It was published by Viking Press, New York, on 15 September 1986, in a first printing of approximately 800,000 copies — an unprecedented number that reflected King’s status as the bestselling author in America. At 1,138 pages, it is King’s longest novel and arguably his finest: a meditation on childhood, memory, fear, and the power of storytelling, wrapped in the narrative framework of a monster story. The novel alternates between 1958 (when seven children calling themselves the Losers’ Club first encounter It in the sewers beneath Derry, Maine) and 1985 (when they return as adults to finish the job). The monster takes many forms — a mummy, a werewolf, a leper, a giant bird — but its preferred shape is Pennywise the Dancing Clown, one of the most enduring images in modern horror.
The Novel
In the summer of 1958, children are disappearing in Derry. Bill Denbrough, a stuttering boy whose younger brother Georgie was murdered by something in a storm drain, assembles a group of outcasts: Ben Hanscom (overweight, bookish), Beverly Marsh (the only girl, escaping an abusive father), Richie Tozier (wisecracking mimic), Eddie Kaspbrak (asthmatic, overprotected), Stan Uris (fastidious birdwatcher), and Mike Hanlon (the only Black child in a white town). Together they discover that the town of Derry is built on a cycle of violence: every twenty-seven years, a shape-shifting entity awakens to feed on children, and the adult population of Derry — complicit, terrified, willfully ignorant — allows it to happen.
The children confront It in the sewers beneath the town and wound it badly enough to send it back into hibernation. In 1985, when the killings resume, Mike Hanlon (the only one who stayed in Derry) calls the others back. Most have forgotten everything — the entity’s power includes the erasure of memory — and the process of remembering their childhood becomes the novel’s emotional and thematic centre.
King’s deepest subject is not the monster but the nature of childhood consciousness. The 1958 sections are among the most vivid evocations of American childhood ever written — the long summer days, the fierce loyalties, the terrors both real (Henry Bowers, Beverly’s father) and supernatural. The 1985 sections explore what happens when adults try to recover that consciousness: the courage, the imagination, and the willingness to believe that made the children powerful are precisely the qualities that adulthood has destroyed.
Themes and Literary Significance
It is King’s most literary novel — his Ulysses, his attempt to encompass an entire world in a single work. Derry is King’s most fully realised fictional place (more detailed than Castle Rock, more historically grounded than the Overlook Hotel), and the novel’s engagement with American history — the racist fire at the Black Spot, the Bradley Gang massacre, the Kitchener Ironworks explosion — gives it an ambition that transcends genre.
The novel is also King’s most sustained meditation on the act of writing. Bill Denbrough is a novelist, and his struggle to write truthfully about his childhood parallels King’s own. The Losers’ Club’s power against It comes from imagination and belief — the same faculties that fiction requires of its readers. In this sense, It is King’s argument for the necessity of storytelling itself.
Publication History
First edition (Viking Press, New York, 1986). Cloth-covered boards with dust jacket.
Identification points:
- Viking Press imprint with ship colophon
- “First published in 1986 by Viking Penguin Inc.” on copyright page
- Full number line including “1”
- Price of $22.95 on front jacket flap
- Dust jacket: the iconic red balloon/drain design
Print run: Approximately 800,000 copies — one of the largest first printings in American publishing history. This enormous print run limits the value of unsigned copies.
Is It a Good Investment? Collecting and Market Values
The massive first printing depresses prices for unsigned copies, but the novel’s cultural significance and the enduring popularity of Pennywise ensure strong demand, particularly for signed copies.
First edition, first printing (1986, Viking):
- Fine/Fine in dust jacket: $150–$500
- Near Fine in jacket: $80–$200
- Very Good in jacket: $40–$100
- Without jacket: $10–$25
- Signed first edition: $1,000–$3,000
Value trajectory (2016–2026): Approximately 3x appreciation, driven substantially by the Andrés Muschietti film adaptations (It in 2017 and It Chapter Two in 2019), which grossed over $1.1 billion worldwide and made Pennywise a cultural icon for a new generation.
Projected values (2026–2036): Moderate appreciation for unsigned copies; strong for signed. The novel’s canonical status within King’s bibliography and its enduring cultural presence through film adaptations support continued demand.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why is the first printing so large? By 1986, King was the bestselling author in America and Viking printed accordingly. The huge print run means that first editions are readily available — the challenge is finding copies in truly fine condition, as the book’s bulk puts strain on the binding.
Is this King’s best novel? Many readers and critics say yes. It combines King’s strengths — character development, small-town atmosphere, pure narrative drive — with an ambition and emotional depth that surpass anything in his other novels. The childhood sections, in particular, represent King at the height of his powers.
What exactly is It? The entity is ancient — possibly billions of years old — and comes from a void beyond the universe that King calls the Macroverse. Its true form is the “Deadlights,” an incomprehensible radiance that drives humans insane. Pennywise the Clown is its preferred avatar because children’s fear is its food, and clowns are inherently unsettling to many children.