Editing The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger (section)

==Revised and expanded edition==
King revised ''The Gunslinger'' in 2003. In his introduction to the new edition, King stated that he felt the original version was "dry" and difficult for new readers to access. He also made the storytelling more linear and the book's plot more consistent with the series ending. Other changes were made to resolve continuity errors introduced by later volumes. The added material was over 9000 words (35 pages) in length.<ref name="GSRE">{{cite book|last=King|first=Stephen|title=The Gunslinger: Revised and Expanded Edition|publisher=Signet Fiction|location=Toronto|year=2003|pages=xxii|isbn=0-451-21084-0|no-pp=true}}</ref> Some changes include:<ref>{{cite web |title=The Gunslinger: A Side by Side Comparison |url=http://www.thedarktower.net/gunslinger/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071225081733/http://www.thedarktower.net/gunslinger/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=25 December 2007 |website=The Dark Tower.net |access-date=16 April 2019}}</ref>
*Removal of a reference to Roland reading a magazine in Tull. Later information presented in ''[[The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three|The Drawing of the Three]]'' suggests paper is a scarcity in Roland's world.
*Reference to 12 years having passed since the fall of Gilead, which happened when Roland was a teenager, is changed to "unknown years." Otherwise, it would be deduced that Roland is in his 30s, whereas later books imply Roland is ancient.
*Likewise, the man in black originally says he is "nearly immortal;" in the revision, he says this of both himself and Roland.
*"[Roland] didn't know where Cort was" becomes "Cort was dead" because the Fall of Gilead was not fleshed out until later books.
*Roland's cold-hearted killing of Allie is changed to make him appear more humane. Originally, when the town of Tull turns on Roland, Allie is seized by a townsperson and used as a human shield. She begs Roland not to fire before he guns down both her and her captor. In the revised version, she has been driven mad by Walter by the time she is seized, and she begs Roland to put her out of her misery.
*The town of Farson is changed to Taunton because [[John Farson]] is a character in the later books.
*References to the Beast were changed to refer to the [[Crimson King]], who otherwise is not mentioned in the series until ''[[The Dark Tower III: The Waste Lands|The Waste Lands]]''.
*"Blue Heaven" and "Algul Siento," terms revealed in the final books, are mentioned.
*A single Taheen appears early in the revised version. The Taheen are a race of creatures that wouldn't originally appear until the final three books.
*A major textual change is the fate and identity of the man in black. In the original text, Walter's death at the end of the story is of no uncertainty to Roland. In the revised edition, Roland speculates whether his discovery of Walter's bones is some trick or whether Walter has truly died. The original text also kept Walter and Marten Broadcloak completely disambiguated. Even after the death of Walter, Broadcloak was still to be found and killed. Later, in ''Wizard and Glass,'' Walter and Marten, along with [[Randall Flagg]], are all revealed to be the same person. Although no reference to the name "Flagg" is made in the revised edition of ''The Gunslinger'', all references to Walter and Marten are altered so that it is plausible they are the same man.
*[[Jake Chambers]], originally nine years old, was made 10–11 years old in the revised edition.
*In general, the world the gunslinger walked through in the original text was a run-down version of our own. The text mentions England, the star Polaris, Mars, Jesus and other biblical figures, Easter, All-Saint's Eve (Halloween), and [[Greek mythology|Greek]] and [[Ancient Egypt|Egyptian]] [[gods]]. In the revision, most of these references were removed to make Roland's world only vaguely like ours.
*In the expanded edition of the novel, on the last page before the text, the word [[Wiktionary:resumption|RESUMPTION]] appears. In the "Argument" foreword for ''[[The Dark Tower V: Wolves of the Calla|Wolves of the Calla]]'', King explains that this is the subtitle of the novel.