11 Scribes · Stephen King & Bachman · Scribner Era (1998-present)

Duma Key Common

2008 · Scribner (Simon & Schuster), New York

First-edition cover of Duma Key — First-edition jacket (first edition (verified vs jacket)) · source

What it’s about

After a construction-site accident costs him an arm and nearly his life and marriage, wealthy contractor Edgar Freemantle retreats to a remote, sun-bleached island off Florida's Gulf Coast to recover. On Duma Key he takes up painting and discovers a startling, almost supernatural talent flowing through his phantom hand — but the island, his unsettling new work, and the elderly woman in the great house up the beach all seem to be pulling at something far older and hungrier than mere inspiration.

Significance A late-period solo King novel written during his own recovery from his 1999 near-fatal accident; it won the 2008 Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel and is prized as one of his most personal meditations on art, pain, and rehabilitation.

Value$50–125 unsigned (true first, fine/fine, unclipped) confirmed salesnear-fine / fine

How to spot a true first 30-second check

★ BookWith the jacket off, the trade first is quarter-bound with a SEWN text block (black cloth/paper spine over navy/sapphire-blue boards, octavo, 611 pp) on heavy stock and carries NO book-club blind-stamp. The BCE shares the same "First Scribner Hardcover Edition" copyright page and "1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2" number line, so those do NOT separate it; the discriminators are the binding (glued not sewn), thinner/lighter paper, slightly smaller trim, and a small blind-stamp (indented circle/dot/square) on the lower-right rear board.

★ JacketLook for the original "$28.00" printed at the top-right corner of the front jacket flap. Price present and intact = trade first-state jacket; price absent entirely (not merely a clipped corner) = book-club jacket, sometimes with "Book Club Edition" printed on the lower front flap. A clipped corner is a condition hit, not a wrong edition.

A true 1st/1st needs BOTH the book and the jacket verified. A first-state jacket on a later or book-club book — or the reverse — is a married copy, not a first.

Number line"1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2" — the "1" must be present; lowest remaining digit = the printing.

Gutter code—n/a

Jacket price ★ jacket tell$28.00 at top-right of the front jacket flap; clipped = condition hit, absent entirely = BCE flag.

Binding ★ book tellQuarter-bound: black cloth spine over navy/sapphire-blue boards; sewn. Octavo, 611 pp.

Dust jacketMark Stutzman Florida/Gulf art; title in holographic/foil lettering — a first-state tell.

Endpapers / edges—n/a

What to look for

Need BOTH: the "First Scribner Hardcover Edition" line AND the full number line with the "1" — statement alone isn't enough.
Confirm the "1" survives in the number line; later printings strip the low numbers and get sold as firsts.
$28.00 must be intact on the front flap — its total absence (not a clip) is the primary book-club tell.
BCE traps: thin/light paper, glued (not sewn) binding, a blind-stamp on the lower-rear board, sometimes "Book Club Edition" on the flap.
Watch married/facsimile jackets — check the holographic title lettering and that the $28.00 is original.
Signatures belong on the TITLE PAGE; beware auto-pen or laid-in signed bookplates passed off as in-book.

Verified listings marker-checked

Each copy screened against the seller's own photos. ✓ confirmed = a photo shows the decisive marker; ⚠ not pictured = the shot to ask for before buying. Condition grades are as-pictured.

Buyer beware — verify before you buy. These are our screening opinions, read from each seller’s own photographs; we can misjudge a copy or misread an image. A listing marked “1st/1st confirmed” is not a guarantee — independently confirm the decisive book and jacket markers with the seller before any purchase. Authentication and the buying decision remain the buyer’s responsibility.

✓ 1st/1st confirmed$24.49ourpopculture ↗

Strong buy Near Fine to Fine book / Near Fine to Fine jacket

Genuine $28 first/first, NF/F with the number line legibly shown; ~$24 ask sits well under fair market — strong value.

✓ Confirmed in the seller’s photos

Number line — Full line 1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2 photographed with the leading "1" intact — the decisive true-first-printing tell.
Copyright — "First Scribner hardcover edition January 2008" stated, © 2008 Stephen King, LCCN 2007939961.
Jacket price — $28.00 first-state, unclipped: front flap U.S. $28.00 / Can. $33.00 and rear $28.00/$32.00 CAN with full retail barcode.
Dust jacket — Stutzman Gulf art with holographic-foil title lettering — the first-state jacket tell.
Binding — Sewn signatures visible at fore/top edge — trade binding, not a glued BCE block.

✓ Decisive marker pictured — nothing outstanding to request.

✓ 1st/1st confirmed$55da839397 ↗

Fair Near Fine book / VG+ jacket (as pictured, pending in-hand)

A Scribner trade first printing with both tells legibly photographed — the complete number line beneath the first-edition statement, and an unclipped $28.00 flap backed by a priced retail rear panel — with the binding the single open item.

✓ Confirmed in the seller’s photos

Number line — Photo 4 shows the complete line "1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2" with the leading "1" intact, printed directly beneath "Manufactured in the United States of America" and above LCCN 2007038941 — the decisive book tell, read straight off the plate.
Copyright — Photo 4 shows "First Scribner hardcover edition January 2008" on the same page as Copyright © 2008 by Stephen King and ISBN-13 978-1-4165-5251-2 / ISBN-10 1-4165-5251-0.
Jacket price — Photo 3 shows the front flap's top-right corner printed "U.S. $28.00 / Can. $32.00" with the corner square and unclipped, and photo 2 shows the rear panel's retail block carrying $28.00 US / $32.00 CAN above the 52800 price add-on barcode — a priced trade jacket, not the unpriced club issue.
Dust jacket — Photo 1 shows the Stutzman Gulf-storm artwork with "STEPHEN KING" and "DUMA KEY" in holographic foil — the first-state jacket.

⚠ Not pictured — ask before buying

Binding — The book is never shown out of its jacket in any of the four frames, so the quarter-bound black cloth spine over navy/sapphire boards is unverified — ask for a jacket-off daylight photograph of the bare spine and both boards.

✓ 1st/1st confirmed$59.99jtknappenberger ↗

Negotiate Near Fine book / Near Fine jacket

Genuine $28 first/first, NF/NF with the number line photographed; $59.99 ask is modestly under fair market.

✓ Confirmed in the seller’s photos

Number line — Photo 11 shows the full line 1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2 legible with the "1" intact — the decisive first-printing tell.
Copyright — "First Scribner hardcover edition January 2008" stated, © 2008, LCCN 2007038941.
Jacket price — $28.00 first-state, unclipped: front flap $28.00 (photo 9) + rear panel $28.00/$32.00 CAN with barcode; jacket code 0106.
Binding — Slate-grey boards with tan cloth spine, gilt lettering + Scribner colophon; thick sewn trade block at the fore-edge.

✓ Decisive marker pictured — nothing outstanding to request.

✓ 1st/1st confirmed$69.99dottrar ↗

Pass Near Fine book / Near Fine jacket

A Scribner trade first printing with the full number line and the unclipped $28.00 flap both legibly photographed, the binding glimpsed only as a blue board edge along the opened covers.

✓ Confirmed in the seller’s photos

Number line — Photo 5 shows the full line "1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2" with the "1" present, sitting above LCCN 2007038941 — the decisive book tell, sharp and unambiguous.
Copyright — Photo 5 shows "First Scribner hardcover edition January 2008" with Copyright © 2008 by Stephen King and the trade ISBN-13 978-1-4165-5251-2 / ISBN-10 1-4165-5251-0.
Jacket price — Photo 4 shows the front flap top-right printed "U.S. $28.00 / Can. $32.00" with the corner square and whole, and photo 2 shows the rear panel's jacket code 0106 beside the ISBN barcode with $28.00 U.S. / $32.00 CAN over the 52800 price add-on — the priced retail trade jacket.
Dust jacket — Photo 1 shows the Stutzman art with the holographic-foil title, and photo 6 carries the John Fulbrook III / Mark Stutzman jacket credits on the rear flap.

⚠ Not pictured — ask before buying

Binding — Only a blue board edge along the head and tail of the opened front and rear covers (photos 4 and 6) and the sewn block at the fore- and head-edge (photos 2 and 3) are visible — the black cloth spine and the board faces are never seen bare, so ask for a jacket-off shot of the full spine and both boards.

likely first$28galengaleria ↗

Fair VG book / VG+ jacket

The first-edition statement and the first-state jacket art are present, but the decisive number line is photographed and affirmatively absent, and the jacket carries no printed price on either the flap or the rear panel while bearing a 1245874 stock number — as pictured, the pattern of a book-club issue rather than the priced trade first.

✓ Confirmed in the seller’s photos

Copyright — Photo 2 shows "First Scribner hardcover edition January 2008" with Copyright © 2008 by Stephen King and ISBN-13 978-1-4165-5251-2 / ISBN-10 1-4165-5251-0 — a statement that later and club printings reuse verbatim, so it is not decisive on its own.
Dust jacket — Photos 1 and 3 show the correct Mark Stutzman artwork with the holographic-foil "STEPHEN KING" title, and photo 10 carries the John Fulbrook III / Stutzman / Amy Guip credits — the first-state artwork.

⚠ Not pictured — ask before buying

Number line — Photographed and ABSENT rather than merely unpictured — photo 2 is a square, evenly lit, full-page shot in which "Manufactured in the United States of America" runs straight into the ISBN block, carrying neither the "1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2" line nor the LCCN that both confirmed trade firsts on this page print in exactly that gap; no sharper photograph will change what this frame already shows, so only an in-hand examination could revisit it.
Jacket price — Photo 9 shows the front flap's top-right corner square, intact and UNCLIPPED yet blank where "U.S. $28.00" prints, and photos 4 and 5 show the rear panel carrying the ISBN and EAN alone — no price line and no 52800 price add-on barcode — beside a separately printed 1245874 box at the lower right; this is an absence of price, not a price clip, and only an in-hand look at flap and rear panel can settle it.
Binding — Photo 11 is the one jacket-off frame and shows only the head edge — black board edges and a blue endband on a thick sewn block, where both confirmed trade copies here show a blue board edge — while the cloth spine and the board faces are never shown, so ask for a daylight photograph of the bare spine and both board faces.

cover only — verify$15flippinantiques ↗

Pass Near Fine book / Near Fine jacket

Reads as a genuine trade first but needs the number-line photo to confirm; even worst-case, $15 is near break-even.

✓ Confirmed in the seller’s photos

Copyright — "First Scribner hardcover edition January 2008" shown clearly in two photos, with the correct trade ISBN 978-1-4165-5251-2.
Dust jacket — Correct first-edition Stutzman/Fulbrook III art; rear panel carries full retail UPC barcode + price box — argues against a BCE jacket.
Binding — Black boards with bright gilt STEPHEN KING / DUMA KEY / Scribner flame on the spine — correct trade binding.

⚠ Not pictured — ask before buying

Number line — The decisive number line was never photographed — ask the seller to shoot it; the "1" must be present (1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2).
Jacket price — Front-flap $28.00 not confirmed — top corner is out of frame and appears folded; ask for a flat shot of the flap price.

Full identification detail & sourcescopyright · jacket · binding · book-club traps · print run · value · references

Is this the true first?Yes. The Scribner trade hardcover (January 22, 2008) is the true first edition, first printing. No paperback-original or small-press limited precedes it. The mass-market and trade paperback came later, as did an Overlook Connection Press signed/limited treatment; the trade hardcover is first in hand.
The Scribner trade hardcover is the true first edition. This is a Scribner-era King title (1998+), so the standard Scribner convention applies: a true first must carry BOTH the edition statement AND the full number line ending in "...10 8 6 4 2". No 1984-style Philtrum/Grant/Land-of-Enchantment small-press first precedes this title — those caveats apply to early-to-mid King, not to 2008-era Scribner releases. UNVERIFIED whether any pre-publication advance/proof issue would be considered a "first" by purists; the trade hardcover is the accepted true first for collectors.

First-printing points at a glance

First-printing statement"First Scribner Hardcover Edition" on the copyright page, which MUST be accompanied by the complete number line. Both elements together identify the first printing. (Scribner-era rule: edition statement AND number line must both be present.)

Number line"1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2" — a true first printing shows the full line with the "1" present. A later printing has the low numbers stripped (e.g., a second printing would not show the "1"; the lowest remaining digit indicates the printing).

Gutter / printer codeN/A — Scribner-era title; no Doubleday/printer gutter code. Identification is by edition statement + number line, not a gutter code.

First printing — copies~1,000,000–1,500,000 copies (first trade hardcover printing, Scribner) — sources disagree; figure uncertain accepted figure

First jacket price$28.00 (Upper front flap of the dust jacket (top-right corner of the front jacket flap). A price-clipped jacket (corner cut away) hides this and lowers value.)

Board (panel) colorNavy / sapphire-blue paper-covered boards (front and rear panels).

Spine / center bindingBlack spine cloth (quarter-bound), with lettering on the spine.

Binding styleQuarter-bound (two-tone): half/quarter black cloth (or black paper) spine over navy/sapphire-blue paper-covered boards. Sewn binding. Octavo, 611 pages.

Topstain / endpapersUNVERIFIED — no topstain reported (Scribner-era trade hardcovers of this period typically have plain white text-block edges and plain endpapers); no distinctive endpaper noted.

Dust jacket

Front panel features the Mark Stutzman cover art (atmospheric Florida/Gulf-coast Duma Key imagery) with the title rendered in distinctive holographic/foil lettering — a notable first-state jacket feature. Author name and title dominate the front; spine and rear continue the design. Rear panel/flaps carry blurb text and author bio. The holographic title lettering is a recognizable detail of the genuine first-printing jacket.

Art / design: Cover art by Mark Stutzman; jacket design by John Fulbrook III.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/sdobie/3804566010

https://www.rarebookcellar.com/pages/books/172031/stephen-king/duma-key

Book-club edition & fakes — how to spot a wrong copyA book-club edition of Duma Key shares the same copyright-page text ("First Scribner Hardcover Edition") but is distinguished by: NO price on the upper front jacket flap (the $28.00 is absent — not merely clipped); thinner, lighter, cheaper paper and lower overall weight; often a slightly smaller trim; glued rather than fully sewn binding; and a small blind-stamp (indented circle/dot/square) on the lower-right rear board. Some BCE jackets print "Book Club Edition" on the lower front flap. The presence of the intact $28.00 price + heavier stock + sewn binding confirms the trade first; absence of the price is the primary BCE flag for this title.

Also watch for: Married jackets: a price-clipped or BCE-substituted jacket placed on a trade book block (verify the $28.00 price is original and that the block matches a trade first). Facsimile/reproduction jackets exist for high-demand King titles — check paper sheen and holographic-lettering authenticity. Ex-library copies (stamps, spine labels, pockets) and remainder marks (sprayed/marker stripe on bottom edge) reduce value. "Signed" copies should be signed on the TITLE PAGE; be cautious of auto-pen/secretarial signatures or laid-in signed bookplates marketed as in-book signatures. Confirm the full number line includes the "1" — later printings are frequently sold as firsts.

Print run & scarcity

Duma Key (Scribner, US trade hardcover, published Jan 22, 2008, $28.00, ISBN 978-1-4165-5251-2; #1 NYT bestseller). This is a mainstream Scribner trade title, NOT a small-press/Grant book, so the relevant figure is the trade-hardcover first printing, not signed/numbered/lettered limited counts. SOURCE DISAGREEMENT (all unofficial): (1) stephenkingcollector.com states "A first edition of 1,500,000 copies" — but the author of a forum post on the same topic admits "I remember reading a while back that the print run was 1.5 million, but now I can't find the info," so treat 1.5M as an unsourced estimate. (2) A collector forum list (jhanic) gives 1,000,000 as the first-printing figure. (3) A 2009 Publishers Weekly bestseller tally cited 595,000 — but that is reported SALES for the period, NOT the announced print run, so it should not be read as a first-printing quantity. The Publishers Weekly book page (9781416552512) and dealer listings (firstandfine, Bauman) describe the first-edition/first-printing (full number line "1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2") but publish NO official print-run number — Scribner did not publicly disclose one. RELIABILITY: no figure here is publisher-confirmed; the honest answer is a range of ~1M–1.5M with low confidence. LIMITED EDITIONS: no confirmed signed/numbered/lettered limited edition of Duma Key with documented counts surfaced; Cemetery Dance has offered an aftermarket SLIPCASE for the trade hardcover (not a separate limited edition with its own print run). King-signed copies of the standard trade first printing exist on the rare-book market but are not a distinct limited issue.

First-state points & errata

No widely documented first-state errata/typo correction separates first-state from later-state copies of Duma Key. Identification rests on the "First Scribner Hardcover Edition" statement + full "...10 8 6 4 2" number line + $28.00 jacket price. UNVERIFIED that any internal text-state variant exists.

Limited & signed editions

An Overlook Connection Press signed/slipcased treatment is associated with the title (limited, signed). Cichon Books produced later signed/limited rebound editions. The Scribner trade hardcover itself is the standard first; signed trade copies (signed on the title page by King) command a premium but are the same first edition. UNVERIFIED exact limitation numbers for the Overlook Connection slipcase.

Market value confirmed sales

$50–125 unsigned (true first, fine/fine, unclipped)

Assumes a genuine first edition / first printing in near-fine to fine condition (clean copy, unclipped jacket). Lesser condition is worth less.

Confirmed sales: Bauman Rare Books — signed-on-title-page first, fine in dust jacket, marked SOLD (dealer record, retail tier ~$1,000–1,500). First and Fine — signed US first, fine/like jacket, "Out of stock" (sold; uncommon signed in fine). eBay sold-tier, unsigned true first ($28 jacket, full number line), fine: roughly $40–95 range (2024–2025). Rare Book Cellar / Minotavros dealer fine/fine unsigned firsts offered ~$75–100 (street price for the common unsigned grade). NOTE: no public Heritage/PBA hammer lot surfaced for an unsigned trade first — not fabricated.

Book-club edition (the trap): $3–10. BOMC/book-club editions are near-worthless and are the #1 mislisted "first" for this title. — a fraction of a true first; never pay first-edition money for one.

Single biggest tell for THIS title: it is a SCRIBNER book, so ignore any "Doubleday gutter code" framing — that point does not apply and signals a misidentified listing. A genuine first has (1) the full number line "1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2" on the copyright page AND (2) the $28.00 price intact, UNCLIPPED, on the front jacket flap. Book-club copies are the trap: they carry NO price on the jacket flap (or a clipped/blank flap), are physically smaller/lighter with cheaper boards, and very often have a blind-stamp/dot on the rear board — reject any of these. Condition is everything because the first printing was enormous (a 2008 #1 bestseller, hundreds of thousands of copies), so the unsigned book is a common modern first; fine/fine unclipped is the only grade with real collector demand. The value engine is the SIGNATURE: King is a reliable in-person signer, and a verified signed-on-title-page copy in fine/fine multiplies value ~8–15x over unsigned (roughly $700–1,500 at dealer/retail). Price-clipped, ex-library, reading-copy wear, or a married/facsimile jacket each crater value back toward book-club territory.

Value sources:

Sources

Verification notes: Price ($28.00) cross-confirmed by two independent searches (abebooks dealer data + eBay/dealer listings). Number line "1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2" confirmed across multiple dealer descriptions. Edition statement "First Scribner Hardcover Edition" confirmed via dealer copyright-page transcription. Binding (quarter black cloth / navy-sapphire boards) confirmed via two dealer descriptions + Bauman ("half black cloth"). Jacket credits (Mark Stutzman art, John Fulbrook III design) confirmed via Flickr copyright/credits transcription. Note: an earlier search probe surfaced "Tak Toyoshima" and "Rex Bonomelli" — both were NOT confirmed and are rejected; the verified credits are Stutzman/Fulbrook.

confidence: High for the core points: publisher (Scribner 2008), $28.00 jacket price on the front flap, number line "1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2", edition statement "First Scribner Hardcover Edition," quarter-black-cloth over navy boards, jacket art Mark Stutzman / design John Fulbrook III — all cross-checked across multiple dealer/collector sources. Medium/low on topstain & endpaper specifics and on exact Overlook Connection limitation figures (marked UNVERIFIED).

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