# Is "The Dark Country" by Dennis Etchison a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of The Dark Country by Dennis Etchison (Scream/Press, Santa Cruz, 1982) is identified by: The copyright page of the first printing is recorded by L. The census claim stands and needs no correction: Scream/Press, Santa Cruz, California, 1982 is the true first, in both its trade and signed/numbered states.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- The copyright page of the first printing is recorded by L. W. Currey (ABAA/ILAB) as reading "First Edition, October 1982." The printing was limited to 1,000 copies in two states drawn from the same sheets: roughly 900 trade copies, and 100 numbered copies carrying a publisher's printed label signed by Etchison and artist J. K. Potter affixed to the recto of the first blank
- Octavo, black cloth, in a J. K. Potter pictorial jacket
- Potter also supplied the black-and-white interior illustrations, and Ramsey Campbell contributed the introduction
- Collation is recorded as ix + 207 pages
- The book is Etchison's first collection (preceded only by film novelizations) and gathers sixteen stories including the title piece, winner of the 1981 World Fantasy Award and 1981 British Fantasy Award
- Standard references: Barron (ed.), Horror Literature 4-106
- Publisher imprint reads Scream/Press, Santa Cruz

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Dennis Etchison |
| Publisher | Scream/Press, Santa Cruz |
| Year | 1982 |
| True first | UK edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | The copyright page of the first printing is recorded by L. W. Currey (ABAA/ILAB) as reading "First Edition, October 1982." The printing was… |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
The copyright page of the first printing is recorded by L. W. Currey (ABAA/ILAB) as reading "First Edition, October 1982." The printing was limited to 1,000 copies in two states drawn from the same sheets: roughly 900 trade copies, and 100 numbered copies carrying a publisher's printed label signed by Etchison and artist J. K. Potter affixed to the recto of the first blank. Octavo, black cloth, in a J. K. Potter pictorial jacket; Potter also supplied the black-and-white interior illustrations, and Ramsey Campbell contributed the introduction. Collation is recorded as ix + 207 pages. The book is Etchison's first collection (preceded only by film novelizations) and gathers sixteen stories including the title piece, winner of the 1981 World Fantasy Award and 1981 British Fantasy Award. Standard references: Barron (ed.), Horror Literature 4-106; Jones and Newman (eds.), Horror: 100 Best Books 86. The signed state is not a separate edition — it is the same first printing with the signed label added.

## Is this the true first?
The census claim stands and needs no correction: Scream/Press, Santa Cruz, California, 1982 is the true first, in both its trade and signed/numbered states. There is no prior or competing UK, US, or original-language edition — this is the first appearance of the collection, and the volume marked Scream/Press's founding. The individual stories had prior magazine and anthology appearances, but that does not displace the book. Later trade-paperback reprints of the collection are "first thus" only.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No book-club edition is documented for this small-press title, and none would be expected at a 1,000-copy limitation. The recurring confusions are instead: (1) later paperback reprints of the collection being taken for the first; and (2) the 100 signed/numbered copies being described as a distinct edition when they are the same first printing distinguished only by the tipped-in signed label.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *The Dark Country* by Dennis Etchison a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/the-dark-country
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.