No Country for Old Men, first edition.
Knopf, New York, 2005
First edition, first printing with “First Edition” and no mention of further printings on the copyright page. Hardcover, 22 x 15 cm, 309 numbered pages. Publisher’s black paper covered boards, lettered in gold on the spine with “Borzoi books” imprint and logo embossed on the lower right corner of back panel. Photographic dust-jacket designed by Chip Kidd on the basis of a photo by Matt Lindsay. Red panels lettered in white and white flaps lettered in black. The front flap states a price of “U.S.A. $24.95 Canada $32.95”, the back flap features the code “7/2005” and a photo of McCarthy by Derek Shapton. The back panel has six blurbs and a white box with the printed ISBN number.
Inscribed in black ink by McCarthy on the half title page: “For Steve/ All the best / Cormac / LA FONDA / MAY 2009”.
CONDITION: A near fine book in a fine dustjacket. A very nice copy.
PROVENANCE: purchased from the American book dealer Ken Sanders in 2009.
Published on July 25, 2005, at $24.95, in a first print run of 125,600 copies.
The source of the number of copies printed is the publishing information on the back of the first page of The Road proof (first issue, state A ).
This best-selling book was produced two years later into a major motion picture directed by Joel and Ethan Cohen, starring Javier Bardem, Tommy Lee Jones, Josh Brolin and Woody Harrelson. The movie won the Oscar for Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay.
REVIEW COPIESwith publisher’s slip, photo, and folded information sheet laid in were noted.
NOTABLE COPIES:
HOLLEYS COPY: a very good book, warmly inscribed on the half title page to McCarthy’s long-time friends, “To John and Lanelle / With much love / Cormac”. Sold at Case Antique Auctions in January 2024 for $2,794.
MURRAY COPY: a near fine book, inscribed to the Irish collector and McCarthy’s friend Philip Murray on the half title page: “For Philip / All the best from / your friend / Cormac” (FM, 735).
GONZALES COPY: a fine copy, inscribed in 2017 to McCarthy’s forthcoming biographer and friend Laurence Gonzales. Part of his private collection later sold to another American collector.
MCDADE COPY: a near fine copy, inscribed to Jim McDade. Jim was the brother in law of Rick Rogers, McCarthy’s longtime assistant, and the writer’s friend. The book was offered by Manhattan Rare Books for $2,500 in 2025.
COLLECTING TOPICS: signed or inscribed copies of this first trade edition are by far scarcer than those of the Knopf signed limited edition. In fact, they are apparently scarcer of even signed or inscribed copies of all the previous McCarthy’s first editions, because of the writer’s growing reluctance on signing copies after the huge success of The Border Trilogy. Rare Book Hub lists only two inscribed and four signed copies at auction.
A signed review copy in fine condition was sold by Peter Harrington on 2020 for $1,750.
An inscribed copy of the first German translation was noted. It was offered at $720 by Crow Hop Rare books on 2020. “The dedicatee, Alfred Hubler, was a professor at University of Illinois Urbana Champaign, and after he died in 2018, many of his books ended up at the Urbana Free Library booksale the following year. This book was found at that sale”.
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