King, Stephen (1977) ‘The Shining’, UK signed and inscribed first edition

Stephen King (1977) ‘The Shining‘, UK first edition, first printing, published by New English Library (NEL). Signed and inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper (ffep): “For Marla – | With all best wishes, | Stephen King | 9/24/80”.

Condition: a fine book in a near fine dust jacket. There are no previous owners’ scribbles, no bookplates, no stamps. Book is square and tight, the page block clean. The lettering on the spine is vibrant and NOT rubbed out. The dust jacket is NOT price clipped with minor creasing to edges and folds and light rubbing as shown.

The Shining was published in the US by Doubleday with a print run of 25,000 copies only. It can be safely assumed that the UK print run by NEL was far lower, perhaps around 2,000 copies. We have seen very few signed UK first editions on the market.

The Shining is one of King’s signature novels and perhaps his best known work, not least due to the 1980 Stanley Kubrick film adaptation which is considered by critics as the best horror film of all times. King himself has not been happy with Kubrick’s take and liberties with the source material and therefore co-produced a TV mini-series in 1997 which, however, has failed to excite the general public. Undoubtedly this is one of the books which will always hold its value.