11 Scribes · All titles · The Dark Tower (Donald M. Grant)

Wolves of the Calla (The Dark Tower V) Common

2003 · Donald M. Grant, Publisher, Inc. / Scribner (trade edition distributed by Simon & Schuster/Scribner)
First-edition cover of Wolves of the Calla (The Dark Tower V)
First-edition jacket (first (Wikipedia infobox)) · source

What it’s about

Roland Deschain and his band of gunslingers — Eddie, Susannah, Jake, and Oy — press on along the Path of the Beam toward the Dark Tower when they're drawn to Calla Bryn Sturgis, a farming town living under a terrible recurring dread. Once a generation, masked riders called the Wolves sweep in from the dark land of Thunderclap to steal one child from every set of twins, returning them "roont" — broken and ruined. As the desperate townsfolk beg the gunslingers to stand and fight, the ka-tet must weigh their sworn quest against the chance to make a doomed people's last stand their own.

Significance The fifth Dark Tower novel, published in 2003 as the first of three volumes King raced to finish after his 1999 near-fatal accident; it famously braids King's own multiverse together, pulling in Father Callahan from 'Salem's Lot and seeding the metafictional turn that defines the series' final stretch.

Is this the true first?Yes. The trade is a true hardcover edition. Note the nuance below: a signed Grant LIMITED edition and an Artist Edition were issued alongside the Scribner trade hardcover in 2003 (see trueFirstEdition). For the COMMON trade hardcover, the "First Trade Edition" stating "1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2" is the collectible first printing.
All three 2003 issues are "first edition" in the sense of first publication; they differ by format/issue, not by precedence in the way Grant's early Dark Tower trade reprints did. (1) GRANT SIGNED LIMITED — 1,350 numbered copies in TWO volumes housed in a single slipcase, signed by Stephen King AND Bernie Wrightson; this is the most desirable issue. (2) GRANT ARTIST EDITION — 3,500 copies in one volume, signed by Bernie Wrightson only, using the limited's cover art. (3) SCRIBNER/GRANT TRADE HARDCOVER — 660,000-copy first printing, unsigned, the title documented here. So the King-signed Grant limited is the premier collectible; the trade hardcover documented here is the true first of the mass trade issue. There is NO paperback original — this is a genuine hardcover first.

First-printing points at a glance

First-printing statementCopyright page reads "FIRST TRADE EDITION" (Donald M. Grant / Scribner, 2003). The first printing is confirmed by the presence of the complete number line below; "First Trade Edition" wording ALONE is not enough — the number line must also be present and complete.
Number line"1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2" — the Scribner-style staggered line. A true first shows the full line ending in 2 with the 1 present (lowest digit = 1). Later printings drop low digits from the left (a "3" as the lowest remaining number = second printing, etc.). Beware Scribner reprints that retain "First Trade Edition" text but show a number line beginning at 3 or higher — those are NOT firsts.
Gutter / printer codeN/A — Grant/Scribner did not use a Doubleday-style gutter printer code; first-printing identification is the "FIRST TRADE EDITION" statement + the number line.
First printing — copies~660,000 copies (Grant/Scribner trade hardcover first printing) — the mass first release. Donald M. Grant published Wolves of the Calla in 2003 with distribution by Simon & Schuster/Scribner; the trade hardcover (US$35.00, ISBN 1-880418-56-8, first-printing number line 1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2) had a first printing of 660,000 copies. This is the edition the average collector means by "the 2003 first edition." · signed limited: For contrast, the signed/limited tiers were tiny: a Deluxe Limited Edition of 1,350 signed-and-numbered copies (two volumes in a slipcase, signed by Stephen King AND artist Bernie Wrightson), plus an Artist Edition of 3,500 copies signed by Wrightson only. These are the small numbers a signed/limited-focused guide entry would show. confirmed
First jacket price$35.00 (Upper front dust-jacket flap (top corner). A price-clipped flap hides this and lowers value; club/later copies differ.)
Board (panel) colorBlack full-cloth boards (cloth over boards).
Spine / center bindingBlack spine matching the boards (full cloth, NOT quarter-bound/two-tone), with bright gilt-stamped stylized titling on the spine.
Binding styleFull-cloth, sewn binding (boards cloth-covered, not paper-over-boards), issued with dust jacket. 714 pp. (some catalog entries cite 736 pp incl. plates/front matter).
Topstain / endpapersIllustrated pictorial endpapers — ethereal monochromatic/blue night-scene wilderness illustration (Wrightson). No notable colored topstain reported (UNVERIFIED on any topstain).

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.

likely first$30Joe Staats Booksellerunconfirmed_from_photo — seller states jacket is NOT price-clipped (expected $35.00 flap), but no photo of the jacket flap exists to verify; jacket prphotos unclear$35Paul Johnson Fine Booksjacket price $35.00 NOT shown — no photo of jacket; listing price is US$35.00 (30% off US$50.00), unrelated to printed jacket price marker. NO seller photos unclear$40Marvin Minkler Modern First Editionsunknown — no jacket photo retrievable for target listing ($35.00 trade-first price could not be verified). TARGET LISTING DELISTED / PHOTOS UNRETRIEVA

Dust jacket

Vibrantly colored Bernie Wrightson cover art. Interior carries twelve richly colored full-page plates by Wrightson plus black-and-white vignettes throughout. Jacket designed by John Fulbrook III. Front flap carries the $35.00 price.

Art / design: Bernie Wrightson (cover/interior illustrations); jacket DESIGN by John Fulbrook III.

reference photohttps://www.stephenkingcollector.com/1st/wolves.htmlreference photohttps://veryfinebooks.com/stephen-king-dark-tower-v-wolves-calla-signed-artist-first-edition-3500/
Book-club edition & fakes — how to spot a wrong copyNo commonly encountered Book-Club Edition is associated with this 2003 Grant/Scribner trade hardcover (Dark Tower volumes were not standard BOMC fare like 1970s-80s Doubleday Kings). Generic BCE tells if one is encountered: a blind-stamp (small indented dot/square/circle) lower-right of the rear board, "Book Club Edition" on the lower front jacket flap, NO printed price, thinner/lighter paper, smaller trim, glued (not sewn) binding, and NO number line. The genuine first carries "FIRST TRADE EDITION" + the full number line + the $35.00 priced flap.

Also watch for: Watch for: (a) later Scribner printings retaining "First Trade Edition" text but with a number line that does NOT begin at 1 — not a first; (b) price-clipped jackets hiding the $35.00 (lower value, sometimes passed as if intact); (c) MARRIED jackets — a later/club jacket on a first-printing book, or a first jacket on a reprint; (d) the unsigned trade being conflated with the signed limited/artist editions in listings (verify King's signature and numbering for the limited); (e) ex-library copies (stamps/pockets) and remainder marks (sprayed/dotted bottom edge) which depress value.

Print run & scarcity

Publishing structure note: unlike the prompt's framing, the LARGE trade run was NOT a separate Scribner-only edition split off from a Grant edition — Grant itself was the publisher of record for all three tiers, with Simon & Schuster/Scribner handling distribution of the 660,000-copy trade hardcover ("Donald M. Grant/Scribner" appears on the copyright page). So the moat between tiny-signed and mass-trade is real, but both came under the Grant imprint. Distinct from the later Scribner mass-market PAPERBACK (Jan 2005, ISBN 0-7432-5162-8) — that is a separate, later edition, not the 2003 first trade hardcover. Source quality: the 660,000 figure comes directly from Donald M. Grant Publisher's own product page (primary publisher source), corroborated by collector/marketplace listings; the 1,350 / 3,500 counts are confirmed by both Grant and stephenking.com.

First-state points & errata

No widely catalogued first-state textual erratum / point separates first-printing trade copies beyond the number line itself. UNVERIFIED that any typo state-change exists; identification rests on the "1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2" line plus the $35.00 jacket. (Lower confidence on errata specifically.)

Limited & signed editions

(1) Donald M. Grant SIGNED LIMITED — 1,350 numbered copies, TWO volumes in a single slipcase, signed by Stephen King AND Bernie Wrightson. (2) Donald M. Grant ARTIST EDITION — 3,500 copies, one volume, signed by Bernie Wrightson, using the limited's cover art. Both far exceed the trade in value.

Market value confirmed sales

$20–60 for the unsigned FIRST TRADE EDITION (fine/fine, unclipped $35 jacket); the SIGNED LIMITED ARTIST EDITION (1 of 3,500, Wrightson-signed, slipcased) is the real collectible at ~$250–450

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

Confirmed sales: Trade first sells for ~$10–15 per stephenkingcollector.com reference and routine eBay/AbeBooks/Biblio fine-copy listings clear ~$20–50; Etsy/eBay fine first-trade copies listed/sold in the $25–45 band (2024–2026). Signed Artist Edition (1/3,500, Wrightson): dealer veryfinebooks.com sealed copy at $395 (2025–26); WorthPoint records signed Artist/limited copies trading ~$250–400. NOTE: no genuine Heritage/PBA auction-hammer record surfaced — this title rarely reaches formal auction because the unsigned trade first is not scarce.

Book-club edition (the trap): $8–15. Unusual for a King title: there is effectively NO meaningful book-club premium/discount gap here because the trade first itself is near-worthless (~660,000 copies). A BCE (lacking the $35 jacket price, with a blind-stamp on the rear board) is worth a few dollars at most. The real "cheap trap" is the unsigned trade first being sold AS IF it were the signed limited. — a fraction of a true first; never pay first-edition money for one.

CONDITION SENSITIVITY: low in absolute dollars because the trade first is abundant — even a flawless fine/fine copy tops out ~$50–60; wear barely moves it because the floor is already near reading-copy price. SIGNED/INSCRIBED PREMIUM is the entire game: Wrightson-signed Artist Edition (slipcased, Smyth-sewn) ~$250–450; a King-signed Gift/Deluxe copy commands materially more (low-to-mid hundreds and up). THE SINGLE BIGGEST THING that separates a real first from the mislisted copies of THIS title: it is NOT a Doubleday gutter-code book — verify the number line 1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2 AND the unclipped $35.00 US / $52.00 Can jacket AND the words 'First Trade Edition' on the copyright page; then confirm whether it is SIGNED. The dominant trap here is inverted vs. typical King titles: sellers price the common, unsigned $20 trade first like the scarce signed limited. If it has no Wrightson/King signature and no slipcase, it is the $20–60 trade book regardless of how 'TRUE FIRST' the listing screams. Conversely, an ex-library copy, married/facsimile jacket, or a clipped/wrong-price jacket drops even the trade first to single digits.

Value sources:

Sources

Verification notes: Price $35.00 confirmed by stephenkingcollector.com AND multiple dealer/search aggregates. Number line "1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2" confirmed by stephenkingcollector.com (via cached WebFetch) and dealer-listing aggregate; "FIRST TRADE EDITION" statement confirmed same. Limited (1,350 King+Wrightson, 2 vols/slipcase) and Artist (3,500 Wrightson) confirmed by grantbooks.com publisher page and abebooks/veryfinebooks listings. Binding (black full cloth, gilt spine, Wrightson plates, Fulbrook jacket) from dealer-listing aggregate.

confidence: High — the copyright statement ("FIRST TRADE EDITION"), number line ("1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2"), $35.00 jacket price, black full-cloth/gilt-spine binding, Wrightson illustration + Fulbrook jacket design, and the two limited issues are cross-confirmed across stephenkingcollector.com, the Donald M. Grant publisher page, and dealer listings. Slightly lower confidence on errata (none catalogued) and exact topstain/page-count variance (714 vs 736).← Back to all titles