"WELCOME TO THE WEIRD WEST!": THE GUNSLINGER, EXCEEDINGLY SCARCE FIRST EDITION INSCRIBED BY STEPHEN KING IN THE YEAR OF PUBLICATION

KING, Stephen. The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger. (West Kingston, Rhode Island): Donald M. Grant, (1982). Octavo, original black cloth, pictorial endpapers, original dust jacket. $4500.

First trade edition, issued simultaneously with a signed limited edition, of the first book in King's epic Dark Tower series, boldly inscribed by him on the half title in the year of publication, "For D— Welcome to the weird west! Stephen King, 7/17/82," with five full-page color illustrations, color endpapers and vignettes by acclaimed fantasy artist Michael Whelan, a splendid copy.

"The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed." When King typed those words on an old Underwood in 1970, he began a daring fantasy saga that would be 34 years in the completion. Gunslinger, the first book in his Dark Tower series, is "an impressive work of mythic magnitude that may turn out to be King's greatest literary achievement" (Atlanta Journal-Constitution). The novel is "strange, scary and utterly gripping—the perfect start to an unforgettable journey… In Roland Deschain, the titular Gunslinger, there's a superb, violent, powerful and thoughtful protagonist—Clint Eastwood's Man With No Name by way of Robert Browning's poem, Childe Rolande to the Dark Tower Came" (Guardian). With illustrations by Whelan, a 14-time Hugo award winner whose art "stands up to any [the 20th] century has produced" (Village Voice). "First Edition" stated on copyright page. Issued simultaneously with a signed limited edition of 500 copies. Brooks A18. See Fantasy and Horror 6-194.

A fine inscribed copy.