the front panel. Back panel: an 11-line quotation drawn from the book (no review excerpts). Back flap: an open-shirted author photograph of Stephen King above a 4-line author bio. Front flap: $11.95 price plus the "0879" date code at the bottom. The ISBN appears at the bottom-right of the BACK flap.

Art / design: Dust-wrapper design by One + One Studio; author photograph by James Leonard (c. 1979). Credited on the jacket and corroborated by dealer catalog data.

reference photohttps://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Dead_Zone_(1979)_dust_jacket,_first_edition.jpgreference photohttp://www.fedpo.com/BookDetail.php/The-Dead-Zonereference photohttps://bookshopapocalypse.com/products/the-dead-zone-by-stephen-king-first-book-club-edition-1979
Book-club edition & fakes — how to spot a wrong copyTitle-specific BCE tells: (1) BINDING SWAP — book-club copies have LIGHT BLUE boards with a BLACK PAPER spine, versus the trade first's black paper boards + black CLOTH spine with gilt lettering; (2) SMALLER TRIM — BCE stands ~8.5 inches tall, noticeably shorter/thinner than the trade first's ~9.5 inches; (3) JACKET STRIPPED — the BCE dust jacket LACKS publisher information AND the ISBN and carries NO price ($11.95 absent) and no "0879" code; (4) a blind-stamp (small indented dot/square/circle) is typically present on the rear board; (5) cheaper/lighter paper, frequently glued rather than sewn. CRITICAL: a BCE copyright page can still read "First published in 1979 by The Viking Press," so the COPYRIGHT STATEMENT ALONE DOES NOT prove a trade first — verify the black CLOTH spine, full ~9.5" trim height, and the priced/coded front flap (and back-flap ISBN). NOTE: some booksellers loosely call a club copy "full sized... identical except for absent price" — do not rely on a single seller's framing; check spine material + trim + jacket.

Also watch for: (1) MARRIED JACKETS — a trade-first book fitted with a clipped or facsimile jacket, or a priced jacket placed on a BCE book; always match jacket (front-flap $11.95 + "0879" + back-flap ISBN + publisher data) to the correct black-cloth-spine, full-height (~9.5") binding. (2) FACSIMILE/REPRODUCTION jackets — check paper feel, gloss, registration. (3) PRICE-CLIPPED jackets misrepresented as unclipped firsts (the $11.95 + "0879" should be intact at the bottom of the front flap). (4) BCE sold as "first edition" leaning on the copyright line — defeat with binding/trim/jacket checks above. (5) EX-LIBRARY copies (stamps, pockets, spine labels) and REMAINDER-marked copies (spray/marker to bottom edge) — both lower value. (6) RESTORED/married copies and "signed" copies with non-contemporaneous or autopen-suspect signatures — prefer in-person provenance/COA. (7) Bookseller "matching" slipcases passed off as a publisher's limited (there is none).

Print run & scarcity

By 1979 King was already a major bestseller (post-The Stand/The Shining), and Viking printed The Dead Zone in a substantial trade run, which is why genuine firsts remain relatively common and only modestly priced. A separate book-club printing followed quickly, flooding the market with the look-alike that drives most misidentifications. The frequently-cited ~50,000 first-printing number is plausible for a 1979 King trade printing but lacks an authoritative bibliographic citation, so it is best stated as "not reliably documented."

First-state points & errata

First-state jacket: the front flap carries BOTH the $11.95 price AND the code "0879" (= 08/79, August 1979) at its bottom; unclipped, with no front-panel review blurbs. ISBN on the back flap. No widely-catalogued first-state-only text typo/errata separates first printings — the discriminators are the copyright statement standing alone (no number line), the front-flap price + "0879" code, and the black-cloth-spine binding. Any claimed text errata point is UNVERIFIED absent a named bibliography citation.

Limited & signed editions

None from the publisher. Viking issued NO signed/numbered or traycased limited edition of The Dead Zone — there is no Donald M. Grant, Cemetery Dance, or similar limited. "Slipcased signed first edition" copies on the market are BOOKSELLER-ASSEMBLED: a trade first edition signed in person by King (e.g., copies dated 9/12/79 or 9/17/79) placed in a custom (non-publisher) "matching" slipcase with a dealer-issued COA. The slipcase is not original to publication (veryfinebooks explicitly describes a "custom matching slipcase").

Market value confirmed sales

$200–600 (true first, fine/fine, unclipped $11.95 jacket, unsigned); signed/period-dated copies $1,500–3,000+

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

Confirmed sales: Hard auction-realized comps are thin for this common title (it trades dealer-to-collector, not at major houses, unless signed). Documented market points: (1) Downtown Brown — true first/first printing, fine in unclipped $11.95 jacket, listed and marked SOLD (dealer record, ~2023–2024), unsigned, low-hundreds range; (2) Reputable-dealer unsigned fine/fine firsts (Type Punch Matrix, Rare Book Cellar, Second Story Books) consistently offered ~$250–600; (3) Signed/period-inscribed 1979-dated copies (The BiblioFile, Biblio listings; icollector signed lot) cataloged/realized ~$1,500–3,000, with a contemporaneously-signed valuation cited near $2,000. I will not fabricate a Heritage hammer figure — the 2008 Heritage Yaspan signed lot exists but its realized price was not retrievable.

Book-club edition (the trap): $10–40. The Book-of-the-Month/Viking book-club edition is the dominant trap and is near-worthless: light-blue boards with a black PAPER spine (not black cloth), ~8.5" tall (smaller than the trade first), and a jacket with NO price and missing ISBN/publisher info at the lower back. Ex-library and married/facsimile-jacket copies similarly collapse to sub-$30. — a fraction of a true first; never pay first-edition money for one.

Condition is everything on a common title: a price-clipped jacket, faded red spine titling (the jacket's reds fade easily), or a VG (vs. fine) jacket knocks a true first down toward $75–150; a genuinely fine/fine unclipped copy holds the $200–600 band. A period (1979) felt-tip signature/inscription is the single biggest value multiplier (5–10x, to $1,500–3,000+); later signatures are worth less than period ones. THE #1 THING separating a real first from the mislisted copies: the SPINE and SIZE — the true first has a BLACK CLOTH/quarter-cloth spine with gold gilt on black boards and is full trade height; the book-club fake has a BLACK PAPER spine on LIGHT-BLUE boards, stands ~8.5" tall, and its jacket lacks the $11.95 price AND the ISBN/publisher line. Note: this is a VIKING book, so there is NO Doubleday gutter code — anyone citing a gutter code for The Dead Zone is misapplying a Doubleday point. Confirm: copyright page says "First published in 1979 by The Viking Press" with no additional printing statement.

Value sources:

Sources

Verification notes: CORRECTIONS vs draft: (1) ISBN LOCATION FIXED — draft placed the ISBN at "lower-right of the FRONT flap"; fedpo.com (primary authority) and corroborating dealers put the ISBN at the BOTTOM-RIGHT of the BACK flap. The FRONT flap carries the $11.95 price PLUS the "0879" date code. (2) "0879" CODE ADDED — the draft omitted the front-flap "0879" Viking date code (= Aug 1979); confirmed first-state point across fedpo + multiple dealer/eBay listings (rarebookcellar, johnatkinsonbooks, et al.). (3) ISBN CHECK DIGIT FIXED — draft wrote "0-670-26077-X"; correct ISBN-10 is 0-670-26077-0 (ISBN-13 978-0-670-26077-5), per Biblio/Goodreads/Amazon. (4) NUMBER-LINE NUANCE ADDED — later printings DO carry a number line (third printing identifiable by a row descending to 3); a first has the statement alone. (5) PUB DATE — confirmed August 30, 1979; trade-first trim ~9.5" vs BCE ~8.5". DISCREPANCY LOGGED: one bookseller (bookshopapocalypse) calls its club copy "full sized... identical to the first edition except absent front-panel price," which conflicts with fedpo's light-blue-board + ~8.5" BCE description — treat the single seller's framing as imprecise; rely on spine material + trim + jacket. INDEPENDENT SOURCE NOT IN ORIGINAL DRAFT: johnatkinsonbooks.co.uk (stated "First Published Viking 1979," near-fine UNCLIPPED wrapper) — corroborates the statement-only first + unclipped first-state jacket. Cross-confirmed: $11.95 + "0879" front-flap (fedpo, rarebookcellar, multiple eBay "0879 intact" listings); One + One Studio design + James Leonard photo + 11-line back-panel quote (biblio, fedpo); dealer-assembled slipcase (veryfinebooks "custom matching slipcase"). No publisher limited exists.

confidence: High on the core points — "First published in 1979 by The Viking Press" statement standing alone; no number line on a first (third printing adds a number row to 3); $11.95 PLUS the "0879" date code at the bottom of the FRONT flap; ISBN on the BACK flap; quarter-bound black cloth spine + black paper boards with gilt spine + blind-stamped SK initials; jacket by One + One Studio with James Leonard back-flap photo; and the light-blue-board / ~8.5"-trim / no-ISBN-no-price BCE tells — each confirmed across multiple independent sources (fedpo.com first-edition-points guide; johnatkinsonbooks.co.uk; bookshopapocalypse BCE listing; veryfinebooks; plus AbeBooks/Biblio/eBay confirmed-first listings). Medium on exact value ranges (market estimate) and on the absence of any first-state text errata point (no named bibliography line item located).← Back to all titles