Christine by Stephen King Uncorrected Proof 1983

New York: The Viking Press, 1983
 
8vo., printed soft wraps with text and title art in black to upper cover only; pp. [xi], viii-xi, [iii], 3-522, [ii]; very mild browning, creasing, and spotting to covers, extending to the first and last few pages; clearly read, but carefully so, the bulk of the text remaining clean and totally unmarked; the odd corner crease. 
 
Rare US Proof copy of one of King’s earlier titles, his 13th novel, published in 1983. With publication date and price to front, marked ‘Confidential’ and ‘Not for distribution to the public’. 
 
Christine is the story of a 1958 Plymouth Fury possessed by malevolent supernatural forces. Due to its language, sexual content, and demonic undertones, it was banned by the American Library Association, and was removed from numerous school libraries. King is no stranger to banned books, with another three of his works also being placed on the list: his first, Carrie (1974), along with Cujo (1981), and The Dead Zone (1979).  A film adaptation of Christine was quickly released, eight months after the book’s publication, in December of the same year.  
 
“Christine is eating into his mind, burrowing into his unconscious. Christine, blood-red, fat, and finned…Greedy and big, she is Arnie’s obsession, a ’58 Plymouth Fury. Broken down but not finished. There is still power in her – a frightening power that leaks like sump oil, staining and corrupting. A malign power that corrodes the mind and turns ownership into Possession.”