The Long Walk by Stephen King (Richard Bachman) CENTIPEDE PRESS, Limited to 500 Slipcased

• Slipcased edition limited to 500 signed copies.
• Trade edition limited to 1,400 unsigned copies.
• New introduction by Bev Vincent.
• Dustjacket, frontispiece, interior, and chapter head illustrations by Jim and Ruth Keegan.
• Photographs by Patrick Loehr.
• Signed by Bev Vincent, Jim and Ruth Keegan, and Patrick Loehr.
• Printed endpapers.
• Ribbon marker, head and tail bands, bound in gray cloth.
• Stamped spine and boards.
• Double-sided dustjacket.
• Slipcase is stamped on sides and spine with two-tone cloth.
• Smyth-sewn binding.
• Every book comes with the dustjacket wrapped in Mylar.

Condition and Terms

This book and slipcase are in excellent, like new condition. There are no attached bookplates, embossed seals, or other owner-marks to the interior. Sharp corners, no conspicuous scuffs or rubs. Please see the photographs for best description. Additional photos can be provided upon request.

Returns are only allowed due to shipping damage or item not being as described. Due to USPS insurance claims procedures, partial refunds are not allowed due to shipping damage. Items damaged in shipping must be returned in the original packaging as received. The USPS requires inspection of the packaging and item damaged.

Synopsis

It’s that time of the year again! Time for the country to bask in its most welcome national pastime: The Long Walk. The course has been plotted and the game has its contestants. It’s all prepared to launch. And 16-year-old Ray Garraty is eager to take his place at the starting line.

Beginning in Maine at the Canadian border, he and ninety-nine others must walk south on U.S. Route 1 and continue for as long as their bodies are willing to go. And for as long as their minds are willing to suffer. There’s no rest, no bathroom breaks, no change of footwear, no chance for relief. Just walk at a pace of 4 miles per hour and outlast everyone else. Simple enough. So long as they ignore the half-tracks with armed soldiers, locked and loaded, ready to let loose.

If victorious, Ray will win a prize that may just make this marathon worth the risk. But that’s the catch. Failing to win means losing, and all those who lose will be buying themselves a one-way ticket to the coroner’s office. They must walk as if their lives depended on it because in fact, they most certainly do.

Written when King was only a freshman at the University of Maine and published later under the pseudonym Richard Bachman, The Long Walk showcases his budding potential for the sadistic that would mark his future work. Only he would look at the most trivial of acts — one we perform daily — and think: “how can I use that to terrify my audience?” For readers of this novel, taking that act for granted will be a thing of the past. And for King, there’s no greater compliment.

This is also where he introduces us to the first of his many memorable, authoritarian villains. The crazed military leader, dubbed the “Major”, is the enigmatic man behind the barbarous, almost gladiatorial march forced on this country’s youth. His presence is enough to generate cheers from the onlooking crowds and groveling from the persistent walkers. But for all the power he wields, even he can’t prevent the winner from choosing a path all his own beyond the finish line…assuming there is one.

As one brave walker bluntly points out: “Walk or die, that’s the moral of the story.” Though, in King’s dystopic world, the moral may just be more nuanced than anyone is willing to admit.