Stephen King "The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger" Signed Letterd Edition, "The Cycle of the Werewolf" Signed First Edition, Association Collection w/Provenance

Personally signed by Stephen King (2x) along with the illustrator, Michael Whelan. This collection has been with the original owner for over 40 years. 

"THE MAN IN BLACK FLED ACROSS THE DESERT, AND THE GUNSLINGER FOLLOWED"

This Lettered Edition of The Gunslinger was a gift by Stephen King to a very lucky fan who had written a letter offering to knit a sweater for him in exchange for a copy of the book. Several months after the letter, they were pleasantly surprised to receive this copy "N". The sweater was then knit and mailed to him. Stephen King thanked them by sending an inscribed copy of "The Cycle of the Werewolf".

Donald M. Grant Publishers 1982: Stephen King "The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger" Signed Lettered Edition "N" of only 52 produced. "First Edition" as stated on the copyright page. This First Printing book has been personally signed by Stephen King along with the illustrator Micheal Whelan directly onto the special limitation page. Illustrated by Michael Whelan. Includes letter (dated 8/8/83) from Stephen King's secretary. Near Fine+/Near Fine+/Fine.

Land of Enchantment 1983. Stephen King "Cycle Of The Werewolf" Signed First Edition. Trade hardback with dustjacket. A single story by King, issued in a limited edition with illustrations by Berni Wrightson, who had collaborated with King on Creepshow. There were various signed issues of the book; this is the trade hardback with dust-jacket, limited to only 7,500 copies. Brown leatherette boards, bold gilt cover and spine titles. Heavy stock. Coated pages. Illustrated endpapers. Dramatic full-page color and black & white illustrations by Berni Wrightson throughout. 114 pages. Original dust-jacket. Brown binding with gilt lettering on front board and spine. Custom matching slipcase. Near Fine/Very Good-.

Inscribed by Stephen King:

"For [   ] - Thanks for the sweater - it fits! Hope you like this shaggy wolf story - Stephen King  1/17/84"

A Unique Association Collection with Proof of Provenance

What if you could knit a sweater for Stephen King in exchange for a signed Lettered Edition of "The Gunslinger" ? Well, this is exactly what happened to this very lucky fan back in the 1980s.

This fan wrote him a letter offering to knit a sweater for him in exchange for one of those special limited edition "Gunslinger" hardcover books which had recently been released by Grant Publishers.

Several months passed and nothing.

But then one day, they were pleasantly surprised to receive Lettered "N" of the book in the mail. The book also included a letter from King's secretary, accepting the offer for the sweater. The letter included information for his size and possible color choices.

So she knit the sweater and mailed it to him.

Another special gift arrives...

And if the lettered Gunslinger was not enough, King was generous enough that after he received the sweater, he mailed her a signed copy of "The Cycle of the Werewolf" as a thank you gift, saying that "it fits".

Included in this collection: 

1) Stephen King "The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger" Signed Lettered Edition "N" of only 52 produced. Original dust-jacket and slipcase. Personally signed by Stephen King along with the illustrator Michael Whelan directly onto the limitation page.

2) Stephen King "The Cycle of the Werewolf" Signed First Edition. Original dust-jacket. Slipcased. Signed and dated by Stephen King with personal inscription, thanking the owner for the sweater he received. 

3) Letter (dated 8/8/83) by Stephanie Leonard, Secretary to Stephen King. This letter was included with the Signed Lettered Edition of The Gunslinger book which King had gifted. It states that she can go ahead and knit the sweater for him as promised, providing his approximate measurements along with the color choices.

4) Letter by owner describing the story.

5) Photo of the knitted sweater that also shows the book. (the color of the sweater is cream/white).

6) Bookseller issued COA to guarantee the signatures.

Currently the First Edition of "The Gunslinger" is one of the most sought after collectible books that Stephen King has ever written. This is the book that started the The Dark Tower series, of which King considers his magnum opus. A rare find in this original condition. Brand new Mylar covering is now on the book to protect your investment.

One of the most rare and most valuable Stephen King books, this signed lettered edition of The Gunslinger is a prize for the discerning collector. Only 52 lettered copies were printed. It is in excellent condition with no markings, writings, or stampings. None of the pages are torn or missing. The Gunslinger is the first part of King's epic The Dark Tower, inspired by Robert Browning's poem, "Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came".

"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"

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

Dust-jacket Photos

Letter (1983) From Stephen King's Secretary

The collection includes this original letter that was included with the Lettered Edition of The Gunslinger book which King had gifted to this very lucky fan.

The letter is by Stephanie Leonard and is dated 8/8/83. Stephanie was the secretary of Stephen King at that time.

It states that she can go ahead and knit the sweater for him as promised, providing his approximate measurements along with the color choices.

The "thank you" Gift

Stephen King subsequently mailed this very luck fan a signed copy of "The Cycle of the Werewolf". The inscription is dated 1/17/84 and thanks her for knitting the sweater for him, saying that "it fits!".

Letter by the original owner

Inlcuded in this collection is a letter from the owner, telling the story of the knitted sweater and the Lettered Gunslinger. 

"The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger" Background & Publication

The novel was inspired by the poem "Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came" by Robert Browning, which King read as a sophomore at the University of Maine. King explains that he "played with the idea of trying a long romantic novel embodying the feel, if not the exact sense, of the Browning poem." In March 1970, while a senior at the university, King began writing the novel on bright green sheets of paper. The five parts that constitute the novel were originally published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction: * "The Gunslinger" (October 1978) * "The Way Station" (April 1980) * "The Oracle and the Mountains" (February 1981) * "The Slow Mutants" (July 1981) * "The Gunslinger and the Dark Man" (November 1981) In all, it took King twelve years to complete the novel. The finished product was first published by Donald M. Grant, Publisher, Inc. as a limited edition in 1982. In 1988, Plume released it in trade paperback form. Since then, the book has been re-issued in various formats and included in boxed sets with other volumes of the series.

The Dark Tower

The Dark Tower is a series of eight novels and one short story written by American author Stephen King. Incorporating themes from multiple genres, including dark fantasy, science fantasy, horror, and Western, it describes a "gunslinger" and his quest toward a tower, the nature of which is both physical and metaphorical. The series, and its use of the Dark Tower, expands upon Stephen King's multiverse and in doing so, links together many of his other novels.

In addition to the eight novels of the series proper that comprise 4,250 pages, many of King's 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, 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 the protagonist, Roland Deschain. King's style of location names in the series, such as Mid-World, and his development of a unique language abstract to our own[clarification needed] (High Speech), are also influenced by J. R. R. Tolkien's work.

A film serving as a sequel to the events of The Dark Tower was released in August 2017.

Stephen King saw The Dark Tower series as a first draft, initially planning to rewrite it to eliminate continuity errors. However, after revising The Gunslinger, "he is trying to decide how much he can rewrite."

The series is referred to on King's website as his magnum opus.

Stephen King

Stephen Edwin King (born September 21, 1947) is an American author. Widely known for his horror novels, he has been crowned the "King of Horror". He has also explored other genres, among them suspense, crime, science-fiction, fantasy, and mystery. Though known primarily for his novels, he has 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 (1976), The Shining (1980), The Dead Zone and Christine (both 1983), Stand by Me (1986), Misery (1990), The Shawshank Redemption (1994), Dolores Claiborne (1995), The Green Mile (1999), The Mist (2007), and It (2017). 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 Danse Macabre (1981) and On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft (2000).

Among other awards, King has won the O. Henry Award for "The Man in the Black Suit" (1994) and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Mystery/Thriller for 11/22/63 (2011). He has also won honors 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. 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."

Michael Whelan

Michael Whelan is an American artist of imaginative realism. For more than 30 years, he worked as an illustrator, specializing in science fiction and fantasy cover art. Since the mid-1990s, he has pursued a fine art career, selling non-commissioned paintings through galleries in the United States and through his website.

The Science Fiction Hall of Fame inducted Whelan in June 2009, the first living artist so honored.

Michael Whelan is one of the most important contemporary science fiction and fantasy artists, and certainly the most popular. His work was a dominant force in the transition of genre book covers away from the surrealism introduced in the 1950s and 1960s back to realism.

His paintings have appeared on the covers of more than 350 books and magazines, including many Stephen King novels, most of the Del Rey editions of Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern series, Piers Anthony's Incarnations of Immortality series, the Del Rey edition of Edgar Rice Burroughs' Mars series, Melanie Rawn's Dragon Prince and Dragon Star series, the Del Rey editions of H. P. Lovecraft's short story collections, the DAW editions of Michael Moorcock's Elric of Melniboné books, numerous DAW editions of C. J. Cherryh's work, many of Robert A. Heinlein's novels including Friday and The Cat Who Walks Through Walls, the Ace editions of H. Beam Piper's Fuzzy novels, and Tad Williams's Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn, Otherland, and Shadowmarch series and Brandon Sanderson's The Stormlight Archive. Whelan provided covers and interior illustrations for Stephen King's The Gunslinger and The Dark Tower, the first and last of his Dark Tower books.

Cover art by Michael Whelan has graced many music record albums including Demolition Hammer's Epidemic of Violence, The Jacksons' Victory; Sepultura's Beneath the Remains, Arise, Chaos A.D. and Roots; Soulfly's Dark Ages; Obituary's Cause of Death; and every album by the Elric-influenced metal band Cirith Ungol. He painted original works for the covers of Meat Loaf's Bat Out of Hell II: Back into Hell and The Very Best of Meat Loaf albums and several of his older paintings illustrate the liner notes of the former. Recently, he painted the cover art for thrash metal band Evile's album Infected Nations.