The Bachman Books by Stephen King (1996 Signet Hardcover Edition)

A scarce 1996 Signet hardcover edition of The Bachman Books, collecting four of Stephen King’s early novels originally published under his Richard Bachman pseudonym: *Rage, The Long Walk, Roadwork, and The Running Man.

This 1996 edition is especially desirable because it represents one of the last American editions to include Rage. King subsequently allowed Rage to go out of print, and later editions of The Bachman Books omit the novel entirely.

Unlike the original 1985 collection, this edition contains Stephen King’s revised introduction, “The Importance of Being Bachman,” copyright 1996, in which King revisits the origins and purpose of his Richard Bachman identity more than a decade after the pseudonym was publicly exposed. The 1996 edition was issued in conjunction with the appearance of the new Bachman novel The Regulators.

Published by Signet/Penguin Books USA, ISBN 0-451-14736-7. Hardcover in black boards with the original illustrated dust jacket featuring the green-and-black design and red skeletal imagery.

This copy presents very nicely overall. The hardcover is clean and square with a firm binding and clean interior pages. The page block remains bright with only minor signs of age/use visible in the photographs. The original dust jacket is particularly attractive, retaining strong color and gloss with relatively minor edge and corner wear. From the photos, I would put this around Near Fine book / Very Good+ jacket, subject to checking for any marks or defects not visible.

An increasingly collectible Stephen King hardcover, particularly sought after for its inclusion of the withdrawn Rage and the 1996 “The Importance of Being Bachman” introduction.