1979 1st edition "First published in 1979 by The Viking Press" stated; The Viking Press publishers, New York; larger hardbound in black boards with gilt stamp lettering along spine; very good condition with unmarked pages; dust jacket good with minor edge issues - see pics.
Description -
The Dead Zone is a horror/supernatural thriller novel by Stephen King published in 1979. It is his seventh novel and the fifth novel under his own name. It concerns Johnny Smith, who is injured in an accident and remains in a coma for nearly five years. Upon emergence, he exhibits clairvoyance and precognition with limitations, apparently because of a "dead zone," an area of his brain that suffered permanent damage as the result of his accident. The book was nominated for the Locus Award in 1980[1] and was dedicated to King's son Owen.
The book spawned a 1983 film adaptation as well as a television series.
Plot -
The prologue introduces the two main characters. In 1953, a young boy named John Smith is knocked unconscious while ice-skating, When recovering, he mumbles a strange message ("Don't jump it no more") to an adult on the scene. The knot on Johnny's head fades after a few days, and he thinks no more of it. A few months later, the adult is seriously injured while he tries to jump start a car. Two years later, during an unconnected incident in Iowa, a young door to door Bible salesman, Greg Stillson, who suffers emotional issues and dreaming of greatness, vindictively kicks an aggressive dog to death.
By 1970, Johnny is now a high school teacher in eastern Maine. After visiting a county fair with his girlfriend, Sarah, and eerily winning repeatedly at the wheel of fortune, Johnny is involved in a car accident on his way home which lands him in a coma for four and a half years. Upon waking, Johnny finds that he has suffered neural injury, but when he touches people and objects, he is able to tell them things that they did not know. For example, he knows that a nurse's son would have successful surgery; states that his doctor's mother, long believed dead, is living in Carmel, California; warns his physical therapist that her house is about to burn down; tells Sarah that her lost wedding ring is in her suitcase pocket; and later recounts the story behind a St. Christopher medallion that is owned by a skeptical reporter.
Johnny shrugs off local media reports of his supposed psychic talents and accepts an offer to resume teaching, but he begins to suffer from severe headaches...