The Stand

The Stand was first published by Doubleday in 1978. A weaponized influenza virus, accidentally released from a government facility, kills nearly all of humanity in a matter of weeks. The survivors find themselves drawn by dreams toward one of two figures: Mother Abagail, an elderly Nebraska woman who represents a last hope for community and decency, or Randall Flagg, a dark man gathering the desperate and the violent in Las Vegas. At its core the novel is a study in social reconstruction, asking what kind of society survivors choose to build when every prior institution is gone. King has acknowledged a debt to George R. Stewart's Earth Abides (1949), and The Stand belongs to a broader post-apocalyptic lineage that includes John Christopher's The Death of Grass and Richard Matheson's I Am Legend, works that use mass depopulation to examine the fragility of civilization's arrangements. A substantially expanded "Complete and Uncut Edition," restoring roughly 400 pages cut by the original publisher and featuring interior illustrations by Bernie Wrightson, was released by Doubleday in 1990.

Hardcover. First Edition, First Printing. Octavo, cloth-backed boards. New York: Doubleday, 1978. ISBN: 0385121687. #10768.
One corner very slightly bumped, else fine copy in dust jacket with one negligible rub on front cover. An excellent copy.