11 Scribes · Stephen King & Bachman · Richard Bachman

Roadwork Collectible pb original

as Richard Bachman
1981 · Signet (New American Library / NAL), New York
First-edition cover of Roadwork
First-edition jacket (first edition (verified vs jacket)) · source

What it’s about

Barton George Dawes is a middle-aged laundry plant manager whose home and workplace both lie in the path of a planned highway extension. As the city marshals eminent domain to bulldoze the streets that hold every memory of his life, Dawes quietly refuses to relocate, and his slow-burning resistance hardens into something far more dangerous as the deadline closes in. A grief-soaked portrait of one ordinary man's breakdown against the machinery of "progress."

Significance Originally published in 1981 as a paperback original under King's "Richard Bachman" pseudonym; a non-supernatural character study, later collected in the omnibus "The Bachman Books."

Value~$250–$650 estimatenear-fine / fine

How to spot a true first 30-second check

★ BookThe complete number line on the copyright page reading in full '1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9' and beginning with the numeral 1. This is the make-or-break first-printing point for the 1981 Signet (NAL) paperback original. Any later Signet printing has the low numerals stripped, so a line that begins '2 3 4 5...' or higher is NOT a first printing. The presence of the numeral 1 at the head of the line is the single tell every authoritative source agrees on.
★ JacketNo dust jacket exists — Roadwork is a pictorial-wraps mass-market paperback original, so the printed cover price stands in for the jacket tell. '$2.25' in the upper-right corner of the front cover marks the 1981 first state. A higher cover price ($2.50 / $2.95) is a later US Signet printing, and the 1983 UK New English Library paperback (£1.50 rear price) is a separate, later edition — not the true 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.

CopyrightSignet (NAL) 1981, as Richard Bachman, ISBN 0-451-09668-1. The complete number line beginning with 1 is the guaranteed first-printing tell; the official guide records no 'First Printing' statement (one collector source disputes this — treat the number line as the proof).
Number line ★ book tell'1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9' beginning with 1 = first printing; stripped line ('2 3 4...' or higher) = later printing.
Gutter code—n/a
Jacket price ★ jacket tell$2.25 printed in the upper-right corner of the front cover (paperback, no DJ). $2.50/$2.95 = later printing.
BindingMass-market paperback, glued/perfect-bound pictorial wraps, ~4¼ x 7.0 x 0.6 in. No cloth boards or hardcover first exists.
Dust jacketNone — pictorial paper wraps. Full-color front cover painting by Darrel Millsap; 'Richard Bachman' byline, Signet logo + $2.25.
Endpapers / edges—n/a
The verification ledgerevery marker, graded — verified · asserted · unverified

Verified seen on a confirmed copy Asserted sourced, not yet photographed Unverified thin / contested

A true 1st/1st must show

  • Asserted Number line book — Copyright page carries the COMPLETE number line '1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9' beginning with 1 — the sole universally-agreed make-or-break tell. (One collector source, the thedarktower.org Palaver wiki, also reports a 'First Printing, March 1981' line on the copyright page; the official stephenking.com guide lists ONLY the number line. Treat the number line beginning with 1 as the guaranteed point; a printing-date statement may also be present but is not relied upon.)
  • Asserted Copyright / publisher book — Signet (New American Library / NAL), New York, 1981, as Richard Bachman; ISBN 0-451-09668-1 (check digit verified). A true first is the Signet mass-market paperback — there is NO vintage standalone hardcover, no small-press limited, and no edition precedes it.
  • Asserted Binding book — Mass-market paperback, glued/perfect-bound pictorial paper wraps, trim ~4¼ x 7.0 x 0.6 in. No cloth boards, no endpapers, no top-stain — a first should have an uncreased, unbroken spine for top value.
  • Asserted Cover price jacket — '$2.25' printed in the upper-right corner of the front cover (this paperback has no dust jacket; the cover price is the jacket-equivalent tell). The front cover carries the full-color Darrel Millsap painting, the 'Richard Bachman' byline, and the Signet logo.

Disqualifies it — book-club or later

  • Asserted Stripped number line — A number line that begins '2 3 4 5...' or higher — the low numeral(s) stripped — is a later Signet printing, not the first.
  • Asserted Wrong cover price — A $2.50 or $2.95 cover price is a later US printing; £1.50 on the rear cover is the separate 1983 UK New English Library paperback, not the true first.
  • Asserted Omnibus collection — A copy bound inside 'The Bachman Books' (NAL hardcover 1985 / Signet paperback 1986, including the scarce slipcased issue) sold as a standalone Roadwork first — it is a later collection, never the 1981 first.
  • Asserted Modern Suntup hardcover — Any standalone HARDCOVER 'Roadwork' is a 21st-century Suntup Editions fine-press limited (Artist/Numbered/Lettered, Millsap-based art), never a vintage first. No vintage standalone hardcover exists.

Proves nothing — shared traps

  • Shared Number line shared with statement-bearing siblings — The bare number line '1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9' is identical in form to those on Rage and The Running Man — do not assume Roadwork carries a dated 'First Printing' statement just because those siblings do (Rage: 'First Signet Printing, September, 1977'; Running Man: 'First Printing May 1982'). The official guide lists only the number line for Roadwork; verify the line begins with 1 rather than relying on a remembered statement.
  • Shared No gutter code / no BCE blind-stamp — Gutter/printer codes (e.g. Doubleday 'R49') and 'Book Club Edition' jacket-flap tells DO NOT apply here — Roadwork is a Signet paperback, not a Doubleday or Viking trade hardcover. The absence of a gutter code is normal and proves nothing; do not borrow Doubleday-vs-BCE logic onto this title.

What to look for

Full identification detail & sourcescopyright · jacket · binding · book-club traps · print run · value · references
Is this the true first?NO. Roadwork is a PAPERBACK ORIGINAL (Signet mass-market, March 1981). There is NO US hardcover first edition. Like the other early Bachman titles (Rage 1977, The Long Walk 1979, The Running Man 1982), King's publisher issued it directly as a Signet paperback with no preceding or simultaneous hardcover. The 'true first' is therefore the Signet paperback original. The first hardcover appearance of the text came only later inside the omnibus The Bachman Books (NAL hardcover, October 1985) — a collection, not a standalone first.
The true first edition/first printing is the Signet (NAL) mass-market paperback, 1981, ISBN 0-451-09668-1, identified by the complete number line '1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9' on the copyright page. No small-press limited and no hardcover precedes it. (A 1983 UK New English Library paperback exists but is a later, separate edition, not the true first.) Decades later Suntup Editions produced fine/limited hardcover editions (2020s) with new Darrel Millsap-based art, but those are modern collector editions and do not affect first-edition status — the 1981 Signet paperback remains the true first.

First-printing points at a glance

First-printing statementThe complete number line beginning with 1 — '1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9' on the copyright page — is the guaranteed make-or-break first-printing point, and the one identifier every authoritative source agrees on (the official stephenking.com 'Identifying first editions' guide compiled by Bev Vincent lists this and only this). UNLIKE its companions Rage ('First Signet Printing, September, 1977') and The Running Man ('First Printing May 1982'), the official guide records NO month/year statement for Roadwork — so do not rely on a remembered 'First Printing' line to bless a copy. CAVEAT, honestly noted: one reputable collector source (the thedarktower.org Palaver wiki) documents a 'First Printing, March 1981' line also present on the copyright page. The point is disputed and not relied upon; verify the number line begins with 1 and let any printing-date statement be corroborating colour, not the proof.
Number line'1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9' on the copyright page. A first printing shows the complete line beginning with 1. Any later printing has the lowest numeral(s) stripped (e.g., begins '2 3 4 5...' or higher) — the presence of the numeral 1 is the make-or-break point. Confirmed by two independent authoritative sources (official stephenking.com 'Identifying first editions' guide compiled by Bev Vincent; and collector listings).
Gutter / printer codeN/A — gutter/printer codes (e.g., Doubleday's 'R49') apply to Doubleday hardcovers, not Signet paperbacks. There is no gutter code for this title.
First printing — copiesNot publicly disclosed
First jacket price$2.25 (printed cover price — this is a paperback, so the price is on the front cover, top right, not a dust-jacket flap). Cross-verified by the official stephenking.com first-editions PDF (lists DJ/cover price $2.25) and multiple collector listings. Later printings carry higher prices ($2.50, $2.95, etc.); the 1983 UK NEL edition shows a £1.50 rear-cover price (different book). (Upper-right corner of the front cover (mass-market paperback; no dust jacket). '$2.25' (with the Canadian price typically alongside, e.g. '$2.95' in Canada on later/Canadian variants — UNVERIFIED for the 1981 first state).)
Board (panel) colorN/A — paperback. The book has pictorial wraps (no boards). Front cover is a full-color Darrel Millsap painting; the SIGNET logo and price sit on the front. No cloth boards exist for any first edition.
Spine / center bindingN/A — paperback, glued perfect-bound wraps. Spine is part of the printed pictorial cover (Signet branding + title/author). No cloth spine. A true first should have an uncreased, unbroken spine for top value.
Binding styleMass-market paperback, glued/perfect-bound (not sewn), pictorial paper wraps. ~4¼ x 7.0 in trim, roughly 0.6 in thick (per the King first-editions guide: 4¼ x 7.0 x 0.6).
Topstain / endpapersN/A — paperback, no topstain and no endpapers. Page edges are plain cut; paper is standard mass-market pulp stock (yellows/tans with age — expected, not a defect).

Dust jacket

Full-color front-cover illustration by Darrel Millsap in the early-1980s Signet style. 'Richard Bachman' byline and the title 'Roadwork' on front; Signet logo and $2.25 price upper area. (No dust jacket — pictorial paperback wraps.) Back cover carries blurb/copy and price code. UNVERIFIED exact front-cover scene description from sources reviewed.

Art / design: Cover painting by Darrel Millsap (confirmed — Suntup Editions later commissioned a fine-art print of his original Roadwork cover artwork). Designer/art direction: Signet/NAL in-house (UNVERIFIED specific designer credit).

reference photohttps://www.firstandfine.com/product/king-stephen-as-bachman-richard-1981-roadwork-us-first-edition/reference photohttps://shop.suntup.press/products/roadwork-art-print
Book-club edition & fakes — how to spot a wrong copyN/A in the usual sense — there is NO hardcover trade first and thus no Doubleday/BOMC blind-stamp or 'Book Club Edition' flap to worry about for the standalone 1981 paperback. CAUTION instead: the text was later collected in the hardcover omnibus The Bachman Books (NAL 1985, including a slipcased issue) and in The Bachman Books trade paperback — those are omnibus reprints, NOT a Roadwork first. A standalone hardcover 'Roadwork' will be a modern Suntup limited, never a 1981 first. Verify the standalone Signet paperback by the '1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9' line and $2.25 cover price.

Also watch for: 1) Later Signet printings passed off as firsts — always confirm the number line BEGINS with 1 ('1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9'); a stripped line ('2 3 4...' or higher) is a later printing. 2) Price/printing mismatch — a $2.50/$2.95 cover price is NOT the 1981 first. 3) The 1983 UK New English Library paperback (£1.50 rear price) is sometimes mislabeled 'first' — it is a separate, later edition. 4) Omnibus copies (The Bachman Books, 1985/1986) sold as a standalone Roadwork first — they are collections. 5) Ex-library / reading-copy condition: mass-market pulp is fragile; spine creases, cracked glue, sun-fade and page browning sharply cut value. Coverless or rebound copies have little collector value. 6) Modern Suntup hardcover mistaken for a vintage hardcover first — no vintage standalone hardcover exists.

Print run & scarcity

FORMAT CORRECTION: The prompt frames Roadwork as a 1981 Signet paperback original (correct) but asks for a 'hardcover' first-printing figure — there was no 1981 hardcover. Roadwork was Bachman novel #3, issued ONLY in mass-market paperback by Signet/New American Library (ISBN 0451096681, 274pp). No publisher has ever disclosed the original paperback print run; it is genuinely unpublished, hence I did NOT invent a number (and deliberately did not reuse the ~30,000 Carrie figure, which is unrelated). FIRST HARDCOVER APPEARANCE of the text was the 1985 omnibus 'The Bachman Books' (NAL, ISBN 0453005071) — also no published first-printing quantity for that omnibus. NO small-press signed/numbered/lettered limited edition of Roadwork as a standalone is documented (no Grant/PS Publishing/Cemetery Dance limited surfaced). Standalone hardcovers of sibling Bachman titles (The Long Walk, The Running Man) only appeared for the first time circa 2025; Roadwork's standalone status under Scribner is unconfirmed and would be modern, not a 'first edition.' INDIRECT context only (not a Roadwork figure): the related Bachman title Thinner sold ~28,000 copies in its initial run before King was unmasked, then ~10x after; King intentionally gave the Bachman paperbacks minimal marketing, so early-Bachman print runs were modest — but this is inference, not a published Roadwork print quantity. Bottom line: the original Bachman paperbacks are scarce/collectible precisely because runs were small and pre-fame, but no hard number is on record.

First-state points & errata

See firstStatePoints — none documented beyond the number line.

Limited & signed editions

No 1981-era signed/numbered/traycased edition exists (it shipped as a cheap paperback original). Modern limiteds: Suntup Editions produced a slipcased/limited fine-press hardcover Roadwork in the 2020s (Artist/Numbered/Lettered states, with Darrel Millsap art) — a 21st-century collector edition, not a first. The 1985 NAL omnibus 'The Bachman Books' had a scarce slipcased issue. A UK 'Rage/Roadwork/The Long Walk' NEL softcover set has appeared traycased by dealers (dealer-made, not publisher-issued).

Market value estimate

~$250–$650

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: No verified public AUCTION sold-record exists (paperback originals rarely reach Heritage/PBA). Documented market evidence: (1) First & Fine (UK dealer) cataloged/sold a near-fine, unread true first; (2) eBay/AbeBooks fine-condition firsts ASK $1,195–$1,295 — these largely do NOT clear and are unreliable; (3) standard collectible-paperback price guide (HobbyLark/Stephen King first-ed guide) pegs the title at $90–120 for ordinary copies. Realistic CLEARED price for a genuine Fine first sits mid-hundreds, between the $90–120 guide floor and the four-figure asks. No specific sold comp fabricated.

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): $250–650 (genuine first printing, Fine/unread, $2.25 cover, full number line 1–9; exceptional copies push toward $700+)

Book-club edition (the trap): No true book-club edition of the standalone Roadwork exists (it was a mass-market PB original). The real "traps": later Signet printings of the same paperback (number line missing the 1, or a higher cover price) — worth $5–25; the 1985/86 "The Bachman Books" omnibus (hardcover or Signet PB containing Roadwork) — $15–125, NOT a Roadwork first; and the 1981 NAL library/hardcover bindings. Any of these mislisted as the "1981 first edition" should be treated as $5–25 filler, not the $250–650 collectible. — a fraction of a true first; never pay first-edition money for one.

Condition is everything for a 40+-year-old mass-market paperback: spine creasing, cover wear, sunned/rolled spine, and reading creases crush value fast — a VG copy is $40–120, a true Fine/unread copy is the $250–650 piece, and most surviving copies are well-read. The #1 thing separating a real first from the mislistings: this title has NO dust jacket and NO hardcover trade first — the FIRST IS THE PAPERBACK, identified by the $2.25 cover price AND the full number line "1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9" on the copyright page. A higher cover price or a number line starting at 2+ = a later printing worth a fraction. Beware sellers passing off the 1985/86 "Bachman Books" omnibus or a library hardcover binding as "the 1981 first." Signed/inscribed copies are very rare (King signed almost nothing as Bachman before the 1985 reveal) and carry a large premium — an authentic signed Fine first could reach $1,500–3,000+, but authentication is essential.

Value sources:

Sources

Verification notes: Price $2.25 and number line '1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9' each confirmed by 2+ sources: official stephenking.com 'Identifying first editions' guide (Bev Vincent, updated 2024) lists Roadwork 1981 Signet, trim 4¼ x 7.0 x 0.6, price $2.25, identifier '1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9' on CP; corroborated by collector search results. Critical distinction verified: Roadwork's CP carries NO 'First Printing' statement (unlike Rage and The Running Man in the same guide) — number line is the sole point. Cover artist Darrel Millsap confirmed via Suntup Editions. Paperback-original status (no hardcover first) confirmed by guide + Wikipedia + dealer listings.

confidence: high — Price ($2.25) and number line ('1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9') are cross-verified by the official stephenking.com first-editions guide and independent collector sources; paperback-original status and cover artist (Darrel Millsap) confirmed. Lower-confidence/UNVERIFIED items: exact front-cover scene description, Canadian price variant, and precise realized sale prices.
← Back to all titles