# Is "The Hellbound Heart" by Clive Barker a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of The Hellbound Heart by Clive Barker (Dark Harvest, 1986) is identified by: The text first appeared in the anthology Night Visions 3, published by Dark Harvest in November 1986, which was issued in a trade hardcover and a signed/limited slipcased state. The true first appearance is within Night Visions 3 (Dark Harvest, 1986), the source of the film Hellraiser.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- The text first appeared in the anthology Night Visions 3, published by Dark Harvest in November 1986, which was issued in a trade hardcover and a signed/limited slipcased state
- The first US standalone repackaging was the Berkley mass-market paperback titled Night Visions: The Hellbound Heart in 1988
- A standalone edition under the bare title The Hellbound Heart from HarperPaperbacks did not appear until 1991, following the success of the Hellraiser film; the UK Fontana paperback also dates to 1991
- Publisher imprint reads Dark Harvest
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Clive Barker |
| Publisher | Dark Harvest |
| Year | 1986 |
| True first | — |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | The text first appeared in the anthology Night Visions 3, published by Dark Harvest in November 1986, which was issued in a trade hardcover… |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
The text first appeared in the anthology Night Visions 3, published by Dark Harvest in November 1986, which was issued in a trade hardcover and a signed/limited slipcased state. The first US standalone repackaging was the Berkley mass-market paperback titled Night Visions: The Hellbound Heart in 1988. A standalone edition under the bare title The Hellbound Heart from HarperPaperbacks did not appear until 1991, following the success of the Hellraiser film; the UK Fontana paperback also dates to 1991.

## Is this the true first?
The true first appearance is within Night Visions 3 (Dark Harvest, 1986), the source of the film Hellraiser. The original record's pairing of HarperPaperbacks with 1988 is incorrect: the 1988 standalone was Berkley's Night Visions: The Hellbound Heart, while the HarperPaperbacks standalone is 1991. Any separately titled paperback is first thus, not the first appearance of the text.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No conventional book club edition. The standalone paperbacks are first thus and do not represent the first printing of the text.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *The Hellbound Heart* by Clive Barker a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/the-hellbound-heart
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.