FIRST EDITION OF CARRIE, STEPHEN KING’S FIRST NOVEL, INSCRIBED BY HIM

KING, Stephen. Carrie. Garden City: Doubleday, 1974. Octavo, original burgundy cloth, original dust jacket. $5500.

First edition of the novel that launched King’s phenomenal career, boldly inscribed by him, "For M— D— with best, Stephen King 9/24/80."

Carrie inaugurated King's reign as "the best-selling American author during the final quarter of the 20th century" (Chronology of American Literature). When he wrote it, however, he was living in a trailer and working at a laundromat for $60 a week. "Two unrelated ideas, adolescent cruelty and telekinesis, came together… I did three single-spaced pages of a first draft, then crumpled them up in disgust and threw them away… [The next night, my wife] Tabby had the pages… 'You've got something here,' she said. 'I really think you do" (King, On Writing, 67-68). Tabitha King was right. "Life in the trailer ended in 1973 when Doubleday bought Carrie for a $2500 advance. Hardcover sales were not spectacular, but the paperback sales-boosted by the [1976] film of the novel-were nearly 4,000,000 copies. 'The movie made the book, and the book made me,' King says" (New York Times). "First Edition" stated on copyright page; code "P6" on page 199; price of $5.95 on front dust jacket flap. Ketchum, Levack and Levin 1. Fantasy and Horror 6-193. Currey, 227. Horror Literature 4-129.

A fine copy, very scarce inscribed.