The Passenger, advance reading copy of the first American edition: first, third and fourth state.
Knopf, New York, 2022.
Advance reading copy of the first trade edition: first, third and fourth states. Three softcover volumes, 23,5 x 15,6 cm., 383 numbered pages with numbers appearing only on the odd-numbered pages. Matte wrappers reproduce the design of the trade first edition dust jacket by Chip Kidd, lettered in white on the spine and front panel. The top of spine reads in black letters: “On Sale / October / 2022”. The back panel states “Uncorrected proof – Not for sale”. The third inside page mentions October 25 as date of publication and 300,000 copies as initial print run of the forthcoming first edition.
CONDITION: my collection houses copies of the first, third and fourth state. They are respectively in fine, near fine, near fine condition. The collection lacks the second state.
The advance reader’s copies of The Passenger are known in four different states resulting from the delay of Stella Maris’s publication.
- The first state back panel reads: “And coming November 25, / the stunning coda to this novel – Stella Maris”. Copies in the first state have been noted with a publisher’s sheet laid in, reading: “Dear Reader, Please note the on-sale-date of STELLA MARIS is now 12/6/22. Thank you”.
- The second state is the same of the first but features the publisher’s sheet tipped into the book.
- The third state does not include the publisher’s sheet and the back panel reads: “And coming December 6, / the stunning coda to this novel – Stella Maris” on a strip of paper glued to the cover. Thus, copies in this state are first state copies with the the replacement of Stella Maris publication date.
- The fourth and final state has a back panel that reads: “And coming December 6, / the stunning coda to this novel – Stella Maris”, printed directly on the cover.
We don’t know when these advance reading copies were issued or how many copies were printed, because the Knopf records remain closed (at least to me). All we know is that they were aimed primarily to marketing (as shown by the marketing info page included), that they were preceded by at least one bound page proofs copy, and that a copy in the second state was available in June 2022.
Priority of the first state is clear. Priority among second, third and fourth state is not clearly determined yet, although there are clues to say that the fourth state is the latest. Indeed, the publisher apparently used the emended first state copies (i.e. the second and third state) until they were running out. Only then, he put out the newly printed batch of advance reading copies (i.e. fourth state).
NOTABLE COPIES:
GONZALES COPY. An advance reading copy in the third state, inscribed, is housed in the collection of Laurence Gonzales, friend of McCarthy and author of a forthcoming biography of him. According to Gonzales, McCarthy was sent two copies: one he inscribed and another which he kept for himself.
COLLECTING TOPICS: the four states have different degrees of scarcity. The most common is the fourth state, followed by the first. The third state is definitely uncommon. The second state appears to be rare. I came across only one copy, owned by the book dealer Amir Naghib.
I know of only one copy signed or inscribed, the Gonzales copy quoted above. These are certainly rare.
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