The Shining

Dust jacket and interior illustrations by Vincent Chong
Signature Page illustration by Dagmara Matuszak

When The Shining was first published in 1977, it left an immediate and indelible impression. At once terrifying and intensely human, it set the standard for the modern horror novel, and remains as vital and affecting today as it was thirty-five years ago.

The story The Shining tells has assumed a permanent place in American popular culture. It is, first of all, the story of a family: Jack and Wendy Torrance and their extraordinarily gifted son, Danny. The Torrances are a family in crisis. They have come to the Overlook Hotel, a deluxe resort set in an isolated corner of the Colorado Rockies, to serve as winter caretakers and to recover from a series of bruising personal defeats. But, as they soon discover, the Overlook is more than a hotel. It is a malign, voracious entity with an extravagantly violent history, and it is determined to absorb the Torrance family—Danny in particular—into its dark heart.

The Shining is a novel in which all of the varied elements—scenes, setting, character—come triumphantly together. The Overlook Hotel, with its haunted rooms, elaborate traps, and twisted secrets, is one of the most compelling backdrops in all of horror fiction. And the Torrances, with their tragic flaws, hidden wounds, and profound, often frustrated love for one another, are as real and credible as the people we encounter in our everyday lives. The result is a novel with the narrative power and emotional resonance of a classic. It is, and will always be, a consummate example of the storyteller’s art.

The Subterranean Press edition of The Shining will be printed in two colors throughout.

Gift: 1500 unsigned cloth bound copies, housed in a custom slipcase

Limited: 750 signed numbered copies, housed in a custom traycase

The issue: (this e-mail was orignially sent to all our customers who has pre-ordered a copy of the book) First and foremost, this is by far the nicest King limited we’ve seen in recent years, the presentation and quality of the Green Mile, Skeleton Crew, Regulators and Eyes of the Dragon, it is not a “Plain Jane” book like Christine, it is a wonderful presentation.  That being said, as some of you may have read on the boards, there were some binding issues with the book.  These issues included bleeding of the color from the paper covering the boards to the lining of the tray case….NONE of our books have the traycase issue, they were all bagged from the publisher before being placed in the tray case.  But the paper does bleed and you have to be careful when you handle it and then turn the pages, the blue color will rub off on your hands and then on the pages of the book.  I know this for a fact because the first book I opened, turned to the signature page and left a very light blue smudge in the upper right corner of the signature page.  I didn’t believe it was really an issue, but it is, so until you receive the dust jacket Subterranean Press is producing for the book. (To help with the bleeding, Subterranean Press is producing a wrap-around jacket, once we get our copies we will forward it to you, at no cost.)  When you handle this book (remember this is not a trade publication book to read, and casually handle, it is a book to cherish and admire) do so with white gloves, or at least a paper towel in your hand.  If you are going to look through the book, open it and then wipe your hands before turning the pages, if you do this you should be fine, but proceed at your own risk.  I’m sorry, but if you get a book and tell us there is blue smudging on the pages, it don’t come from us that way, you may not realize it but you did it!  Look at my hand and you will see what I mean.

Now the issues with the book - Every book we looked at, if turned in the light enough, you can find something, which I will explain in more detail in a minute.  We even looked at books listed on the internet, as “with no defects” and if you look hard enough along the edges of the boards, you will see a flaw.  That being said, we spent four hours going through our copies.

The issues we found were two-fold:
1) rubbing in the paper covering the boards
2) “shinning” (pun intended) on the edges of the boards where the book was pressed, for lack of a better term, what you see on a pair of dress pants that has been dry-cleaned too many times.

What are not issues are white spots, waves of light (what appears to be waves of light going through the paper), and what appears to be oil stains in the paper, that is the paper, not a flaw or defect.

When the book is bound the cloth spine is put on and the paper that covers the boards is glued and pressed on, where the paper overlaps the cloth and on some of the outer edges you can see a line, like when you iron a pair of pants or shirt with a piece of cloth under part of it.  On the better copies to see this you have to put the book at an angle to the light and move it around, if you get it just right you see the lines, on the copys we have for sale, the lines are visible pretty much at all angles.

If you are not happy with it when you get it, simply let us know within three days, return it within a reasonable time, and we’ll happily refund your money, what we will not do is send you another book, all of our remaining copies are pretty much the same and we simply just cannot continue to swap books out in hopes you will get one that is better than the last.