Different Seasons

By Stephen King

First edition, first impression. New York: The Viking Press, 1982.

Octavo. Original quarter navy cloth over blue boards, the spine lettered in gilt and silver, with the author’s initials stamped in gilt to the upper board. Dust-jacket illustration by Kinuko Y. Craft.

A fine, clean copy in the original near-fine, unclipped dust jacket, retaining the published price of $16.95. The jacket has a very soft crease at the foot of the front flap, with some toning and marking to the reverse of the spine panel.

A collection of four novellas demonstrating the range of King’s storytelling beyond the supernatural horror with which he had established his reputation. Each bears a seasonal subtitle: “Hope Springs Eternal” introduces Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption, a story of imprisonment, friendship and the preservation of hope; “Summer of Corruption” accompanies Apt Pupil, in which a schoolboy’s discovery of a fugitive Nazi’s identity develops into a destructive relationship. Under “Fall from Innocence”, The Body follows four boys into the Maine woods on a journey shaped by friendship and an encounter with mortality. The Breathing Method, subtitled “A Winter’s Tale”, closes the collection with an uncanny account of a woman’s determination to give birth.

Three of the four novellas subsequently became feature films: The Body was adapted by Rob Reiner as Stand by Me (1986), Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption by Frank Darabont as The Shawshank Redemption (1994), and Apt Pupil by Bryan Singer under its original title (1998). The volume thus brings together the literary sources of three significant screen adaptations, alongside a particularly varied expression of King’s concerns with memory, cruelty, endurance and the telling of stories.