# Is "Blackwater (I: The Flood through VI: Rain)" by Michael McDowell a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Blackwater (I: The Flood through VI: Rain) by Michael McDowell (Avon Books, New York, 1983) is identified by: Six 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). 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.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- Six 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 book number, and volumes run roughly 170-200 pp
- The collected unit is all six in matching first printings — the set is far harder to assemble than any single volume, and V: The Fortune and VI: Rain are the usual stumbling blocks
- First-printing identification is by the Avon copyright page: expect a 'First Avon Printing, [Month], 1983' line with a number line whose lowest digit is 1
- CAVEAT — verify on the copy in hand: Avon copyright pages are sparse, Avon has no entry in the standard publisher-identification guides, and the exact wording was not confirmed against a photographed copyright page; dealers routinely assert 'first printing' for these without quoting the statement
- Publisher imprint reads Avon Books, New York

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Michael McDowell |
| Publisher | Avon Books, New York |
| Year | 1983 |
| True first | US edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | Six mass-market paperback originals issued monthly by Avon across the first half of 1983 — I: The Flood (January), II: The Levee… |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
Six 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 book number, and volumes run roughly 170-200 pp. The collected unit is all six in matching first printings — the set is far harder to assemble than any single volume, and V: The Fortune and VI: Rain are the usual stumbling blocks. First-printing identification is by the Avon copyright page: expect a 'First Avon Printing, [Month], 1983' line with a number line whose lowest digit is 1. CAVEAT — verify on the copy in hand: Avon copyright pages are sparse, Avon has no entry in the standard publisher-identification guides, and the exact wording was not confirmed against a photographed copyright page; dealers routinely assert 'first printing' for these without quoting the statement.

## Is this the true first?
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 are not the first appearance. Valancourt Books issued the first-ever one-volume edition in 2017; it too is 'first thus.'

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
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 firsts by their copyright-page printing statement.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Blackwater (I: The Flood through VI: Rain)* by Michael McDowell a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/blackwater-i-the-flood-through-vi-rain
CC BY 4.0. Part of the Canonical First-Edition Points of Issue dataset (https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/api/first-edition-titles.json). Last reviewed 2026-07-04.