The Shining was published by Doubleday & Company, Garden City, New York, on 28 January 1977, in a first printing of approximately 25,000 copies priced at $8.95. It was King’s third published novel (after Carrie and ‘Salem’s Lot) and his first bestseller in hardcover. The novel drew directly on King’s own struggles with alcoholism and his fears about his capacity for violence toward his family — making it his most personal and most psychologically penetrating work.
The Novel
Jack Torrance — a writer, former teacher, and recovering alcoholic who has broken his three-year-old son’s arm in a drunken rage — accepts the job of winter caretaker at the Overlook Hotel, a grand resort in the Colorado Rockies. He brings his wife Wendy and his five-year-old son Danny, who possesses “the shining” — psychic ability that allows him to read minds and see the past and future.
As winter isolates the family, the hotel — built on an Indian burial ground, site of gangland murders, suicides, and a previous caretaker’s murder of his entire family — begins to work on Jack. It wants Danny’s power. It uses Jack’s alcoholism, his rage, his frustration, and his desperate need to prove himself as a writer to corrupt and possess him. The hotel’s ghosts become increasingly real; Jack becomes increasingly violent; and Danny must use his shining to survive.
King’s achievement is to ground supernatural horror in domestic reality. The Overlook’s evil is terrifying, but no more terrifying than the rage of an alcoholic father. The novel’s most disturbing passages are not the topiary animals or the woman in Room 217 — they are Jack’s internal monologues of self-justification, the addict’s logic that precedes every relapse.
Kubrick and King
Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 film adaptation — while a masterpiece of cinema — departs significantly from King’s novel. Kubrick’s Jack (Jack Nicholson) is menacing from the first scene; King’s Jack is sympathetic, struggling, and genuinely trying to save himself. King famously disliked the film, calling it “a Cadillac with no engine.” He produced his own, more faithful television adaptation in 1997.
Collecting The Shining
First edition (1977, Doubleday): Approximately 25,000 copies, priced at $8.95.
Identification points:
- “First Edition” on the copyright page (with Doubleday’s “R49” code)
- Published by Doubleday & Company, Inc.
- Black cloth boards (some copies in black paper-covered boards)
- Dust jacket: predominantly black with orange/red text
First edition, first printing:
- Fine/Fine in dust jacket: $3,000–$8,000
- Near Fine in jacket: $1,500–$3,000
- Without jacket: $100–$300
Signed copies: King has signed extensively throughout his career. Signed first editions: $3,000–$8,000.
Value trajectory (2016–2026): Approximately 2× for fine copies in jacket. King’s canonical status (he received the National Medal of Arts in 2014) and sustained commercial popularity support strong demand.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is this autobiographical? Substantially. King was drinking heavily in the mid-1970s and feared he was becoming dangerous to his family. Jack Torrance’s arc — talent corrupted by addiction, love consumed by rage — is King’s nightmare version of his own potential future.
Book or film? They are different works of art. Kubrick’s film is a masterpiece of atmosphere and dread; King’s novel is a masterpiece of psychological portraiture and domestic horror. Both are essential.
Is there a sequel? Doctor Sleep (2013) follows Danny Torrance as an adult, still struggling with his shining and his father’s legacy of alcoholism.