The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger was published by Donald M. Grant, Publisher, West Kingston, Rhode Island, in 1982, in a limited first edition of 10,000 copies. The novel was not published in a mass-market edition until 1988 (New American Library/Plume), meaning that for six years the first volume of what would become King’s magnum opus was available only through a small specialty press. This publishing history makes the Grant first edition one of the most sought-after items in King collecting — and one of the most valuable.
The Novel
The opening sentence — “The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed” — is the most famous line King ever wrote and one of the most iconic opening sentences in American fiction. Roland Deschain, the last gunslinger in a world that has “moved on,” pursues the Man in Black (Walter o’Dim, later identified with Randall Flagg) across an infinite desert that resembles the American Southwest after apocalypse. Roland’s world retains the vestiges of a vanished technological civilisation — rusted machinery, fragments of songs, ghost trains — overlaid with the trappings of a medieval knightly order.
The novel is episodic, almost dreamlike: Roland encounters a desert dweller named Brown, stays in the town of Tull (which he destroys), takes the boy Jake Chambers as a companion, and finally confronts the Man in Black beneath a mountain. The confrontation reveals that Roland’s quest — to reach the Dark Tower, the nexus of all realities — is both his destiny and his curse. The Man in Black tells Roland his future in a card reading (the Tarot) and then dies or disappears. Roland wakes on the beach, alone, the Tower still calling.
The prose style is unlike anything else in King’s bibliography. Where most King novels are colloquial, expansive, and grounded in contemporary American speech, The Gunslinger is spare, formal, and deliberately archaic — closer to the register of Tolkien or the Spaghetti Western than to King’s usual voice. King later acknowledged the influence of Robert Browning’s poem “Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came” and of Sergio Leone’s films.
Publication History
The novel’s chapters were originally published as five short stories in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction between 1978 and 1981.
True first edition (Donald M. Grant, Publisher, 1982): 10,000 copies. Black cloth boards, no dust jacket but with illustrated boards. Interior illustrations by Michael Whelan.
Mass-market first edition (New American Library/Plume, 1988): Trade paperback. This is the first widely available edition.
Revised edition (Viking, 2003): King substantially revised the text to better connect it with the later Dark Tower volumes. The revised edition is now the standard text, but collectors prize the original 1982 Grant edition for its bibliographic priority.
Is The Gunslinger a Good Investment? Collecting and Market Values
The Grant first edition is one of the most valuable Stephen King first editions, rivalling Carrie and ‘Salem’s Lot in collector desirability.
Donald M. Grant first edition (1982):
- Fine condition: $2,000–$6,000
- Near Fine: $1,000–$2,500
- Very Good: $500–$1,000
- Signed by King: $5,000–$15,000
- Signed by both King and Michael Whelan: $8,000–$20,000
Mass-market first edition (1988, NAL/Plume):
- Fine: $50–$150
- Signed: $300–$800
Value trajectory (2016–2026): Approximately 3x for the Grant first edition. The Dark Tower’s status as King’s central work — the series that connects his entire fictional universe — ensures sustained collector interest.
Projected values (2026–2036): Strong appreciation expected for the Grant edition. As King’s legacy solidifies and the Dark Tower series is recognised as his most ambitious achievement, the first volume’s first edition will command increasing premiums.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why is the Grant edition so valuable? Three factors: the small print run (10,000 copies), the six-year gap before a mass-market edition existed, and the book’s significance as the first volume of King’s life work. Many copies were read heavily (it was a reading edition, not a collector’s edition), so fine copies are genuinely scarce.
Should I read the original or the revised edition? The revised edition (2003) better connects to the later Dark Tower volumes, but the original has a rawer, more mysterious quality. Most first-time readers are advised to start with the revised edition, but collectors value the original text.
How many Dark Tower books are there? Eight novels in the main series, published between 1982 and 2012, plus a coda novella (The Wind Through the Keyhole, 2012). The series is King’s central achievement — he has called it his Lord of the Rings.