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

Fairy Tale Common

2022 · Scribner (Charles Scribner's Sons / Simon & Schuster), New York
First-edition cover of Fairy Tale
First-edition jacket (first (Wikipedia infobox)) · source

What it’s about

Seventeen-year-old Charlie Reade is an ordinary high-school kid carrying more than his share of grief when he befriends Howard Bowditch, a reclusive old man with a locked shed in his backyard and a loyal aging dog named Radar. After Bowditch dies, Charlie inherits the secret hidden beneath that shed: a passageway to a parallel world of wonder and ruin, where a great evil is rising and the fate of two realities may rest on one boy's shoulders.

Significance A standalone, instant #1 bestseller published by Scribner in September 2022 (under King's own name, not Bachman), King's overt love letter to classic fairy tales and pulp fantasy — written during the COVID lockdown and named one of the year's notable horror/fantasy releases.

Value~$20–$45 estimatenear-fine / fine

How to spot a true first 30-second check

★ BookOn the copyright page the first printing carries the complete number line "1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2" with the "1" intact (there is no "First Edition" line); a later printing drops the low numbers from the left — a 2nd has no "1," a 4th begins at "4" — so a missing "1" beats any "first edition" claim. Cross-check the manufacturing line: "Printed in the United States of America" is the preferred state over the lesser "Printed in Italy" state (both are first printings, but the Italy stock is thinner with weaker binding).
★ JacketThe first-state jacket prints $32.50 US / $43.99 Canada in the top-right corner of the upper front flap, with the Will Staehle design credit present; a price-clipped flap hides this and lowers value, and a "Book Club Edition" / price-absent flap or a laser-printed facsimile is not a trade first.

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.

CopyrightNo "First Edition" line; ID by the full number line + manufacturing line — "Printed in the USA" vs. the lesser "Printed in Italy" state.
Number line ★ book tell"1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2" — first printing keeps the "1"; a 2nd drops it, a 4th begins at "4."
Gutter code—n/a
Jacket price ★ jacket tell$32.50 US / $43.99 Canada, upper front flap top-right corner; a clipped corner hides it and lowers value.
BindingSewn, full black paper-over-boards (single-color, not quarter-bound), gilt spine lettering; Italy state uses lighter stock/weaker binding.
Dust jacketWill Staehle design: lone figure descending stone steps into shadow, minimalist photographic type; verify the Staehle credit.
Endpapers / edgesRed endpapers on the US trade first; deluxe/limited copies use gold or decorated endpapers — don't confuse them.

What to look for

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.

Seller’s photo of this copy
✓ 1st/1st confirmed$49.99jtknappenberger ↗
Pass Near Fine book / Near Fine jacket (presents close to Fine/Fine)

Genuine US-state first/first, NF/NF presenting near F/F; $49.99 ask is a few dollars over our $45 ceiling — correct, no discount.

✓ Confirmed in the seller’s photos
  • Number line — Copyright page clear: full '1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2' with the '1' present, no low numbers dropped — true first printing (decisive).
  • Copyright — States 'First Scribner hardcover edition September 2022'; 'Manufactured in the United States of America' — preferred US-printed state.
  • Jacket price — Front flap 'U.S. $32.50 / Can. $39.99' present and unclipped; rear barcode block and '0922' date code shown.
  • Dust jacket — Correct first-edition art (cobblestone spiral/well); Scribner title-page imprint correct; ISBN 978-1-6680-0217-9.
  • Binding — Black-charcoal cloth boards, gilt-stamped spine, Scribner flame device — correct trade-first binding.
⚠ Not pictured — ask before buying
  • Endpapers / edges — Red endpapers (US trade first) not pictured among the 16 shots; an endpaper photo would rule out a deluxe/decorated variant.
Seller’s photo of this copy
likely first$49.99ricardo3529 ↗
Pass Near Fine to Fine book / Near Fine to Fine jacket

Confirmed first (Italy-printed state), clean NF/Fine; $49.99 sits just above our fine/fine ceiling — genuine but a touch dear.

✓ Confirmed in the seller’s photos
  • Number line — '1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2' with the '1' present, shown legibly in two photos — first printing confirmed (the decisive tell).
  • Copyright — States 'First Scribner hardcover edition September 2022'; 'Manufactured in Italy' — the documented Italy-printed first-printing state.
  • Jacket price — Unclipped rear panel $32.50 US / $39.99 Can; barcode 53250 and '0922' date code present.
  • Dust jacket — Correct Will Staehle/Unusual Corp. art with Scribner flame device; interior Rodriguez/Delort illustrations present.
  • Binding — Navy cloth spine over orange paper-covered boards — correct trade-first binding.
⚠ Not pictured — ask before buying
  • Endpapers / edges — Red endpapers (US trade first) not shown; with 11 photos a confirming endpaper shot would close the variant question.
Full identification detail & sourcescopyright · jacket · binding · book-club traps · print run · value · references
Is this the true first?Yes. The Scribner trade hardcover (Sept 6, 2022, ISBN 978-1-66800-217-9) is the true first edition, first printing. There is no preceding small-press or paperback original; the simultaneous UK Hodder & Stoughton hardcover and the various deluxe/limited editions are secondary to (or derivative of) the US trade first.
The Scribner US trade hardcover is the true first. No Donald M. Grant / Philtrum / small-press limited precedes it. Collector caution on STATE: this first printing exists in two manufacturing states — copies "Printed in the United States of America" and copies "Printed in Italy" (some U.S. distribution stock was printed in Italy on lighter/inferior stock with weaker binding). Both carry the same full number line and are first printings, but the U.S.-printed state is the preferred/higher-quality copy among collectors. The UK Hodder first is a separate, simultaneous first and not the true first for an American author.

First-printing points at a glance

First-printing statementNo explicit "First Edition" text line appears for this title; Scribner's first-printing identifier here is the full number line on the copyright page together with the manufacturing statement (e.g. "Manufactured in the United States of America" / "Printed in the United States of America", with the Italy-printed state reading "Printed in Italy"). The presence of the complete number line ending in "...2" with the "1" intact is the defining point.
Number line"1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2" — a first printing shows the complete line with the "1" present. Later printings drop the low numbers from the left (a 2nd printing has no "1"; a 4th printing, for example, would begin at "4"). Cross-confirmed at skcollector.com, rarebookcellar.com, and the Dark Tower Palaver first-editions wiki.
Gutter / printer codeN/A (Scribner/Simon & Schuster era — gutter codes are a Doubleday-era convention; identification is by number line, not a gutter code).
First printing — copies~1,500,000 (announced first trade printing, Scribner US hardcover) accepted figure
First jacket price$32.50 (US); $43.99 Canada (Upper front jacket flap, top-right corner. A price-clipped flap (corner cut off) hides this and reduces value.)
Board (panel) colorBlack paper-covered boards (full cloth-grain paper over boards). Spine carries shiny gilt/metallic lettering; spine title is also embossed/engraved on some descriptions. Note: a minority of dealer listings describe the boards as midnight-blue/navy — this is most likely listing error or the UK/deluxe variant; the U.S. Scribner trade first is documented as black with red endpapers by the Palaver wiki and skcollector.
Spine / center bindingSame black board/paper as the covers (full, single-color binding — not quarter-bound / not two-tone), with gilt lettering on the spine.
Binding styleSewn, full paper-over-boards trade hardcover (single-color binding, not quarter-bound). Italy-printed state uses lighter stock and is regarded as a lesser binding.
Topstain / endpapersRed endpapers (pictorial/colored pastedowns and free endpapers). No colored topstain noted (UNVERIFIED — plain). Endpapers are a recognized point: the U.S. trade first uses red endpapers; the UK Special Edition Books deluxe (Hodder, 200 copies) uses gold bespoke-design endpapers, and the Scribner deluxe of 2,000 uses its own decorated endpapers — do not confuse those with the trade first.

Dust jacket

Front: dark, atmospheric design with a small lone figure descending a long flight of stone steps into shadow/an arched passage, title "FAIRY TALE" and "STEPHEN KING" in clean type — minimalist, photographic. Spine: title/author with publisher. Back: dark continuation of the motif with review/jacket copy; author photo on the rear flap. Designer Will Staehle credited on the jacket.

Art / design: Jacket designed by Will Staehle (jacket imagery built from stock photographic elements — stone steps/cobblestones). Interior black-and-white illustrations by Gabriel Rodríguez (odd-numbered chapters + epilogue) and Nicolas Delort (even-numbered chapters).

reference photohttps://skcollector.com/1st/FairyTale.htmlreference photohttps://www.rarebookcellar.com/pages/books/193374/stephen-king/fairy-talereference photohttps://www.thedarktower.org/palaver/showwiki.php?title=Stephen+King+First+Editions:Fairy+Tale+US
Book-club edition & fakes — how to spot a wrong copyNo U.S. Book-of-the-Month / book-club edition is a significant concern for a 2022 Scribner title (modern S&S titles are not BOMC-cloned the way 1970s-80s Doubleday Kings were). Tells to watch for any club/derivative copy: "Book Club Edition" printed on the lower front jacket flap, NO price on the flap, an absent or incomplete number line, smaller trim, thinner/cheaper paper, glued rather than sewn. For THIS title the real-world confusions are instead: (1) the Italy-printed first-printing state, (2) later printings (the "1" gone from the number line), and (3) the deluxe/limited editions being mis-sold as the trade first.

Also watch for: (1) Married/facsimile jackets — verify the $32.50/$43.99 price and Will Staehle credit on an original (not laser-printed) jacket. (2) Price-clipped jackets hide the price and lower value. (3) The Italy-printed first-printing state mis-sold at U.S.-printed prices — check the copyright-page manufacturing line. (4) Later printings (number line missing the "1," e.g. 4th printing) sold as "first edition" because the title page says nothing about printing — always read the number line. (5) Deluxe/limited (200 or 2,000) editions or the UK Hodder first mis-described as the U.S. trade first. (6) Ex-library copies (stamps, pockets, spine labels) and remainder-marked copies (spray/dot on the bottom edge) carry sharply reduced value.

Print run & scarcity

HEADLINE: Announced first printing ~1,500,000 copies for the Scribner US hardcover (ISBN 9781668002179, $32.50, Sept 6 2022). This is the publisher-ANNOUNCED figure carried in Library Journal's Prepub Alert and matched by the stephenkingcollector.com forum's tally, which attributes it to official Simon & Schuster digital catalog PDFs (same forum lists comparable big-King Scribner laydowns: Doctor Sleep 1.5M, Holly 1.25M, Billy Summers 1M). VERIFICATION CAVEAT: 'announced first printing' is a marketing/print-target number, not an audited bindery count — actual bound first-printing quantity is not separately published, and the dedicated first-edition ID page (skcollector.com) literally records 'A first edition of ??? copies.' SALES FLOOR: NPD BookScan via Publishers Weekly recorded 128,000+ print copies sold in week one (ended Sept 18, 2022), topping adult fiction — consistent with a 7-figure print run. LIMITED/SPECIAL EDITIONS (separate from the trade run): UK Special Edition Books signed slipcased edition limited to 200 numbered copies; a separate slipcased 'Special Collector's Edition' of 2,000 was also offered. No US Donald M. Grant / Cemetery Dance signed-numbered-lettered limited was identified for this title at time of research. UK trade hardcover (Hodder) and the WHSmith purple collector's / independent-bookstore variants are distinct printings, not part of the Scribner first-printing figure. Do NOT conflate the Carrie ~30,000 figure with this title — Fairy Tale is a modern blockbuster Scribner release with an order-of-magnitude larger announced run.

First-state points & errata

No widely documented textual errata/typo separating first-state from later-state first printings. The principal state distinction for this title is the manufacturing location on the copyright page: "Printed in the United States of America" vs. "Printed in Italy." Both are first printings; the Italy-printed state is noted by collectors for thinner paper and lesser binding quality. UNVERIFIED whether any reading-text point (page-line change) distinguishes the two.

Limited & signed editions

UK Special Edition Books / Hodder & Stoughton signed limited: 200 numbered copies, clothbound in slipcase, gold-and-silver foil, blue ribbon marker, head/tail bands, gold bespoke endpapers, signed by King. Scribner/Simon & Schuster Deluxe Limited "Special Collector's Edition": 2,000 copies, slipcased, gilded page edges, full-color illustrations, ribbon marker, no dust jacket (issued sealed). Lividian Publications produced an aftermarket custom slipcase for the deluxe. Cemetery Dance / Glenn Chadbourne produced signed remarqued first-edition copies and limited art prints ("The Mermaid in the Pool," "Hana's Domain," etc.) — these are dealer remarque programs, not a separate Cemetery Dance numbered/traycased press edition. A standalone Cemetery Dance traycased lettered/numbered press edition is UNVERIFIED.

Market value estimate

~$20–$45

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

Sale evidence no verified realized price: UNSIGNED US TRADE FIRST is too new/common to appear at Heritage or PBA — no major-auction hammer comp exists to cite honestly. Documented market data instead: (1) skcollector.com (the dedicated King-first reference) lists US trade-first market value at $15–25, adjusted June 2025; (2) eBay sold/asking spread for verified first/first HCDJ copies clusters ~$20–35 (used) to ~$40–50 (sealed/fine-fine new); (3) Hodder UK signed/slipcased limited of 200 issued at £250 (~$310) and sold out instantly, with secondary copies offered well above issue. I will not invent a Heritage/PBA lot for this title.

No confirmed sale found, so this is rated at no less than its original jacket price — a true first/first should hold at least retail in near-fine/fine condition. Soft estimate from dealer listings (treat as approximate): $20–45 (unsigned US trade first, fine/fine, unclipped $32.50 jacket, full number line to 1). SIGNED US first: ~$250–500; Hodder UK signed/slipcased limited of 200: ~$700–1,200+

Book-club edition (the trap): No true BOMC/book-club hardcover was issued the way 1980s–90s King titles were, so there is no classic "blind-stamp" BCE trap here. The functional traps that trade as junk ($5–12): later printings (number line NOT ending in 1), ex-library copies, reading copies, price-clipped jackets, and the UK Hodder edition mislisted as the US "first." These should be valued at a small fraction of a true fine first. — a fraction of a true first; never pay first-edition money for one.

Condition sensitivity: as a brand-new mass-market bestseller the value is almost entirely condition- and signature-driven, NOT scarcity-driven. A bumped/read copy is a sub-$15 reading copy; only crisp fine/fine with an UNCLIPPED $32.50 jacket reaches the top of the unsigned range. Signed premium is the whole story: a verified King-signed US first runs roughly 5–10x an unsigned one (~$250–500 with solid authentication), and the Hodder UK signed/slipcased limited of 200 (£250 issue, sealed) is the genuinely collectible object at ~$700–1,200+. THE SINGLE BIGGEST THING separating a real first from the mislisted copies of THIS title: the copyright-page number line MUST end in 1 (`1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2`) with "First Edition" stated AND the jacket must show the unclipped $32.50 price — ignore the generic "Doubleday gutter code" advice, that does NOT apply to a Scribner book; the gutter-code test is a trap-template carryover and any listing invoking it for Fairy Tale is uninformed. Also reject UK Hodder copies (different ISBN/price) sold as the US "first."

Value sources:

Sources

Verification notes: Cross-checks performed: PRICE $32.50 confirmed by skcollector.com, rarebookcellar.com, and the Palaver wiki. NUMBER LINE "1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2" confirmed by rarebookcellar.com and the Palaver wiki. BOARDS black + RED endpapers confirmed by the Palaver wiki (skcollector listing consistent). Will Staehle jacket + Rodríguez/Delort interiors confirmed by Wikipedia and the Palaver wiki. Italy-vs-US printing state confirmed by stephenkingcatalog.com (separate "Italy Printed Version" listing) and the Palaver wiki caveat. DISCREPANCY: a few dealer listings say midnight-blue/navy boards and/or orange endpapers — judged listing error or conflation with UK/deluxe; the U.S. trade first is black/red. Page count cited as 599 (text) / 608 (incl. front matter) across sources.

confidence: High on the load-bearing points (price $32.50, full number line "1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2," Will Staehle jacket, interior illustrators Rodríguez/Delort, black boards + red endpapers, the U.S.-vs-Italy printing state, and the deluxe/UK limiteds) — each cross-confirmed across two or more sources (Palaver wiki, skcollector, Stephen King Catalog, rarebookcellar, Special Edition Books, Lividian, Wikipedia/ISFDB). Medium/low on: exact topstain (treated as none, UNVERIFIED), the minority navy-board listings (judged error/variant), and whether a standalone Cemetery Dance traycased press edition exists (UNVERIFIED).
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