The Tommyknockers Common
What it’s about
In the small Maine town of Haven, writer Bobbi Anderson trips over a strange metal object buried in the woods behind her farmhouse and begins compulsively digging it free. As the excavation grows, the townspeople fall under an eerie influence — gripped by sleepless inspiration, building bizarre gadgets, and changing in ways they barely notice — while Bobbi's friend, the alcoholic poet Jim Gardener, becomes the one man whose dependency leaves him oddly immune and increasingly afraid of what is rising from the ground.
Significance A 1987 Stephen King novel (published under his own name, not Bachman) that King has openly called a product of his late-1980s addiction; it was adapted into a 1993 ABC two-part TV miniseries starring Jimmy Smits and Marg Helgenberger.
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
- Confirm BOTH together: "Permissions to come" under the number line AND unclipped "$19.95" front flap before paying a first-state premium.
- Number line must run fully to 1 — a line starting at 2 (or higher) is a later printing.
- Red vs gold author-name lettering is NOT a state marker — both were issued simultaneously as correct firsts.
- Book-club trap: no printed flap price, often "Book Club Edition" on lower flap, glued not sewn, blind-stamp dot on rear board, no "Permissions to come."
- Watch for price-clipped or married/facsimile jackets that hide a club or later origin — clipping removes the $19.95 proof.
- Putnam title — there is NO Doubleday gutter code; don't hunt for a missing one.
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.
Genuine trade first but corrected second state (no "Permissions to Come") in VG+; at $13.95 still positive margin.
- Number line — Photo 4 shows the complete "1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10" line running fully to 1 — a true first printing.
- Copyright — G. P. Putnam's Sons, © 1987, ISBN 0-399-13314-3, "Printed in the United States of America," LCCN 87-16845 — correct trade first.
- Jacket price — $19.95 (US) / $27.95+ (CAN) printed and UNCLIPPED on the front flap — a trade first, not a BCE.
- Binding — Green cloth boards, sewn block; PUTNAM at spine foot; full rear-jacket barcode — a trade build.
- Dust jacket — Red-lettered author-name variant, One Plus One Studio design — a correct first-edition jacket (no priority vs gold).
- Permissions to Come — The decisive first-STATE line is NOT present — this is the corrected second state. Jacket shows pronounced front/spine creasing (VG+).
Our 2026-07-03 screening recorded this as a Putnam 1987 first printing in the corrected copyright state, but the eBay item now returns HTTP 404 to the API and 403 to the web page, no image URLs were kept in the harvest, and nothing is cached — so not one frame can be re-opened and nothing here is presentable as confirmed.
- Every marker — no photograph can be opened — I could not see a single frame today (Browse API 404, item page 403, no stored or cached image URLs), and while our record describes a complete number line, an unclipped >$19.95 (US) / >$27.95 (CAN) flap, green boards with a black spine and a faint embossed signature, a record is not a photograph — none of it may sit under "confirmed" and the id belongs in the liveness sweep.
- Copyright state ("Permissions to Come") — Even our own record places this copy in the corrected state rather than the first-state "Permissions to Come" issue, so if the copy ever resurfaces the first shot to ask for is a straight-on frame of the foot of the copyright page below "Printed in the United States of America".
A Putnam 1987 first printing photographed properly — the complete number line down to 1 and the intact, unclipped $19.95/$27.95 front flap on the one copy — in the corrected copyright state rather than the "Permissions to Come" first state, with nothing outstanding beyond the jacket never having been taken off.
- Number line — Photo 5 shows the copyright page head-on with "1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10" printed complete, the 1 present, set directly below "Printed in the United States of America" — read cleanly, the first printing.
- Copyright page — Photo 5 carries G. P. Putnam's Sons / Publishers Since 1838 / 200 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016; Copyright © 1987 by Stephen King, Tabitha King and Arthur B. Greene, Trustee; published simultaneously in Canada by General Publishing; ISBN 0-399-13314-3; LCCN 87-16845 / PS3561.I483T66 1987 CIP; and "Printed in the United States of America".
- Copyright state — corrected, seen not assumed — Photo 5 shows the song permissions printed out in full (Diamond, Fogerty, Walkenhorst twice, Jagger/Richards, May) and the foot of the page below the number line blank — the "Permissions to Come" line is affirmatively absent in a legible frame, so this is the corrected state and no first-state premium attaches.
- Jacket price — Photo 4 shows the head of the front flap printing "ISBN 0-399-13314-3 / >$19.95 (US) / >$27.95 (CAN)", intact and unclipped, on the same copy whose copyright page is read in photo 5 — nothing here is married.
- Jacket date code — Photo 4 shows "8711" at the foot of the front flap, the November 1987 code — a shared plate detail that is consistent with the first printing but proves nothing on its own.
- Endpapers — Photo 4 shows the front cover laid open with a full green pastedown and free endpaper, matching the rubric's green endpapers.
- Binding — The green board edges run along the head in photos 1 and 2, and in photo 2 that green edge meets a black cloth segment at the spine end — the correct quarter-bound black-over-green trade build.
- Dust jacket — Photo 0 shows the correct Putnam art with the author name in gold (one of two simultaneous first-edition states, no priority), photo 3 the spine reading PUTNAM at the foot, and photo 2 the rear panel with the James Leonard portrait and the printed "ISBN 0-399-13314-3" box.
- Binding (jacket off) — The jacket is never removed in any of the six frames, so the blind-embossed King facsimile signature on the front board and the gilt spine lettering go unseen — not decisive here, since the book-block and jacket tells are both already photographed, but ask for a jacket-off shot of the front board and the spine to complete the build.
A Putnam 1987 copy whose copyright page legibly prints the first-state "Permissions to Come" line, but which departs from the trade first in three photographed respects on the one copy — no number line anywhere on that page, no printed price on an intact uncut front flap, and "Printed in U.S.A." in the rear-panel box where our own confirmed trade copy prints the ISBN — and those three want settling in hand.
- Copyright — first-state line — Photo 3 shows "Permissions to Come" set at the foot of the copyright page below "Printed in the United States of America", sharp and unmistakable under magnification.
- Copyright page — Photo 3 carries G. P. Putnam's Sons / Publishers Since 1838 / 200 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016; Copyright © 1987 by Stephen King, Tabitha King and Arthur B. Greene, Trustee; published simultaneously in Canada by General Publishing Co. Limited, Toronto; ISBN 0-399-13314-3; LCCN 87-16845 / PS3561.I483T66 1987 CIP — and, oddly for a first state, the song permissions printed out in full (Diamond, Fogerty, Walkenhorst twice, Jagger/Richards, May) alongside the "Permissions to Come" line.
- Number line — photographed ABSENT — Photo 3 is a flat, legible, whole-page shot and no number line is printed anywhere on it: the position below "Printed in the United States of America" where the trade first sets "1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10" carries "Permissions to Come" instead — an absence I can see rather than assume, and a departure from the rubric, not a confirmation of this marker.
- Jacket price — photographed ABSENT on an uncut flap — Photo 10 lays the jacket out flat and the front flap's top edge is a clean, straight, unclipped edge with no notch, yet the band beside the title — exactly where the confirmed copy 298472350252 prints "ISBN 0-399-13314-3 / >$19.95 (US) / >$27.95 (CAN)" — is blank white: this is not a price I cannot read, it is an intact flap with no price printed on it.
- Rear jacket panel — "Printed in U.S.A." in place of the ISBN — Photo 2 shows the white box at the lower right of the rear panel printing "Printed in U.S.A.", where the same box on listing 298472350252 — a copy with a complete number line and a priced flap — prints "ISBN 0-399-13314-3"; both are photographed, and the two jackets are not in the same state.
- Binding — Photo 4 shows a green paper-covered board with King's facsimile signature blind-embossed (no gilt, no ink) at the upper corner and the black cloth spine strip alongside, photo 6 the opposite board plain green and unmarked with no book-club blind stamp visible, and photo 5 the jacket-off spine in bright gilt reading, head to foot, Stephen King / The Tommyknockers / PUTNAM.
- Sewn text block — Photos 7 and 9 show the block's spine ends with the sewn signatures and the headband plainly visible — sewn, not glued.
- Dust jacket — Photo 0 shows the correct Putnam art with the author name in gold (a simultaneous first-edition state, no priority), photo 1 the spine reading STEPHEN KING / THE TOMMYKNOCKERS / PUTNAM at the foot, photo 2 the James Leonard rear portrait, and photo 10 the rear flap naming It, The Eyes of the Dragon and Misery as King's most recent works with jacket design © 1987 One Plus One Studio, Putnam at 200 Madison Avenue.
- Jacket date code — Photo 10 shows "8711" at the foot of the front flap — the same code the confirmed trade copy carries, a shared plate detail that settles nothing on its own.
- Jacket price — resolution in hand — The decisive jacket tell is not merely unphotographed here but absent from a flap that is fully pictured and uncut, so the shot to ask for is an in-hand, straight-on, evenly lit close-up of the top three inches of the front flap together with the book's measured height — a priceless unclipped flap, a "Printed in U.S.A." rear box and no number line are the shape of a book-club jacket, and only the copy in hand will rule that out.
- Endpapers — No frame shows the front cover opened, so the green pastedown and free endpaper the rubric calls for go unseen; ask for a shot of the book laid open flat at the front pastedown.
Genuine fine/fine first/first/FIRST-STATE, gold jacket, priced flap intact; $200 from Dan Pope is fair-to-strong.
- Permissions to Come — Photo 4 clearly shows the first-state line printed below the number line — the most desirable issue.
- Number line — Complete "1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10" with 1 present, readable in photo 4 — true first printing.
- Copyright — G. P. Putnam's Sons, © 1987, ISBN 0-399-13314-3, "Printed in the United States of America" (photos 3 & 4) — correct US Putnam.
- Jacket price — $19.95 (US) / $27.95 (CAN) printed, intact and unclipped on the front flap (photo 2).
- Binding — Green boards behind the flap with black quarter-spine cloth (photo 2) — correct trade build.
- Dust jacket — Gold author lettering on black — the gold-lettered first-edition state (photo 1).
✓ Decisive marker pictured — nothing outstanding to request.
Verified Putnam first but corrected state in VG+ with a scuffed/sticker-residue jacket; at $19.99 at/below fair.
- Number line — Complete "1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10" running fully to 1 — true first printing.
- Copyright — G. P. Putnam's Sons (Publishers Since 1838), © 1987, ISBN 0-399-13314-3, "Printed in the United States of America" — not a club imprint.
- Binding — Green boards (photos 5 & 6) — correct trade build.
- Dust jacket — Red metallic "Stephen King" lettering variant — a correct first-edition jacket (color carries no priority).
- Permissions to Come — Decisive first-state line absent — copyright page shows the full acknowledgments text = corrected second state.
- Jacket price — Front-flap $19.95 price not photographed; presumed but unverified. Rear panel scuffed with sticker residue (photo 1).
Exterior-only photos: jacket and binding fit a first, but the plate is unseen — needs the copyright page before $200.
- Dust jacket — Black jacket with red "STEPHEN KING" / white title — correct Putnam art, red-letter variant.
- Binding — Fore-edge shot shows green boards + black cloth spine — consistent with the Putnam first binding.
- Permissions to Come — Decisive first-state line NOT photographed — seller asserts it in text only; no image proves it. Testimony is not proof.
- Number line — Copyright page never shown; the "1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10" line is not pictured. Ask for a clear copyright-verso shot.
- Jacket price — Price flap not shown; "$19.95 unclipped" claimed in text only. Ask for a flap photo showing the intact price.
Full identification detail & sourcescopyright · jacket · binding · book-club traps · print run · value · references
The Putnam trade hardcover IS the true first edition. Unlike several King titles that had preceding small-press editions (the early Dark Tower volumes from Donald M. Grant, The Eyes of the Dragon from Philtrum Press, or Cycle of the Werewolf from Land of Enchantment), The Tommyknockers had no preceding small-press limited or signed/numbered edition at publication. The 1987 Putnam first printing is the first appearance. The UK first by Hodder & Stoughton (1988) is a separate, later printing and not the true first.
First-printing points at a glance
Dust jacket
Dark/black background field with bright eerie green design evoking the glowing alien "Tommyknockers" theme. Author name and title in metallic lettering — issued in two simultaneous color states for the author name: RED metallic and GOLD (equal precedence, both first-edition). Rear panel and flaps carry the standard Putnam synopsis/blurb; $19.95 price at the top of the front flap. Author photo on rear flap is UNVERIFIED in the sources reviewed.
Art / design: Jacket design credited to One Plus One Studio (jacket designer), confirmed by Palaver wiki and Charles Agvent. Any separate cover-illustration/photographic credit beyond the design studio is UNVERIFIED.
Also watch for: Cautions: (1) Price-clipped jackets — corner removed to hide a club origin or later price; clipping removes the "$19.95" verification. (2) Married jackets — a first-state "Permissions to come" book paired with a non-matching/facsimile jacket, or a club book given a trade jacket. (3) Facsimile/reproduction jackets (common on a $19.95 1980s King). (4) Ex-library copies (stamps, pockets, spine labels) — heavily devalued. (5) Remainder marks (sprayed/marker on the bottom text-block edge). (6) Restored/recolored jackets. Always confirm BOTH the "Permissions to come" line AND the unclipped "$19.95" front-flap price together before paying a first-state premium.
Print run & scarcity
The 500,000 first-printing figure is reported by stephenkingcollector.com (the standard King first-edition reference site) and is consistent with King's late-1980s blockbuster print runs (Putnam printed huge first runs for King at this point). It is a collector-source/dealer-attested figure rather than a publisher-issued statistic, so treat ~500k as the documented working figure, not a Putnam press release. The key collecting consequence: because both the first and the post-permissions printing carry the same "First Edition" / full number line, only the "Permissions to come" copyright line cleanly separates the true first printing — and even within it there is no priority between the gold- and red-letter author-name jacket states.
First-state points & errata
FIRST-STATE POINT: the earliest copies carry "Permissions to come" printed below the number line on the copyright page (King had not yet cleared all song-lyric/quotation permissions at press time). Per stephenkingcollector.com the "Permissions to come" first state comprised ~500,000 copies (split ~250,000 gold-lettered jackets / ~250,000 red-lettered jackets), followed by a second/corrected run of another ~500,000 copies in which the permissions line was replaced with the actual acknowledgments text (again split gold/red). Palaver wiki and dealer Charles Agvent instead cite a single 750,000-copy first printing; the run figure is NOT reliable as a point — only the printed text matters. The presence of "Permissions to come" is the key first-state point. IMPORTANT: the two jacket-lettering colors (red metallic vs gold for the author name) were issued SIMULTANEOUSLY with NO established priority across BOTH states — jacket color is therefore NOT a state marker; both are correct first-edition jackets.
Limited & signed editions
No contemporaneous signed/numbered, slipcased, or traycased limited edition was issued by Putnam at the 1987 publication. Signed first editions exist only as author-signed copies of the standard trade first. Much later, Cemetery Dance issued a "New Cover Series" (No. 54) Glenn Chadbourne cover-art print (1/500, with Poppy Z. Brite flap text) — a later collectible cover-art piece, NOT a 1987 limited edition of the book.
Market value confirmed sales
$30–75 unsigned (true first state, Fine/Fine, unclipped $19.95 jacket); $350–800 for a verified signed first. This is a high-print-run, common King first — value is modest unless signed or exceptional.
Assumes a genuine first edition / first printing in near-fine to fine condition (clean copy, unclipped jacket). Lesser condition is worth less.
Confirmed sales: Note: this is a common, low-value first, so it almost never appears as a standalone major-auction lot — most "sold" data is dealer/eBay level. Documented market points: stephenkingcollector.com records the genuine first (Fine, near-fine jacket) at the $5–15 floor (Aug 2023); reputable dealer SOLD/listed true-first-state copies (First & Fine, Edwards, Memento Mori, rarebookcellar) cluster ~$30–60 for unsigned Fine/Fine unclipped; signed first-edition copies (First & Fine, signed/dated 13 Aug 1989; Bauman Rare Books) trade ~$400–800+. No notable Heritage Auctions standalone hammer found for an unsigned copy — consistent with the 500k print run. CONFIRMED-FIRST eBay SOLD comp (2026-07, item 168476326497): a verified first-STATE copy (“Permissions to Come” present, complete 1–10 number line, unclipped $19.95 jacket) SOLD at $18.22 — an open-market low sitting between the stephenkingcollector $5–15 floor and the $30–60 dealer cluster, consistent with this common ~500k-run first; NF/F range left unchanged on a single low sale (though it argues the realistic open-market floor is nearer $20 than $30).
Book-club edition (the trap): $3–10. The Book-of-the-Month/book-club edition is the dominant trap: near-worthless, frequently mislisted as a "first edition." Tells — small blind-stamp (dot/square/maple-leaf) in the lower-right corner of the REAR board, slightly smaller trim, cheaper paper/binding, and a dust jacket with NO printed price (a real first's jacket shows $19.95). — a fraction of a true first; never pay first-edition money for one.
Condition is everything on a common title: fading/rubbing to the green boards, any jacket lettering flaking (the gold/red author name flakes easily), price-clipping, or ex-library marks collapse it toward the $5–15 floor; only a crisp Fine/Fine unclipped copy holds $30–75. Signed is the real multiplier (5–15x), but King's signature is heavily forged — demand provenance/COA. THE SINGLE BIGGEST DISCRIMINATOR FOR THIS TITLE: the true first printing has the full number line 1–10 AND the line "Permissions to come" on the copyright page. A copy with the full 1–10 number line but WITHOUT "Permissions to come" is the later state (printed after permissions were secured) — still labeled "first edition" and routinely sold as a first, but it is NOT the true first printing. Also confirm the $19.95 jacket and the absence of any rear-board blind stamp.
- https://www.stephenkingcollector.com/1st/tommyknockers.html
- https://stephenking.com/other/identifying_first_editions.pdf
- https://www.firstandfine.com/product/king-stephen-1987-the-tommyknockers-us-signed-first-edition-2/
- https://www.baumanrarebooks.com/rare-books/king-stephen/tommyknockers/128687.aspx
- https://www.abebooks.com/book-search/title/tommyknockers/author/stephen-king/first-edition/
- https://www.nocloo.com/stephen-king-first-edition-books-identification-points/
Sources
- https://www.stephenkingcollector.com/1st/tommyknockers.html
- https://www.thedarktower.org/palaver/showwiki.php?title=Stephen+King+First+Editions:Tommyknockers+The+-+Trade+HC
- https://edwardsrarebooks.com/products/the-tommyknockers-stephen-king-first-24295
- https://www.abebooks.com/first-edition/TommyKnockers-First-Edition-King-Stephen-Putnam/31668946821/bd
- https://thefirstedition.com/product/the-tommyknockers/
- https://stephenking.com/other/identifying_first_editions.pdf
- https://www.garysvintagebooks.com/product-page/the-tommyknockers-by-stephen-king-1
- https://www.charlesagvent.com/pages/books/011133/stephen-king/the-tommyknockers
- https://www.abebooks.com/first-edition/Tommyknockers-Stephen-King-Putnams-Sons-New/31695018452/bd
- https://www.stephenkingcollector.com/1st/tommyknockers.html
- https://stephenking.com/other/identifying_first_editions.pdf
- https://www.nocloo.com/stephen-king-first-edition-books-identification-points/
Verification notes: INDEPENDENTLY RE-VERIFIED (June 2026). New source added not in original draft: Gary's Vintage Books listing — independently confirms green/black boards, embossed Stephen King signature on cover, and "bold gilt stamp lettering along spine" plus "Permissions to come." (1) Price $19.95 at TOP OF FRONT FLAP — confirmed by stephenkingcollector.com, Palaver wiki, Edwards Rare Books, and search corroboration ("$19.95 on the front flap"). Draft's flap-location claim CONFIRMED. (2) Number line "1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10" — confirmed by Edwards, Palaver, stephenkingcollector.com; one dealer expresses it as mfg code "10-1" (same full line). (3) First-state "Permissions to come" below number line — confirmed by stephenkingcollector.com, Palaver, Charles Agvent, Gary's Vintage Books. (4) Binding: quarter-bound, black spine, green boards, green pastedowns — confirmed VERBATIM by Palaver wiki; gilt spine title refined in from Gary's. (5) Jacket: One Plus One Studio design; red vs gold author-name lettering issued simultaneously with no priority — confirmed by Palaver + Agvent; stephenkingcollector.com further documents that BOTH lettering colors appear in BOTH the first-state and second-state runs (so jacket color is NOT a state marker — draft was correct). DISCREPANCY RECORDED: print-run figure conflicts — stephenkingcollector.com gives 500,000 (first state) + 500,000 (second state) = ~1,000,000 total; Palaver wiki and Charles Agvent give a single 750,000-copy first printing. Unresolved; treated as "very large run" and explicitly NOT used as an identification point. Gutter-code field correctly N/A (Putnam, not Doubleday). No corrections to draft's core ID points were required; refinements added: gilt spine lettering, "green and black boards" dealer phrasing, mfg-code "10-1" equivalence, and print-run conflict sharpened.