3 Tim Powers first editions are documented on this shelf, from The Drawing of the Dark (1979) to Dinner at Deviant's Palace (1985) across 2 different publishers. Each linked guide gives the points of issue that separate a true first printing of that Tim Powers 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 Tim Powers copy in hand? Type the title into the First-Edition Checker or photograph the copyright page with Snap & Sort.
- The Drawing of the Dark — 1979 · Ballantine / Del ReyThe first edition is the Del Rey/Ballantine mass-market paperback original (first printing June 1979), cover art by Doug Beekman. It is a paperback original; the first hardcover came later from a specialty press. The 1979 Del Rey/Ballantine paperback is the true first. Later signed specialty-press hardcovers are 'first thus' issues, not the first edition. No book-club edition is the issue. The trap is later specialty-press hardcovers marketed as 'firsts'; verify the 1979 Ballantine/Del Rey paperback original.
- The Anubis Gates — 1983 · Ace BooksThe first edition is the Ace mass-market paperback original (December 1983). It is a paperback original, so there is no contemporaneous hardcover. The first hardcover was the Mark V. Ziesing edition issued years later, illustrated, with 500 signed/numbered copies. The 1983 Ace paperback original is the true first. The Ziesing hardcover (issued 1989/1990) is the first hardcover, a later 'first thus,' not the first edition. World Fantasy Award winner; Philip K. Dick Award winner. No book-club edition is the issue. The trap is the much later Ziesing hardcover being offered as 'the first' — it is the first hardcover but not the first edition.
- Dinner at Deviant's Palace — 1985 · Ace BooksUS Ace paperback original, January 1985, in pictorial wrappers with cover art by John Berkey. Issued only as a mass-market paperback; the first printing is identified by the Ace first-printing statement on the copyright page together with the complete number line, and the wrapper carries the printed cover price. No priority hardcover preceded it. The US Ace paperback original of 1985 is the true first and the award-eligible edition: it won the 1986 Philip K. Dick Award and the 1985 John W. Campbell Memorial Award for best novel, and was a 1985 Nebula nominee. The later Charnel House signed/limited hardcover is a collectible 'first thus,' not the true first. The Charnel House limited hardcover is a later deluxe state; subsequent Ace and other reprints show an advanced number line and revised cover pricing.
More Fantasy & Horror shelves: Victor Hugo, Whitley Strieber, William Hope Hodgson, William Peter Blatty, Alexandre Dumas, Algernon Blackwood.
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