Lisey's Story Common
What it’s about
Two years after the death of her husband, the celebrated and award-winning novelist Scott Landon, Lisey Landon at last begins sorting through his study and unpublished papers. The task stirs up the private language, shared memories, and a strange otherworld the couple kept secret during their marriage—just as a menacing stranger obsessed with Scott's work fixes his attention on her. A intimate portrait of a long marriage braided with mounting dread, it asks how well we ever truly know the person we love.
Significance Solo Stephen King novel (not Bachman, not co-authored); winner of the 2006 Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel, often named by King as his personal favorite of his books, and adapted into a 2021 Apple TV+ limited series scripted by King and starring Julianne Moore and Clive Owen.
How to spot a true first 30-second check
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.
What to look for
- Number line must end in 1 ("1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2") AND the copyright page must say "First Edition" — both, or it's not the trade first.
- Unclipped $28.00 at top-right of the inner front flap; a clipped corner hides the price and drops value.
- A SLIPCASE = the Quality Book Club gift edition (ISBN 9780739476536, no price, ribbon bookmark), NOT the trade first.
- BCE tells: "Book Club Edition" on the lower flap with no printed price, glued vs sewn, thinner trim, cheaper paper.
- Beware married jackets (later/club book in a first jacket) — verify the number line AND the unclipped $28.00 match.
- Print run was huge (~1.25M), so genuine firsts are common and cheap — pay up only for signed-with-provenance or fine/fine.
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.
Fully confirmed NF/NF trade first with the priced flap shown; asking $29.38 sits under our adjusted value.
- Number line — Copyright page shows the full line "1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2" with the 1 present — textbook first printing pictured.
- Copyright — Copyright © 2006 by Stephen King, Scribner imprint, trade ISBN 978-0-7432-8941-2 (not the club ISBN).
- Jacket price — Front flap U.S. $28.00 / Can. $34.00 printed and unclipped — first-state price legibly shown.
- Dust jacket — Red garden wrapper plus the under-jacket Boo'ya Moon case-wrap art; credits John Fulbrook III / Mark Stutzman.
- Dust jacket — Glare on the glossy red front panel obscures inspection — ask for a non-reflective shot to confirm no scuffs hide under it.
A Scribner Lisey's Story with both decisive tells legibly photographed on the one copy — the full number line ending in 1 and the unclipped $28.00 flap, corroborated by the trade rear-panel price code — but the seller never lifts the jacket, so the boards, endpapers, page edges, jacket spine and rear flap all go unseen.
- Number line — The copyright page is photographed in full and, enlarged, the line reads "1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2" with the lowest digit 1 unmistakably present (photo 0).
- Copyright — The same frame is legible end to end — Copyright © 2006 by Stephen King, the SCRIBNER flame over "1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020", "DESIGNED BY ERICH HOBBING", "Text set in Garamond No. 3", the bulk-discount paragraph, "Manufactured in the United States of America", Library of Congress Control Number 2006044382 and ISBNs 978-0-7432-8941-2 / 0-7432-8941-2, with no separate "First Edition" line printed on the plate (photo 0).
- Jacket price — The inner front flap shows "U.S. $28.00 / Can. $34.00" at the top right on a full-width, square, unclipped flap head (photo 3), corroborated at the rear-panel foot by the ISBN barcode 9780743289412 beside the "52800" price add-on barcode and the "1006" jacket print code (photo 2).
- Dust jacket — The correct wrapper is shown front and back — deep red garden ground, upright floral shovel, white author name and yellow title, with the rear panel carrying the Chabon and Sparks blurbs over the full trade barcode block (photos 1, 2).
- Binding — The book is never shown with the jacket off, so the pictorial laminated paper-over-boards are unseen — ask for the bare case, front and rear, which on a trade copy carries the Boo'ya Moon garden with "BABY" at the head and the "babyluv" script at the foot of one board.
- Endpapers / edges — No frame shows the endpapers or any page edge — ask for the front free endpaper (inscriptions) and a straight look down the bottom edge of the text block to rule out a remainder mark.
- Dust jacket (spine & rear flap) — Neither the jacket spine nor the rear flap is pictured — ask for a flat shot of each, the spine because sunning is this red wrapper's usual fault and the rear flap to show the author photograph and the credit lines at its foot.
The most completely documented of the five: both decisive tells photographed on the same book, backed by the pictorial "babyluv" boards, all four jacket surfaces, a macro of the rear-panel price code and three edge shots, with nothing material left outstanding.
- Number line — The copyright page is shot square and sharp, the line reading "1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2" with the lowest digit 1 present (photo 3).
- Copyright — That page carries the whole trade block — Copyright © 2006 by Stephen King, the SCRIBNER flame over "1230 Avenue of the Americas", "DESIGNED BY ERICH HOBBING", "Text set in Garamond No. 3", the bulk-discount paragraph, Library of Congress Control Number 2006044382 and ISBNs 978-0-7432-8941-2 / 0-7432-8941-2, with no separate "First Edition" line printed on the plate (photo 3).
- Jacket price — The inner front flap shows "U.S. $28.00 / Can. $34.00" at the top right, the flap head square and plainly unclipped (photo 1), and a macro of the rear-panel foot resolves the ISBN barcode 9780743289412, the "52800" price add-on barcode and the "1006" jacket print code (photo 11, also visible in photo 6).
- Binding — With the jacket removed the case is the full pictorial laminated paper-over-boards — not quarter cloth — showing the wrap-around Boo'ya Moon garden with "BABY" lettered at the head and the "babyluv" script at the foot of the board shown (photo 7).
- Dust jacket — All four jacket surfaces are shown: the front panel, the red spine with yellow title, white author name, Scribner flame and morning-glory art, the rear panel of blurbs, and the rear flap with the Amy Guip author photograph, the "This title also available from Simon & Schuster Audio" and "Register online at www.simonsays.com" lines and the Fulbrook/Stutzman credits (photos 0, 4, 5, 6).
- Endpapers / edges — The text block is shown from three angles — including the bottom edge (photo 10) — with plain uncoloured edges, no topstain and no remainder mark, and the front pastedown beside the flap is plain cream (photos 1, 5, 8, 9, 10).
✓ Decisive marker pictured — nothing outstanding to request.
Confirmed first by the pictured number line; Fine/NF and only the flap price unseen — asking $30 is below the floor.
- Number line — Photo 5 shows the full descending line "1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2" with the 1 present — decisive first-printing tell pictured.
- Copyright — Copyright © 2006 by Stephen King, trade Scribner ISBN 978-0-7432-8941-2 (not the QBC gift ISBN).
- Dust jacket — Correct red flower-shovel jacket, yellow title, Scribner flame colophon on spine; no BCE flap, no slipcase.
- Jacket price — Front flap price corner not pictured — $28.00 first-state unconfirmed (no clip evident); ask for the priced flap.
The jacket artwork and the pictorial boards are right, but this copy's own photographs show a copyright page carrying no number line and no Library of Congress number, an intact unclipped flap head with no printed price, and a rear panel bearing a single narrow barcode and a "1202944" stock number in place of the trade price code — on this copy the decisive tells are absent, not merely unphotographed.
- Binding — Jacket off, the case is the full pictorial laminated paper-over-boards rather than quarter cloth, photographed flat and square, with "BABY" lettered at the head and the "babyluv" script at the foot of the board shown (photo 1).
- Endpapers / edges — The endpapers are plain and uncoloured and the page edges are clean, with no topstain and no remainder mark on the edges pictured (photos 3, 7, 8, 9).
- Number line — Not merely unphotographed but ABSENT: on a square, fully legible copyright page the text runs straight from "Manufactured in the United States of America" to the ISBNs with no "1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2" between them, and the Library of Congress Control Number, the "Text set in Garamond No. 3" line and the bulk-discount paragraph that sit on a trade first's plate are missing with it (photo 4; compare listing 406972047537, photo 3).
- Copyright — The plate is legible but is not the trade first's plate — it carries the Scribner address, the copyright notice and the trade ISBNs yet omits the number line, the LC control number, the Garamond setting note and the bulk-discount paragraph, so the copyright page cannot support a first-printing call here (photo 4).
- Jacket price — Also absent rather than unshot: the top of the inner front flap is pictured full width and is blank, the flap head and corner square and plainly unclipped, with no "U.S. $28.00 / Can. $34.00" printed on it (photo 2); the rear-panel foot likewise carries only a single narrow ISBN barcode with no "52800" price add-on and no "1006" jacket print code, plus a white "1202944" stock number off to the right where a trade jacket has nothing (photo 6).
- Dust jacket — The artwork is correct throughout — red garden ground, upright floral shovel, yellow title, morning-glory spine with the Scribner flame, author photograph on the rear flap (photos 0, 5, 10) — but the wrapper is not in the trade state: the rear flap runs straight from the biography to the credits and stops at "Copyright © 2006 Simon & Schuster Inc.", omitting the "This title also available from Simon & Schuster Audio and as an eBook", "Register online at www.simonsays.com" and "Distributed by Simon & Schuster Inc." lines the trade jacket carries (photo 5; compare listing 397936689195, photo 5).
Full identification detail & sourcescopyright · jacket · binding · book-club traps · print run · value · references
The trade hardcover IS the true first. Unlike early Doubleday-era titles (where a Grant/Philtrum/Land of Enchantment small-press limited can precede the trade), Lisey's Story had no signed/numbered small-press limited issued ahead of or alongside the Scribner trade. The Scribner first printing (number line ending in 1, $28.00 jacket) is the book to own. The only other 2006 hardcover variant is the Quality Book Club slipcased "gift edition," which is a club product and does NOT precede the trade first.
First-printing points at a glance
Dust jacket
Deep red wrapper. The front features a distinctive die-cut/illustrated motif of an upright shovel (spade) standing in/through a garden scene — echoing the novel's "bool" and digging/Boo'ya Moon imagery — set against the floral red field that matches the boards. Title and author in white/red. Rear panel and flaps continue the red garden theme with publisher blurb and author photo on rear flap.
Art / design: UNVERIFIED. Jacket design credited on the rear flap/copyright page (Scribner in-house art department, typical of this era); specific designer/photographer not confirmed by sources consulted — do NOT assume Goretsky/Bonomelli without seeing the credit line.
Also watch for: Cautions: (1) Married jackets — a later-printing or club book in a first-jacket, or vice versa; verify the number line ends in 1 AND the jacket shows unclipped $28.00. (2) Price-clipped jackets hide the price point and lower value. (3) Ex-library copies (stamps, pockets, spine labels) — common and low value. (4) Book-club/gift slipcased copies passed off as the trade first — the slipcase is the giveaway. (5) Forged tour signatures — demand provenance. (6) Remainder marks on the bottom text-block edge indicate a remaindered (still potentially first-printing) copy with reduced value. Print run was very large (~1.25 million), so genuine firsts are common and inexpensive — pay a premium ONLY for signed-with-provenance or pristine fine/fine.
Print run & scarcity
Format: trade hardcover first edition, Scribner (New York), published Oct 24, 2006, $28.00, ISBN 0743289412 / 9780743289412. First-edition point: full number line ending in '1' on the copyright page. NOTE this is the trade first printing — explicitly verified against THIS title, not carried over from the Carrie ~30,000 reference figure; a top-tier modern Scribner King release was printed at roughly 40x that scale. LIMITED/SIGNED: No evidence of a true signed/numbered or lettered limited edition of Lisey's Story. The 'signed first editions' on the market are ordinary trade first printings that King hand-signed (often on the title page) — they carry no stated limitation. Some numbered review/proof copies (advance reader copies) circulated to trade/media as gifts, not for sale, but these are proofs, not a numbered limited edition. There was NO Subterranean Press signed-limited of this title — Subterranean's 2006 King small-press project was The Green Mile 10th-anniversary, not Lisey's Story; eBay 'limited edition in slipcase' listings for Lisey's Story do not trace to a documented numbered small-press limitation. SOURCE DISAGREEMENT: minimal — the 1.25M figure is the only specific number any source gives; other sources (Wikipedia, Bauman Rare Books, AbeBooks dealer listings) simply omit a print-run figure rather than contradict it.
First-state points & errata
No widely documented errata or first-state-vs-later-state text change is recorded for this title. The first printing is distinguished purely by the number line ending in 1 plus the $28.00 unclipped jacket — not by a typo correction. UNVERIFIED whether any later-state internal correction exists.
Limited & signed editions
No traditional signed/numbered/traycased small-press limited (e.g., Subterranean/Cemetery Dance/Grant) was issued for Lisey's Story. The only "deluxe" variant is the Quality Book Club slipcased gift edition (unsigned, club product). Signed FIRST trade copies exist from King's 2006 publicity tour (NY, San Francisco, Seattle, Portland, Los Angeles, London, Watford, Thurrock) — these are signed trade firsts, not a separate limited; seek provenance (event program/receipt) per stephenkingcollector.com.
Market value confirmed sales
$40–75 (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: (1) Signed first/first, eBay SOLD ~$180.38, ended June 2016. (2) Unsigned first/first fine/fine — dealer-confirmed selling band $25–30 (BOOKFELLOWS $28, Artis Books $29.95, Scene of the Crime $25), 2024–2026 AbeBooks. (3) Signed fine/fine dealer-realized tier $1,000–1,500 (Raptis/Bauman/Meier & Sons signed-on-title-page copies; ~$1,395 AbeBooks signed-fine). Note: no Heritage/PBA auction record located for this title — it is too common at the trade level to reach those rooms unsigned.
Book-club edition (the trap): $8–20. The Book Club / "Gift" edition (often slipcased) carries no $28 DJ price and no number line; effectively decorative, not collectible. — a fraction of a true first; never pay first-edition money for one.
Condition sensitivity is modest at the unsigned level because the book is abundant — only a crisp fine/fine unclipped copy holds the top of the $40–75 band; reading copies are $10–20. The signed/inscribed premium is enormous and is the entire collector story here: a flat signature on the title page jumps a $50 book to roughly $700–1,500 (full-date or "Lisey/Scott" thematic inscriptions higher). BIGGEST TRAP FOR THIS TITLE: it is Scribner, NOT Doubleday — so ignore any "Doubleday gutter code" advice; the sole first-printing point is "First Edition" stated on the copyright page WITH a number line ending in 1 ("1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2"). The single most reliable real-vs-fake separator is the DUST JACKET FLAP: a genuine trade first shows the $28.00 price; book-club/gift copies have NO printed price and NO number line (and are slightly smaller, frequently slipcased). A price-clipped jacket on a King bestseller is an instant red flag — it hides whether the copy was ever a priced trade first and kills most of the value either way.
- https://www.abebooks.com/book-search/title/lisey's-story/author/stephen-king/first-edition/
- https://www.abebooks.com/book-search/title/lisey's-story/author/stephen-king/first-edition/signed/
- https://www.raptisrarebooks.com/product/liseys-story-stephen-king-first-edition-signed-2006/
- https://www.baumanrarebooks.com/rare-books/king-stephen/lisey-s-story/110622.aspx
- https://www.ebay.com/p/Liseys-Story-a-Novel-by-Stephen-King-1st-Ed-2006-Hardcover/1703992603
- https://stephenking.com/other/identifying_first_editions.pdf
- https://bookshopapocalypse.com/products/liseys-story-by-stephen-king-book-club-edition-2006
Sources
- https://www.stephenkingcollector.com/1st/lisey.html
- https://www.baumanrarebooks.com/rare-books/king-stephen/lisey-s-story/110622.aspx
- https://www.abebooks.com/signed-first-edition/Liseys-Story-SIGNED-FIRST-EDITION-King/31405600290/bd
- https://www.biblio.com/book/liseys-story-1st-edition-1st-printing/d/488852560
- https://www.garysvintagebooks.com/product-page/lisey-s-story-by-stephen-king-1
- https://stephenkingcatalog.com/catalog/novels-collections-liseys-story-c-3_55_308.html
- https://www.stephenkingcollector.com/1st/lisey.html
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisey%27s_Story
- https://www.baumanrarebooks.com/rare-books/king-stephen/lisey-s-story/110622.aspx
- https://johnatkinsonbooks.co.uk/book/stephen-king-liseys-story-first-us-edition-2006/