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There are two versions of Stephen King's The Stand ᠆ the original release (1978) and the "Complete and Uncut Edition" (1990).

I tried Googling for the differences between them but only found bits and pieces answers.

Does anyone have a comprehensive list of differences between the two editions?

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Comparing hardcover editions (via library catalog) the original is 823 pages and the 1990 uncut version 1153 pages. My guess is that in the 70's King was still somewhat restrained by his publishers. Back then publishers routinely assigned editors to work on manuscripts with authors in an effort to publish better books and authors generally respected them. These days editors mostly try and find new authors of potential bestsellers, rather than actually edit books. Once an author achieves stratospheric sales figures they are generally regarded as an 800 pound gorillas and whatever they turn in gets sent to the printer after some proof-reading for typos. So, in terms of what's different about the two texts I assume that King put back in all the adjectives, adverbs, and product names that were cut from the original edition and voila(!) a couple hundred extra pages.

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    Doesn't really answer my question..but thanks.
    – sudhanva
    Commented Feb 7, 2018 at 16:54
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    While I agree that the overly-broad answer to this question is editing (as in, the uncut edition restores a lot of things that the editors originally had King trim), your answer does a disservice to editors. They really do work hard to find good, publishable works (not only bestsellers), and to improve the quality of the works they publish. That a publisher would decide to direct the editors to apply a light touch, if any, to extremely successful authors is a business decision based on a number of factors, and does not reflect on the editors' usefulness or skills.
    – Dranon
    Commented Feb 7, 2018 at 18:22

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