The Bachman Books: Four Early Novels

US precedence: NAL New York, October 1985, issued in two simultaneous states — the NAL hardcover and a Plume large-format trade paperback (also stating a First (Omnibus) Printing of October 1985 with a full number line). Both are first-printing states of the true first edition, but the hardcover is by far the scarcer and is the collected state; the Plume trade paperback was issued in a much larger quantity. The UK edition followed in 1986 from New English Library under the variant title The Bachman Books: Four Novels by Stephen King, reportedly in a very small run — it is a collected book in its own right but does not precede. The four constituent novels had appeared earlier as individual paperback originals (NAL/Signet in the US; NEL in the UK, Roadwork in 1980 and the others in 1983); those are the first appearances of the individual texts, and this omnibus is the first appearance only of the 'Why I Was Bachman' essay and of the four novels in hardcover.