Misery by King, Stephen - 1987

New York: Viking, 1987 First edition, first printing. Publisher's black cloth-backed grey boards; original black dust jacket with bedroom illustration on front panel by Bob Giusti, and photograph of author to rear panel by Andrew Unangst. Fine copy, with tiny smudge to bottom of text block and previous owner's inscription to front free endpaper; in a fine dust jacket. A stunning and fine copy. In Misery, Paul Sheldon is the author of a popular series of Victorian-era romance novels. He has just killed off the main character, Misery Chastain, and is looking forward to taking his career into a new, more literary direction when he gets into a car accident. He wakes up with two broken legs and in the house of Annie Wilkes, a former nurse and his self-proclaimed "number one fan." Wilkes shows signs of being mentally unhinged, and when she discovers that Misery will die in Sheldon's upcoming release, she forces him to write a new ending, while his life hangs in the balance. Misery won a Bram Stoker Award in 1987 and was nominated for a World Fantasy Award in 1988. It received acclaim, particularly for being a bold departure for King from his more fantastical novels previous to it. In 1990, the book was adapted into a film directed by Rob Reiner and starring James Caan and Kathy Bates, the latter of whom scored an Academy Award for her performance as Annie Wilkes. . First Edition. Hard Cover. Fine/Dust Jacket Included.