The Long Walk Collectible pb original
What it’s about
In a dystopian America, one hundred teenage boys set out on a grueling annual contest called the Long Walk: keep moving above four miles per hour or earn a warning, and a third strike means a soldier's bullet. There is no finish line, only a last boy standing, and the winner takes whatever he wants for life. Sixteen-year-old Ray Garraty joins the march as bodies and minds fray, friendships and rivalries form on the road, and the simple act of putting one foot in front of the other becomes a slow test of endurance, will, and the price of being watched.
Significance The first novel Stephen King ever wrote (drafted in 1966-67) but published in 1979 as the second book under his "Richard Bachman" pseudonym; adapted into a 2025 feature film directed by Francis Lawrence.
CRITICAL: There is NO hardcover first edition. The TRUE first edition is a PAPERBACK ORIGINAL — Signet (NAL) mass-market paperback, July 1979. The Long Walk was the second of the early Bachman paperback-originals (after Rage, 1977). It NEVER appeared in hardcover during its original publication. The first hardcover appearance is the omnibus 'The Bachman Books: Rage / The Long Walk / Roadwork / The Running Man' (NAL, October 1985) — which is a FIRST-IN-HARDCOVER omnibus, not a standalone first edition of The Long Walk. The first standalone hardcover did not exist until the Centipede Press deluxe limited (2022/2024). So a collector seeking 'the first edition of The Long Walk' wants the 1979 Signet paperback. Anyone offering a 1979 hardcover is selling a fake or a misdescribed later/limited edition.
First-printing points at a glance
Dust jacket
Pictorial paperback front cover (US Signet 1979). Specific imagery not authoritatively documented across two sources; UNVERIFIED. Title 'THE LONG WALK', author credit 'Richard Bachman', Signet/NAL branding, and '$1.95' cover price. (The well-known Gerry Grace artwork — a marching column under a watching crowd — belongs to the UK paperback, not the US first.)
Art / design: UNVERIFIED for the US 1979 Signet cover. NOTE: Gerry Grace is documented as the artist for the 1979 UK first-edition cover (NOT the US Signet). The US Signet cover artist is not confirmed across two authoritative sources, so it is left UNVERIFIED.
Also watch for: Most common issue: misrepresentation of LATER Signet printings as the first — verify the "1" in the number line AND "First Signet Printing, July, 1979" on the copyright page; later printings (and the 1999 Stephen-King-bylined reissue) lack the 1979 statement. Confusing the Canadian first-printing issue ($2.25 CAD, 'Printed In Canada') with the US first ($1.95) — both are legitimate first printings but the US is the standard collected one. Beware ex-library copies (stamps/pockets — heavily devalued; e.g. confirmed ex-library copies on eBay). Beware any '1979 hardcover' — none exists; it is a fake or a misdescribed later/limited edition. Condition is everything on a 45-year-old mass-market: cracked/rolled spines, detached covers, and tanned/brittle pages are common and crater value. Price-clipping is not a concern (cover-printed price, not a clippable flap), but a clipped/cut cover corner would be a damage red flag.
Print run & scarcity
FORMAT IS THE KEY CAVEAT: 'The Long Walk' was first published July 3, 1979 as a SIGNET (New American Library) MASS-MARKET PAPERBACK ORIGINAL under the Richard Bachman pseudonym. There was NO 1979 hardcover first edition — so the question of a 'hardcover first print run' does not apply to the original. The 1st printing states '1st printing, July 1979' with a full number line.
No publisher-disclosed first-printing QUANTITY exists for the 1979 Signet paperback. Signet/NAL did not publish a print figure, and no Stephen King bibliography, collector guide, or dealer (AbeBooks, Bauman, collector blogs) cites a hard number. Sources describe it only qualitatively as 'rare'/'scarce'/'highly collectible' (first-printing copies routinely $400+). Do NOT confuse with the commonly-cited ~30,000 figure — that is the DOUBLEDAY HARDCOVER first trade printing of CARRIE (1974), a different title and a different format; it does not transfer here.
First US HARDCOVER appearance of the text: the 1985 omnibus 'The Bachman Books' (NAL, $19.95, 'First (Omnibus) Edition' on copyright page, full number line), which collected Rage / The Long Walk / Roadwork / The Running Man. No published print-run figure exists for that 1985 hardcover omnibus either; dealers (Bauman) call it 'very scarce in hardcover.' A first standalone hardcover of The Long Walk did not appear until much later reissues (no announced figure found).
Bottom line: any '30,000'-type number for THIS title would be invented. The honest answer is: paperback original, no published first-printing quantity.
First-state points & errata
No documented errata/state changes separating first-state from later first-printing copies of the 1979 Signet paperback. The sole first-PRINTING distinction is the presence of the "1" in the number line plus the "First Signet Printing, July, 1979" line — both must be present. Note a separate Canadian issue of the first printing exists: stated "Printed In Canada / Cover Printed In U.S.A." with a CAD $2.25 cover price and the full number line (this is the Canadian issue of the first edition/first printing, not a later printing). Later Signet printings (e.g. 2nd printing) remove the "1" from the number line.
Limited & signed editions
Centipede Press standalone deluxe limited (2022/2024) — Signed Limited, traycased, full leather binding, marbled endpapers, top-edge stain, sewn ribbon marker, illustrated throughout; signed by Stephen King, Bev Vincent, Jim & Ruth Keegan, and Patrick Loehr; numbered edition of 100 (No. 1-100) plus lower-priced trade states. This is the FIRST standalone hardcover. Suntup Editions has produced fine-art prints (Gerry Grace UK cover art, edition of 50 + AP/PP) but a Suntup signed/lettered book edition is not confirmed here. The 1985 NAL 'The Bachman Books' omnibus also exists in a slipcased limited.
Market value confirmed sales
$200–$500 (genuine first printing, Fine, $1.95 cover, complete 1-9 number line)
Assumes a genuine first edition / first printing in near-fine to fine condition (clean copy, unclipped jacket). Lesser condition is worth less.
Confirmed sales: Clean public hammer prices are scarce for this paperback-original. Documented market evidence: stephenkingcollector.com reference guide assigns a true first $200–$500 (updated Feb 2024); eBay completed listings show "excellent" first-printing copies clearing via Best Offer (final price hidden, consistent with the ~$200–$400 guide band) while ex-library/reading copies close ~$7–$125; AbeBooks dealer ASKING (not sold) runs $720 (VG) to ~$1,360 (near-fine) — treated as aspirational/unreliable, not comps. No Heritage Auctions or PBA Galleries sale record located for this title.
Book-club edition (the trap): $5–$15. There is no true US hardcover book-club edition of this title (it was a mass-market paperback original; BCE/BOMC do not exist for it). The "trap" equivalents are ex-library copies, water/tobacco-toned reading copies, and LATER Signet printings (number line not starting at 1) mislabeled "1st edition" — all worth roughly $5–$25. — a fraction of a true first; never pay first-edition money for one.
Condition-driven. See full notes in the primary valueNotes field.
- https://www.stephenkingcollector.com/1st/longwalk.html
- https://www.bookpoi.com/the_long_walk_by_richard_bachman_(_stephen_king_)_first_edition_identification.html
- https://www.abebooks.com/book-search/title/the-long-walk/author/richard-bachman/first-edition/
- http://toomuchhorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2013/01/the-signet-paperbacks-of-richard-bachman.html
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Long_Walk_(novel)
Sources
- https://stephenking.com/other/identifying_first_editions.pdf
- https://www.stephenkingcollector.com/1st/longwalk.html
- https://www.stephenkingcollector.com/forums/other-edition-questions-f4/questions-first-editon-long-walk-and-lisey-story-t1446.html
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Long_Walk_(novel)
- https://www.abebooks.com/first-edition/Long-Walk-Bachman-Richard-Stephen-King/31703333589/bd
- https://www.finebookcellar.com/product-page/the-long-walk
- https://veryfinebooks.com/stephen-king-the-long-walk-signed-deluxe-limited-edition-100-centipede-press/
- https://shop.suntup.press/products/the-long-walk-fine-art-print
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Long_Walk_(novel)
- https://www.abebooks.com/book-search/title/the-long-walk/author/richard-bachman/first-edition/
- http://toomuchhorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2013/01/the-signet-paperbacks-of-richard-bachman.html
- https://www.baumanrarebooks.com/rare-books/king-stephen/bachman-books/109784.aspx
- https://stephenking.fandom.com/wiki/The_Long_Walk
Verification notes: Cross-checked across multiple authoritative sources. PRICE ($1.95 US) confirmed by: (1) official stephenking.com 'Identifying first editions' guide compiled by Bev Vincent, (2) stephenkingcollector.com first-edition page, (3) multiple AbeBooks/eBay confirmed-first listings. COPYRIGHT STATEMENT + NUMBER LINE ('First Signet Printing, July, 1979' / '1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9') confirmed by the official guide AND stephenkingcollector.com. PAPERBACK-ORIGINAL / first-hardcover-in-1985-omnibus confirmed by official guide, Wikipedia, and AbeBooks omnibus listings. Catalog number (J8754 / ISBN 0-451-08754-2) appears in eBay/forum sources but is single-source-tier for the SKU formatting, so treated as supporting not primary. US cover ARTIST left UNVERIFIED (Gerry Grace documented only for the UK edition).