Picador, London, 2010. First English and first hardcover edition, first printing with full number line on the copyright page (“1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2”). Hardcover, 20.5 x 13.6 cm, 142 numbered pages. Publisher’s black cloth lettered in gilt on the spine. In the olive green, gold and white graphic dustjacket by David Pearson.
Advance reading copy of the first English edition. “First published in Great Britain 2010” on the copyright page, with the full numberline (1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2). Softcover, 15 x 10.5 cm, 142 numbered pages.
Vintage International/Random House, New York, 2006. First edition, first printing, paperback original. With "First Vintage international edition, October 2006" and the full numberline from (12345678910) on the copyright page. Softcover, 20.2 x 13 cm, 143 numbered page.
This is neither a Cormac McCarthy bibliography, as I am not a bibliographer, nor a critical essay, as I am not a scholar. The project started three years ago when I retired. Having more free time, I thought it would be good to catalogue my collection of McCarthy books. However, as I delved into them, I realized that many details about publication, first print runs, different issues, and so on were unknown, not based on strong sources, or even definitely wrong. Moreover, some of the people to whom the books were inscribed were similarly little known and had interesting stories worth telling.
So, I started digging into relevant archives mainly in the United States and England, speaking with McCarthy’s friends, publishers, and scholars, reading critical and biographical essays. What you find on this website is part of this research outcome. It aims just to share with McCarthy lovers, collectors, scholars and book dealers, information which sheds light on some little known aspects of McCarthy’s books history and about people whose lives crossed that of the author of Blood Meridian.
This is obviously a work in progress. In the next weeks, I will add information on all the over 250 items included in my McCarthy collection. Register with your email address to receive notifications about new contents added.
Lastly, English is not my mother tongue, so please be forgiving of any errors you may find in the text. Happy reading.
The opening day is set: Monday, October 27. “It is possible that the first researchers could be looking through boxes with Post-it notes as labels!” jokes Katie Salzman, lead archivist at the Wittliff Collections. That day, after months of preparation, the new Cormac McCarthy papers will be available to scholars at Texas State University in San Marcos.
Picador, London, 2010. First English and first hardcover edition, first printing with full number line on the copyright page (“1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2”). Hardcover, 20.5 x 13.6 cm, 142 numbered pages. Publisher’s black cloth lettered in gilt on the spine. In the olive green, gold and white graphic dustjacket by David Pearson.
The books by Cormac McCarthy entered the rare books trade and the collecting world very early. As far as we know, McCarthy’s friend Gary Goodman was among the first to trade signed copies of The Orchard Keeper and Outer Dark.
On February, 1971 Goodman, having noted a few copies of The Orchard Keeper offered by second hand bookstores for more than the original price, purchased from Random House forty-five copies of Outer Dark and five copies of The Orchard Keeper (probably from the second printing) at a reduced price. He got them signed by McCarthy and resold them at $ 12.50 each. McCarthy was known to a narrow circle at the time and modern firsts market was just starting. Nominal prices were many hundred times lower than those usual today.
Augusta Britt, the woman who had a longtime and troubled relationship with Cormac McCarthy and revealed it in an interview published by Vanity Fair a year ago, has apparently decided to sell the books McCarthy inscribed to her. The first to reach the market is a first edition of Suttree, inscribed “For Augusta / With all my love / Cormac.” Apparently, during their time in Nashville, some of McCarthy’s friends—who served as the basis for characters in the novel—also signed...
The Folio Society keeps on its Cormac McCarthy collection which already includes Blood Meridian, The Road, All the Pretty Horses, and No Country for Old men. It is the turn of The Crossing now. Bound in screen-printed cloth with a wraparound illustration, the book has been published on October, 21.
“Cormac McCarthy’s Last Outlaws” and “Glanton’s Horse”—two newly released books—are probably going to generate significant discussion. Both are authored by Peter Josyph, the eclectic Cormac McCarthy scholar known for blending genres and thinking outside the box.
A small but interesting collection of Cormac McCarthy’s firsts is for sale at the well known Downtown Brown Books run by Scott Brown. The collection includes nice copies of highlights like Blood Meridian as well as scarce proofs and first English edition. The McCarthy collection, consisting of about thirty items, was part of a huge literature collection gathered in some decades by the Texan attorney Tom Garner. Some of the interest, other then in the quality of the books, lies...