"IT'S NOT AN AUTOMOBILE, THAT'S FOR SURE…": SIGNED BY STEPHEN KING

KING, Stephen. From a Buick 8. (New York): Scribner, (2002). Octavo, original blue and white paper boards, original dust jacket. $1400.

First trade edition of this "horror novel… that gnaws away at the very premises of the horror novel" (New York Times), signed on the title page by King.

"At first glance, Stephen King's latest bears a familial resemblance to Christine, his 1983 saga of a haunted, homicidal Plymouth Fury. But From a Buick 8 is a marked departure from this earlier tale of adolescent angst and teenage tribal rituals. It is the work of an older, more reflective writer, one who knows that the most pressing questions often have no answers" (Bill Sheehan). King had completed a draft of the novel shortly before his near-fatal auto accident in 1999, and the afterword here reflects his thoughts on the intersection of real life with fiction. While not explicitly part of King's Dark Tower multiverse, the story has strong connections to it: in addition to a passing reference to the tabloid mentioned in many of King's works including The Waste Lands (the third Dark Tower book), the original owner of the titular Buick appears to have been one of the Low Men—servants of the Crimson King in the Dark Tower series—and the car itself a portal to the otherworldly Todash Space described by King in both The Mist and the Dark Tower series. Published the same year as the signed limited edition of only 750 copies. Promotional poster with facsimile King signature laid in, as found in some but not all copies of both the first trade edition and the book club edition of the same year. Brooks A87.

Spine foot slightly bumped, book and dust jacket otherwise bright and fine. An attractive signed copy.