Collecting Stephen King Rare Books

Stephen King's first editions will always hold a special place at Hyraxia. Many years ago, I bought a hardback copy of The Regulators (under King's Bachman pseudonym) for 99p. When it arrived I was quite taken by the design (it was the US edition). It was this book that encouraged us to buy first editions - there was just something special about them. Anyway, in the earlier years, I spent hours on various online forums finding out what I could about the various editions, proofs, signatures, limited editions, magazines etc. The first thing that struck me was that it was impossible to create complete collection. As with most authors, there are items that are unique and unavailable - manuscripts being the most obvious example. I figured though that there was plenty of time. As we developed the business we started to lose track a little of Stephen King, but we were always buying first editions, signed first editions a limited editions. We still keep a decent stock of Stephen King, and are always looking to buy interesting items - particularly the limited editions, signed first editions and proofs. We thought it might be a good idea to suggest collecting King as one of our ideas for collecting, hence this page. Stephen King represents an easy entry to book collecting and nearly all his first editions are affordable. There are exceptions, but even then it's rare to find a five figure book. Many people collect the US editions as King is a US author, others like the UK editions, particularly our collectors based in Britain. We have a chap who collects anything written by King in published print (this helps him ignore the unique items), and we have a lady who collects just Dark Tower items. There's a chap we know who collects the proofs, and nothing but the proofs too - something that's not just about buying but about researching too as print runs are low and it's not always obvious whether proofs actually exist, for some proofs there are multiple variations too, which just adds to the excitement. So the long and short of it is that King is highly collectable, and whatever snobbery might exist around his writing, he's unlikely to be forgotten in our lifespans! If you want to talk to us about developing a King collection, the pitfalls and opportunities then do get in touch. The most prudent thing you can do as a new collector is to buy signed books only from reputable sellers - there are numerous fakes. Similarly, there's a plethora of book club editions, that often get passed off as first editions (one or two were technically the first publication). Oh, and as always, condition is king

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