Eyes of the Dragon dust jacket variant?

[Spaceman Spiff]

Hi, all.

I've checked out the "Guide to Identifying First Editions" pdf located on StephenKing.com...

http://www.stephenking.com/faq.html#0.3

...and would first like to say a big Thank You to Bev Vincent and the others for compiling it. It's very helpful!

However, I'm wondering whether there may have been a variant (two different states) of the dust jacket for Eyes of the Dragon...?

I have two first editions of the book (neither are BCE's--book club editions). Both have red lettering on the front of the jacket, but on the spine of the jacket one has red lettering and one has gold lettering. (Well, kind of a goldish-silver, or a silvery-gold, but definitely not red).

Just wondering if anyone else has run across this or if it has been documented anywhere...?

Thanks!
John

[jchanic]

The only ones I've ever seen have red on the spine. I wonder if yours could have been faded by exposure to the sun.

John

[Spaceman Spiff]

I had discussed that with a friend of mine as well. However, the dust jacket on this particular copy is in pristine condition, and the green background on the spine is identical to the green on the front & back covers. It does not appear to have any fading whatsoever.

[The Outsider]

Upload a pic, I might have seen this at the bookstore at a passing glance!

[Spaceman Spiff]

Hi, Outsider.

Images attached.





Thanks.

[Spaceman Spiff]

By the way, someone at another message board shared the following information with me...

"When EYES came out I located a copy from all three publishing houses that did the 1st edition run. I found these at bookstores. The strange thing is, all 3 jackets are slightly different. The Haddon Craftsmen, Scranton Pennsylvania jacket has the red letters with just a hint of white around them on both cover and spine and the "scales" on the jacket are very shallow. The Arcata Graphics, Keene, New Hampshire jacket has deeper "scales" and white background on the cover letters but no white on the spine. The Arcata Graphics, Hawkins County, Tennessee has deep scales, with the white outlines on both the cover and the spine. These books have never been exposed to sunlight. Your different coloring on the spine may be an indication that they changed dies or some other factor when printing these jackets or, more likely, they were printed in three or possibly four different printing facilities. Whichever is the case, this is a quite fascinating discovery."

I had never heard of something like this before--a book being simultaneously produced by three different printers. I'm not sure if this explains my copy's dust jacket or not....

Thanks.