Stephen King, Peter Straub "The Talisman" Slipcased Deluxe Limited First Edition of 1,200 (Signed 3x) w/COA [VERY FINE]

Personally signed by Peter Straub and the illustrators, Stephen Gervais and Don Maitz. This Deluxe Slipcased Edition of The Talisman is Limited to only 1,200

A unique autographed limited edition for the Stephen King collector

Presenting two beautiful volumes for the collector of uniquely crafted books.

This edition was limited to only 1,200 deluxe slipcased copies. What makes this set different from the others is that it has been inscribed to the same person by Peter Straub (the author), along with the two artists, Stephen Gervais and Don Maitz.

"For Don - Thanks for your interest - Stephen" 

"Best to Don from Don Maitz" 

"For Don, with good wishes - Peter Straub 31/10/86" 

Donald M. Grant Publishers 1984. "The Talisman" Stephen King and Peter Straub. Deluxe trade limited edition of 1,200 copies bound in grey cloth in slipcase. This edition was originally not signed as published. A rare book for the Stephen King collector. Illustrated throughout with 11 full-color plates, including 4 two-page spreads (all present and intact, featuring work by Jeffrey Jones, Rowena Morrill, Thomas Canty, Berni Wrightson, Don Maitz, Stephen Gervais, Ned Dameron, Richard Berry, Phil Hale, and R. J. Krupowicz). Includes bookseller issued COA.

Deluxe Edition -- issued after the trade edition by Viking Press. Bound in cream cloth with gray pictorial endpapers; bright gilt lettering and ruled boxes, with blind-stamped decoration, to the spines and front boards; and a sepia-tone illustration mounted to each front board.

The Talisman

Original issue price in 1984 was $120. This book charts the adventure of a twelve year old boy named Jack Sawyer. The young hero sets out from Arcadia Beach, New Hampshire in a bid to save his mother, who is dying from cancer, by finding an artifact called "the Talisman." The premise of the novel involves the existence of a parallel world to Earth, called "the Territories" (a strange fantasy world with ties to King's "The Dark Tower"). Individuals in the Territories have "twinners," or parallel individuals, in our world. Twinners' births, deaths, and (it is intimated) other major life events are usually paralleled.

The Talisman first took form when Stephen King moved with his family to London in early 1977. It was there he met Peter and Susan Straub, along with their children, and the two writers became friends, both being fans of each other's work. After a short friendship, King and his family left after only three months back to the United States. Straub and King had talked multiple times before about collaborating to write a book, but nothing ever surfaced until ten years after King moved back, when the Straubs moved to the United States as well. According to King, after Straub moved, "the talk got serious," and they began writing. Their literary friendship did not end after the publication of The Talisman. In 1999 they began working on a sequel to The Talisman, dealing with Jack Sawyer as an adult. It was published in 2001, entitled Black House.

Peter Straub

Peter Francis Straub (/straʊb/; March 2, 1943 – September 4, 2022) was an American novelist and poet. He had success with several horror and supernatural fiction novels, among them Julia (1975), Ghost Story (1979) and The Talisman (1984), the latter co-written with Stephen King. He explored the mystery genre with the Blue Rose trilogy, consisting of Koko (1988), Mystery (1990) and The Throat (1993). He fused the supernatural with crime fiction in Lost Boy, Lost Girl (2003) and the related In the Night Room (2004). For the Library of America, he edited the volume H. P. Lovecraft: Tales and the anthology American Fantastic Tales. Straub received such literary honors as the Bram Stoker Award, World Fantasy Award, and International Horror Guild Award.

According to his New York Times obituary, Straub "brought a poet's sensibility to stories about ghosts, demons and other things that go bump in the night."

Don Maitz