NMLP P-037897 · True-first precedence · minted 2026-07-19
The Elementals
Michael McDowell · Avon Books, New York · 1981
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 — both are reprints. The Fontana/Collins paperback (ISBN 0-00-616640-7) and the 1995 HarperCollins edition are later reprints, not the first.
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New Mexico Literacy Project — True-first precedence NMLP P-037897 for "The Elementals" by Michael McDowell (https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/id/point/p-037897, CC BY 4.0, dataset DOI 10.5281/zenodo.21184548).