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The Talisman Common

with Peter Straub
1984 · Viking Penguin Inc. (joint trade imprint "Viking · G.P. Putnam's Sons"), New York
First-edition cover of The Talisman
First-edition jacket (first (Wikipedia infobox)) · source

What it’s about

Twelve-year-old Jack Sawyer sets out from a fading New Hampshire resort town on a desperate cross-country quest to save his dying mother. Guided by an old Black handyman's cryptic instructions, he learns to "flip" between our world and the Territories, a parallel medieval realm where every person has a "Twinner" and his journey runs in eerie parallel. To win his mother's life he must reach a far-off place and claim the Talisman, all while pursued by forces that want him stopped.

Significance A landmark dark-fantasy collaboration between Stephen King and Peter Straub (sequel: Black House, 2001), it is woven into King's Dark Tower mythos and was a #1 bestseller.

Is this the true first?Yes. The November 1984 trade hardcover (published Nov 7, 1984 per Biblio/Viking Adult records; jacket flap carries the date code 11182584 = 11/18/84) is a genuine hardcover first edition. It is a co-publication carrying the joint imprint "Viking · G.P. Putnam's Sons," with the copyright page stating publication by Viking Penguin Inc. There is no earlier U.S. trade printing under a single imprint; the joint-imprint trade hardcover IS the first.
The Viking/Putnam trade hardcover IS the true first edition. The Donald M. Grant signed/limited two-volume illustrated set was issued AFTER the trade edition (veryfinebooks explicitly: "Deluxe Edition -- issued after the trade edition by Viking Press") — a deluxe collectible, NOT a precedence-setting first. So unlike The Dark Tower (Grant precedes trade) or Cycle of the Werewolf / The Eyes of the Dragon (small-press precedes trade), here the trade comes FIRST. Caution: the book carries a DUAL imprint ("Viking · G.P. Putnam's Sons") that appears on BOTH first and later printings — the imprint alone does NOT distinguish a first. The first printing is identified by (a) the copyright-page statement "First Published in 1984 by Viking Penguin Inc." with the last line reading "Designed by Ann Gold" and NO printing line, and (b) the dust-jacket front-flap code 11182584.

First-printing points at a glance

First-printing statementCopyright page reads "First Published in 1984 by Viking Penguin Inc." with NO number line, AND the LAST line of the copyright page reads "Designed by Ann Gold." The decisive test (confirmed by Biblio and multiple dealers): a first printing carries the "First Published in 1984 by Viking Penguin Inc." statement, no subsequent-printing line, and ends with "Designed by Ann Gold." A later printing REPLACES the "Designed by Ann Gold" line with a printing statement — the second printing reads "Second Printing, November 1984." Any "[Ordinal] Printing" line in place of "Designed by Ann Gold" = NOT a first. (CORRECTION REVERSED vs the prior draft: the prior pass demoted "Designed by Ann Gold" to UNVERIFIED; that was an over-correction. Independent sources — Biblio listing #1428186500, abebooks aggregations, multiple dealer descriptions — confirm "Designed by Ann Gold" IS the documented last-line first-printing point and is precisely the line the second printing overwrites with "Second Printing, November 1984." It is restored as a genuine first-printing identifier.)
Number lineNo number line. This title uses the statement-of-printing convention, not a descending number row. First printing = "First Published in 1984 by Viking Penguin Inc." with the copyright page ending on the line "Designed by Ann Gold" and no printing statement. A later printing replaces "Designed by Ann Gold" with a statement such as "Second Printing, November 1984." (Third printing also documented.)
Gutter / printer codeN/A as a Doubleday gutter code — this is a Viking Penguin / G.P. Putnam's Sons co-publication, not Doubleday, so the Doubleday gutter-code convention does not apply. HOWEVER the first printing IS marked by a dust-jacket FRONT-FLAP code 11182584 (= publication date 11/18/84) at the flap foot. That flap code, together with the "First Published in 1984 by Viking Penguin Inc." statement and the copyright page ending on "Designed by Ann Gold" (no later-printing line), identifies a first.
First printing — copiesNot publicly disclosed
First jacket price$18.95 (Top of the FRONT FLAP of the dust jacket. The same first-printing front flap also carries the code 11182584 at the BOTTOM/foot of the flap (this code = publication date 11/18/84). A genuine first-printing jacket is unclipped and shows $18.95 at top with 11182584 at the flap foot; a price-clipped corner removes the $18.95 and lowers value.)
Board (panel) colorBlack paper-covered boards (panels) — quarter-bound with a red cloth spine. Multiple dealers: "red cloth over black boards."
Spine / center bindingRed cloth spine with gilt (gold) titling — quarter-bound (red cloth spine over black paper-covered boards). thefirstedition.com: "Red cloth over black boards, title printed in gold." (Some dealers loosely describe the lettering as "black and gold," but gilt/gold spine titling over red cloth is the consistent, dominant description.)
Binding styleQuarter-bound hardcover: red cloth spine over black paper-covered boards; gilt spine titling; octavo (~6¼" x 9½"); standard 1980s Viking/Putnam trade construction (sewn). Single volume, ~x + 644pp (firstandfine/thefirstedition.com: "x, 644pp"; veryfinebooks collation "[vii], [1]-646"). Issued in dust jacket only — no publisher's slipcase (a "slipcased" trade copy carries an aftermarket/custom case, not a publisher-issued one).
Topstain / endpapersUNVERIFIED for the trade edition — no authoritative source specifies a topstain color or special endpaper treatment for the trade first; plain endpapers are the norm in general listings. The gray PICTORIAL endpapers (with bright gilt, ruled boxes, blind-stamped decoration, and a mounted sepia front-board illustration) belong to the Donald M. Grant LIMITED two-volume set, NOT the trade. Treat trade-first topstain/endpaper as UNVERIFIED.

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$250Cross Genre Booksunclipped $18.95 per seller; price flap itself not photographed (jacket front + interior shown). Buyer notes: (1) CONFIRMED trade first printing via t✓ 1st/1st confirmed$498Archives Books Incunclipped per seller ($18.95); no jacket-flap close-up photographed to independently verify the printed price. BUYER NOTES: (1) The signature is Peter

Dust jacket

Front shows a dynamic shattering/cracked design in red, yellow and orange with the title and both authors' names; bold high-contrast 1980s blockbuster typography. Spine and rear continue the color scheme; rear panel/flaps carry author bios and jacket copy. Front flap carries $18.95 at top and the code 11182584 at the foot. Design by Neil Stuart.

Art / design: Jacket design by Neil Stuart (red/yellow/orange "shattering" cover) — medium-to-high confidence (multiple dealer listings). Interior design credited on the copyright page to Ann Gold ("Designed by Ann Gold") — and, contrary to the prior draft pass, this credit IS corroborated by independent sources (Biblio and abebooks aggregations) as the documented last line of the first-printing copyright page; it is a real identification point, not an unverified claim.

reference photohttps://www.stephenkingcollector.com/1st/talisman.htmlreference photohttps://veryfinebooks.com/stephen-king-peter-straub-the-talisman-first-edition-first-printing-1984-Viking/reference photohttps://thefirstedition.com/product/the-talisman/
Book-club edition & fakes — how to spot a wrong copyBook Club Edition tells for THIS title: (1) NO price and NO 11182584 flap code on the jacket — a true first shows $18.95 at the flap top and 11182584 at the flap foot; a club jacket prints "Book Club Edition" on the lower front flap with no price/code; (2) a blind-stamp (small indented dot/circle/square) on the lower rear board; (3) noticeably smaller trim, thinner/lighter paper stock, often no headbands, sometimes glued rather than sewn; (4) the copyright page will NOT end on the "Designed by Ann Gold" first-printing line. Because this is a Viking/Putnam (not Doubleday) book, the BCE is told by the blind-stamp + clipped/"Book Club Edition" flap + missing price-and-flap-code — NOT by a Doubleday-style gutter code, which does not apply here. (Note vs earlier draft: the trade first DOES carry a meaningful jacket flap code 11182584 — its ABSENCE is itself a BCE/later-jacket tell.)

Also watch for: (1) PRICE-CLIPPED jackets — corner cut to hide $18.95; lowers value and can mask a club jacket. (2) MARRIED jackets — a later-printing/facsimile jacket on a first-printing book (or vice versa); confirm the copyright-page statement (ends on "Designed by Ann Gold") AND that the unclipped jacket shows BOTH $18.95 (flap top) and 11182584 (flap foot). (3) BOOK CLUB COPIES sold as firsts — check rear-board blind-stamp, smaller trim, no headbands, glued binding, "Book Club Edition" flap with no price/code, and copyright page lacking the "Designed by Ann Gold" line. (4) SECOND/THIRD PRINTING sold as first — the joint Viking/Putnam imprint appears on ALL; the reliable test is the copyright-page line: "Second Printing, November 1984" (which REPLACES "Designed by Ann Gold") = NOT a first. (5) Ex-library copies (stamps, pockets, spine labels) and remainder marks. (6) Facsimile/reproduction jackets lacking the 11182584 code. (7) "Slipcased" trade firsts — the publisher issued the trade in dust jacket only; any slipcase is aftermarket and should not be cited as a first-edition point.

Print run & scarcity

Co-authored novel (King + Straub), published Nov 1984, ISBN 0670691992 / 9780670691999, publisher line Viking/G.P. Putnam's Sons. Second printing also appeared Nov 1984. The only firm print-run number is the 1,200-copy slipcased deluxe limited edition (signed by both authors, produced by Donald M. Grant for Viking). Trade-collector lore sometimes cites a 600,000+ first printing, but that figure was not confirmed in the sources surfaced, so it is not reported as fact. Not a Bachman title; not a paperback original.

First-state points & errata

No documented textual first-state errata. The identification rests on the copyright-page statement plus the "Designed by Ann Gold" last-line test and the 11182584 jacket flap-code, not on any text-block variant. No content/state errata are recorded by the consulted sources.

Limited & signed editions

Donald M. Grant, Publisher (Hampton Falls/Boston, 1984) issued a signed/limited illustrated edition in TWO VOLUMES, ten illustrators, bound in cream/grey cloth with gray pictorial endpapers, bright gilt lettering and ruled boxes, blind-stamped decoration, a mounted sepia illustration on each front board, issued WITHOUT dust jackets in a slipcase. Three tiers: (1) DELUXE limited of 1,200 numbered slipcased copies — "originally not signed as published" (veryfinebooks); many were SUBSEQUENTLY signed by King AND Straub on the limitation page (so signed 1,200 copies exist, but signing was not part of issue). (2) 70 PRESENTATION copies (not for sale) signed by King, Straub AND all ten illustrators (Richard Berry, Thomas Canty, Ned Dameron, Stephen Gervais, Jeffery Jones, R.J. Krupowicz, Don Maitz, Rowena Morrill, Berni Wrightson, Phil Hale). (3) A GIFT edition of 3,500 copies signed by Straub and illustrator Rick Berry but NOT by King. The Viking trade hardcover precedes ALL Grant issues; Grant is the deluxe collectible, not the first.

Market value confirmed sales

$60–175 (genuine unsigned first, fine/fine, $18.95 jacket unclipped). Signed by both King & Straub: $400–900+

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

Confirmed sales: Confirmed-SOLD comps for an UNSIGNED trade first are scarce in public auction archives because this is a low-value modern first traded mostly on eBay/Abe rather than at Heritage/PBA. Documented anchors: (1) StephenKingCollector reference values an unsigned first at ~$25–60 depending on condition (Aug 2023 standing estimate, the most-cited collector source). (2) eBay completed/sold true-first HCDJ copies have closed in roughly the $50–150 band over 2023–2025 for clean unclipped examples (eBay sold, item-level). (3) Signed/JSA copies (King + Straub) carry dealer realizations in the $400–900 range (Biblio JSA-certified signed 1st; Raptis Rare Books signed listing). NOTE: I did not locate a venue-published hammer price at Heritage/PBA for a plain unsigned trade first — those houses mostly handle the signed Donald M. Grant LIMITED, not the Viking trade. Confidence lowered accordingly rather than fabricating a comp.

Book-club edition (the trap): $8–20. Book Club Edition (BCE/BOMC) is the dominant trap on this title: physically smaller and lighter, often a blind-stamp dot/circle/square on the lower rear board, and the dust jacket has NO printed price (the $18.95 is absent) instead of being clipped. Worth a few dollars; constantly mislisted as a "first edition" because the copyright line still reads "First published in 1984." — a fraction of a true first; never pay first-edition money for one.

Condition-sensitive: fine/fine unclipped with bright unfaded jacket spine is required for the upper range; clipped/faded/ex-library copies collapse to the $20–50 BCE-adjacent band. Signed by both King & Straub = 5–10x premium (JSA/PSA certification strongly preferred — King is heavily forged). #1 distinguisher vs the mislisted copies: NO gutter code applies to this Viking title; the real point is the copyright page stating exactly "First published in 1984 by Viking Penguin Inc." with NO number line and NO "Reprinted" line, plus a jacket that PRINTS $18.95 (a price-ABSENT jacket + rear-board blind stamp = Book Club Edition, the principal trap).

Value sources:

Sources

Verification notes: SECOND adversarial pass, with one MATERIAL reversal of the prior draft: (a) REVERSAL — "Designed by Ann Gold": the prior draft demoted this to UNVERIFIED and claimed the operative line was only "First Published in 1984 by Viking Penguin Inc." Independent re-verification CONTRADICTS that demotion. Biblio (canonical listing #1428186500) and multiple abebooks/dealer aggregations consistently state: first printing = copyright page ending on "Designed by Ann Gold"; the SECOND printing REPLACES that exact line with "Second Printing, November 1984." "Designed by Ann Gold" is therefore restored as a genuine, documented first-printing identifier (and the Ann Gold interior-design credit is corroborated, not unverified). The "First Published in 1984 by Viking Penguin Inc." statement is ALSO correct — both lines are present; the Ann Gold line is the one that gets overwritten. (b) CONFIRMED — flap code: first printings carry dust-jacket front-flap code 11182584 (= 11/18/84) at the flap foot; its absence is a BCE/later-jacket tell (Biblio, picclick, ebay, multiple search aggregations). (c) CONFIRMED — pagination: single volume, ~x+644pp (thefirstedition.com "x, 644pp"; veryfinebooks "[vii], [1]-646"); not two-volume (that is the Grant set). (d) CONFIRMED/EXPANDED — Grant limited: 1,200 deluxe "originally not signed as published" (veryfinebooks, verbatim), many later signed King+Straub; 70 presentation copies signed by King+Straub+10 illustrators; 3,500-copy gift edition signed by Straub + Rick Berry but NOT King; "issued after the trade edition by Viking Press" reconfirms trade = true first. (e) CONFIRMED — boards/spine: "Red cloth over black boards, title printed in gold" (thefirstedition.com, veryfinebooks). (f) CLARIFIED — slipcase: "Slipcased" in some TRADE-first titles is an aftermarket/custom case; the trade was issued in dust jacket only — do not treat a slipcase as a first-edition point. (g) Dual imprint confirmed (Viking on copyright line; "Viking · G.P. Putnam's Sons" joint imprint), present on first and later printings. (h) NEW INDEPENDENT SOURCES added this pass not in the original draft sources[]: PicClick first-edition listing (corroborates $18.95 + 11182584 code) and the abebooks ISBN 0670691992 first-edition aggregation (corroborates Ann Gold last-line test). (i) rarebookcellar.com (406) and biblio.com (403 on some fetches) blocked direct fetch; their content was corroborated via search-result extracts and other dealer listings. NET: the prior draft's only substantive ERROR was the Ann Gold demotion — corrected here in firstPrintingStatement, numberLine, jacketArtist, bceTells, commonFakesCautions, and gutterCode.

confidence: High on core points — publisher; first-printing copyright statement "First Published in 1984 by Viking Penguin Inc." with last line "Designed by Ann Gold" and no later-printing line (= first); second printing reads "Second Printing, November 1984" REPLACING the Ann Gold line; $18.95 front-flap price; 11182584 first-printing flap code (= 11/18/84); red cloth spine / black boards / gilt spine titles; single volume ~x+644pp; Grant two-volume limited issued after the trade and "not signed as published." Each cross-checked across 3+ independent dealer/collector sources. Medium on Neil Stuart jacket attribution, the Grant 3,500 gift-edition figure, and value range. Low/UNVERIFIED on trade-edition topstain/endpaper specifics.← Back to all titles