Stephen King "The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger" Signed First Edition, First Printing, Slipcased w/COA

Personally signed & dated by Stephen King  directly onto the title page on the year of publication 1982:

"For Rocco - Welcome to the weird, weird west! Stephen King 10/30/82"

Donald M Grant Publishers, East Kingston, RI. 1982. "The Gunslinger" by Stephen King. Signed First Edition, First Printing. An Extraordinary Collector's Edition. This is the very first volume in The Dark Tower series, which King considers to be his "magnum opus". Only 10,000 of these were produced, even more scarce signed with a personal inscription by the author. Custom matching slipcase. Includes bookseller issued COA.

Illustrations by Michael Whelan.


This significant signed first edition will enjoy a special status in your collection and be the focal point of your Stephen King library. A highly valuable and unique Signed First Edition. For the serious Stephen King collector. First published in 1982, the story centers upon Roland Deschain, the last gunslinger who has been chasing after his adversary, "the man in black".


Correct First Edition - First Printing Markings:

* "First Edition" as stated on Copyright Page
* Dust-jacket price $20.00 and $60.00 (unclipped)
* ISBN 0-937986-50-X * ISBN 0-937986-52-X
* West Kingston, Rhode Island 1982

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"The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed."

With those famous first words, inspired by Robert Browning's Childe Roland and Sergio Leone's film, The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly and typed on an old Underwood in 1970, King penned the initial words of this long detailed account over thirty years in the completion. "Many of my fictions," King reflected, "refer back to Roland's world and Roland's story. My idea was to use the Dark Tower stories as a kind of summation, a way of unifying as many of my previous stories as possible."

The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger

The Gunslinger is a dark-fantasy novel by American author Stephen King. It is the first volume in the Dark Tower series.

The Gunslinger was first published in 1982 as a fix-up novel, joining five short stories that had been published between 1978 and 1981. King substantially revised the novel in 2003; this version has remained in print ever since, with the subtitle RESUMPTION.

The story centers Roland Deschain, the last gunslinger, who has been chasing his adversary, "the man in black," for many years. The novel fuses Western fiction with fantasy, science fiction, and horror, following Roland's trek through a vast desert and beyond in search of the man in black. Roland meets several people along his journey, including a boy named Jake, who travels with him part of the way.

Now a major motion picture starring Matthew McConaughey and Idris Elba

“An impressive work of mythic magnitude that may turn out to be Stephen King’s greatest literary achievement” (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution), The Gunslinger is the first volume in the epic Dark Tower Series.

A #1 national bestseller, The Gunslinger introduces readers to one of Stephen King’s most powerful creations, Roland of Gilead: The Last Gunslinger. He is a haunting figure, a loner on a spellbinding journey into good and evil. In his desolate world, which mirrors our own in frightening ways, Roland tracks The Man in Black, encounters an enticing woman named Alice, and begins a friendship with the boy from New York named Jake.

Inspired in part by the Robert Browning narrative poem, “Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came,” The Gunslinger is “a compelling whirlpool of a story that draws one irretrievable to its center” (Milwaukee Sentinel). It is “brilliant and fresh…and will leave you panting for more” (Booklist).

Additional Book Information: The Dark Tower is a series of seven books written by American author Stephen King and contains fantasy fiction, science fantasy, horror and western elements. They describe a gunslinger's quest toward a tower whose nature the books call both physical and metaphorical. King has described the series as his magnum opus; besides the seven novels that compose the series proper, many of his other books relate to the story, introducing concepts and characters that come into play as the series progresses.


The series was chiefly inspired by the poem "Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came" by Robert Browning, whose full text was included in the final volume's appendix. In the preface to the revised 2003 edition of The Gunslinger, King also identifies The Lord of the Rings, the Arthurian Legend, and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly as inspirations. He identifies Clint Eastwood's "Man with No Name" character as one of the major inspirations for Roland. King's style of location names in the series, such as Mid-World, and his development of a unique language abstract to our own, are also influenced by J. R. R. Tolkien's work.

Reviews

"An impressive work of mythic magnitude. May turn out to be Stephen King’s greatest literary achievement." ― Atlanta Journal-Constitution

"A compelling whirlpool of a story that draws one irretrievably to its center." ― Milwaukee Sentinel

"Brilliant, fresh and compelling…will leave you panting for more." ― Booklist

Stephen King

Stephen Edwin King (born September 21, 1947) is an American author. Called the "King of Horror", he has also explored other genres, among them suspense, crime, science-fiction, fantasy and mystery. He has also written approximately 200 short stories, most of which have been published in collections. His debut, Carrie (1974), established him in horror. Different Seasons (1982), a collection of four novellas, was his first major departure from the genre. Among the films adapted from King's fiction are Carrie, Christine, The Shining, The Dead Zone, Stand by Me, Misery, Dolores Claiborne, The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile and It. He has published under the pseudonym Richard Bachman and has co-written works with other authors, notably his friend Peter Straub and sons Joe Hill and Owen King. He has also written nonfiction, notably On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft.

Several of King's works have won the Bram Stoker and August Derleth Awards. He has also won awards for his overall contributions to literature, including the 2003 Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, the 2007 Grand Master Award from the Mystery Writers of America and the 2014 National Medal of Arts.[8] Joyce Carol Oates called King "a brilliantly rooted, psychologically 'realistic' writer, for whom the American scene has been a continuous source of inspiration, and American popular culture a vast cornucopia of possibilities."

About the publisher

Donald M. Grant, Publisher, Inc. is a fantasy and science fiction small press publisher in New Hampshire that was founded in 1964. It is notable for publishing fantasy and horror novels with lavish illustrations, most notably Stephen King's The Dark Tower series and the King/Peter Straub novel The Talisman.

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