2 Michael McDowell first editions are documented on this shelf, from The Elementals (1981) to Blackwater (I: The Flood through VI: Rain) (1983) across 2 different publishers. Each linked guide gives the points of issue that separate a true first printing of that Michael McDowell title from later printings and book-club copies — the publisher and year to expect, the number-line or edition-statement conventions, and the tells that show up in online listings.
Identification only, per the house rule: no prices and no appraisals here. Checking a Michael McDowell copy in hand? Type the title into the First-Edition Checker or photograph the copyright page with Snap & Sort.
- The Elementals — 1981 · Avon Books, New YorkA mass-market paperback original — there is no first hardcover, and the fragile Avon wrappers of September 1981 are the first and only original state. ISBN 0-380-78360-6; 302 pp. per the Open Library record; the Library of Congress Copyright Paperback Collection deposit copy (digitised by the Internet Archive) is dated 1981, Avon Books, New York. Because it is a paperback original there is no dust jacket and no…. US precedence, uncontested: an American author writing for an American mass-market house, with no UK edition and no hardcover preceding the Avon paperback original of September 1981. 'First thus' traps: the Valancourt Books trade paperback of 2014 (with a new introduction by Michael Rowe) and the Centipede Press limited hardcover of 2020 are the first hardcover and first modern trade appearances respectively —…. No book-club edition is documented for this title — mass-market paperback originals of this kind were not book-club vehicles. The states to watch are later Avon printings, which are distinguished by their copyright-page printing statement, and the modern revivals (Valancourt 2014 trade paperback, Centipede Press 2020 hardcover), which are 'first thus' and are the copies most often mistaken for a first by sellers….
- Blackwater (I: The Flood through VI: Rain) — 1983 · Avon Books, New YorkSix mass-market paperback originals issued monthly by Avon across the first half of 1983 — I: The Flood (January), II: The Levee (February), III: The House (March), IV: The War (April), V: The Fortune (May), VI: Rain (June). Wrappers only; no hardcover and no dust jacket, so there is no jacket point. Cover art for all six is by Wayne Barlowe (confirmed in his ISFDB bibliography); each volume carries its own Avon…. US precedence, uncontested: the Avon paperback originals of January-June 1983 are the first appearance of the text, with no UK edition and no hardcover preceding them. The most important 'first thus' trap is Avon's own: Avon collected volumes I-III and IV-VI into two omnibus paperbacks in 1983, immediately after the serial run, and those omnibuses are frequently offered as 'Blackwater first edition 1983' — they…. No book-club edition is documented for the 1983 paperback originals. The reprint states to watch are the two 1983 Avon three-in-one omnibus volumes (I-III and IV-VI), the later two-volume 'Blackwater Saga' gatherings, and the Valancourt 2017 single-volume edition — none of these is the first appearance despite the 1983 date on the Avon omnibuses. Later Avon printings of the individual volumes are separated from….
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