Stephen King "Salem's Lot" Centipede Press, Signed Deluxe Limited Edition, No. 160 of 300 [F/F]

The Ultimate Edition for the Serious Collector.

Personally signed by Stephen King along with the illustrator Jerry Uelsmann.

Centipede Press 2004. Stephen King "Salem's Lot" Signed Limited Edition. Signed by Stephen King along with the artist Jerry Uelsmann.  Number 160 of only 300 signed and numbered copies. Printed on Mohawk Paper. Bound in exotic Japanese cloth with photos in a slipcase. Contains beautiful photos by Jerry Uelsmann. One of the most rare signed limited editions ever produced by a publisher. A rare signed limited edition that very few will own.

From the publisher:

Our edition of Salem’s Lot was widely held to be the best Stephen King-limited edition ever published. The trade edition was printed on 100# Mohawk Superfine and measured 9 × 13 inches. It had Jerry Uelsmann photographs reprinted as gorgeous duo-tones. It was bound in full black cloth and signed by Stephen King and Jerry Uelsmann. The spine of the text block is sagging a little bit as is likely common with this heavy book 

The deluxe edition came in a tray-case and was bound in full, top-of-the-line Nigerian goatskin, not the bonded leather that so many other publishers use. In addition, the text was printed on mould-made Saunders Waterford and had deckled edges.

• Centipede Press
• Publication Date: 2004
• Deleted scenes from the original manuscript.
• The Stephen King afterword from the Pocket Books edition.
• Ribbon marker, head and tail bands, one-piece cloth construction.
• Original book price: $400.
• ISBN 0-9712051-2-4.

This signed limited edition is a wonderful book for the Stephen King collector, and one that has already more than tripled in value from its original retail price of $470.

This book was published with the following production run:

• 600 unsigned copies, not numbered (also available in our store)
• 300 limited edition copies signed/numbered 1-300 in black
• 80 limited edition copies signed/numbered 1-80 in red
• 15 deluxe leather copies signed/numbered I-XV in black
• 10 deluxe leather copies signed/numbered I-X in red

This is one of the 300 limited edition copies in black.

Centipede Press edition of Salem's Lot is a big book. It weighs over 13 pounds, 9 x 13 inches and over 4 1/4" thick. 556 pages, bound in black Japanese cotton over archival boards, with a matching slipcase.

In addition to the novel, the volume includes two related short stories from Night Shift", "Jerusalem's Lot" and "One for the Road", as well as King's introduction from the Pocket Books edition (printed as an afterward) and nearly fifty pages of deleted and modified scenes from the original manuscript, never before published, included at the back like deleted scenes on a DVD.

The photographs (300-line screen duotone) were taken by Jerry Uelsmann. The book was composed in Janson and Perpetua types. Text and illustrations were printed on Mohawk Superfine paper and special attention was given to the binding process as well. A black ribbon bookmark is bound in.It is as fine as a limited edition as you're likely to see. The publisher went to great lengths to produce a volume that will only increase in value as the years go by. A great opportunity to own one of the greatest Stephen King collectible items on the market today!

Additional Information

Stephen King's second book, 'Salem's Lot (1975)--about the slow takeover of an insular hamlet called Jerusalem's Lot by a vampire patterned after Bram Stoker's Dracula--has two elements that he also uses to good effect in later novels: a small American town, usually in Maine, where people are disconnected from each other, quietly nursing their potential for evil; and a mixed bag of rational, goodhearted people, including a writer, who band together to fight that evil.

Simply taken as a contemporary vampire novel, 'Salem's Lot is great fun to read, and has been very influential in the horror genre. But it's also a sly piece of social commentary. As King said in 1983, "In 'Salem's Lot, the thing that really scared me was not vampires, but the town in the daytime, the town that was empty, knowing that there were things in closets, that there were people tucked under beds, under the concrete pilings of all those trailers. And all the time I was writing that, the Watergate hearings were pouring out of the TV.... Howard Baker kept asking, 'What I want to know is, what did you know and when did you know it?' That line haunts me, it stays in my mind.... During that time I was thinking about secrets, things that have been hidden and were being dragged out into the light."

The title King originally chose was Second Coming, but he later decided on Jerusalem's Lot. The publishers, Doubleday, shortened it to the current title, thinking the author's choice sounded too religious. Legacy

'Salem's Lot was the first of King's books to have a huge cast of characters, a trait that would appear again in later books such as The Stand. The town of Jerusalem's Lot would also serve as a prototype for later fictional towns of King's writing, namely Castle Rock, Maine and Derry, Maine.

King reused the character Father Callahan, the local priest whose faith falters in the dreadful presence of Barlow, in his The Dark Tower series. He appears in Wolves of the Calla, Song of Susannah, and The Dark Tower, and provides insights into his experiences after being exiled from 'Salem's Lot.

Salem's Lot was also the first novel by King in which the main character is a writer, a device he would use again in a number of novels and short stories. Mark Petrie's chant used for repelling the vampiric Danny Glick is reused in another King novel, It.

At one point, Mears explains his experience in the Marsten house, including seeing the body of the dead previous occupant. This is, obviously, impossible. However, Mears describes it as being a leftover or a remnant of what had happened there, just like the haunting of the Overlook Hotel in King's The Shining. Salem's Lot Prints from Centipede Press edition - These are a companion piece to the Gift Edition which did not have the interior artwork that was in the Deluxe and "Lettered" editions. Gift Edition limitation was 600 copies. I estimate that less than 100 sets of these prints were made. I have a handful of complete sets available that came directly from Centipede. There are 7 illustrations in the set, all measuring 9x13. You are unlikely to find these anywhere else than here.