Suttree, first paperback edition. Vintage Contemporaries, New York, 1986. First paperback edition, first printing with “October, 1986” and full number line “10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1” on the copyright page. Softcover, 20 x 13,2 cm, 471 numbered pages. Publisher’s graphic white wrappers designed by Lorraine Louie lettered in green, blue and white, featuring an illustration by Marc Tauss and a praise by The Washington Post on the front cover. The back panel includes praise by...
Suttree, first edition. Random House, New York, 1979. First edition, first and only Random Housed printing with “First Edition” on the copyright page. Hardcover, 21,4 x 14,5 cm., 471 numbered pages. Publisher’s cream paper-covered and black cloth board, with the author’s initials and lettering on spine both in gilt. Original black, yellow, olive green, and orange dustjacket designed by Jack Ribik with a photo of McCarthy by Dan Moore on the back panel.
The Passenger & Stella Maris, limited signed English edition Picador, London, 2022 First English signed limited edition, first printing. Number 58 of 250 sets. Two volumes. Hardcover 24.5 x 18 cm., 383 + 189 numbered pages with numbers appearing only on odd-numbered pages. Publisher’s red cloth (The Passenger) and turquoise cloth (Stella Maris), both lettered in black. Photographic endpapers by Tony Arruza/Getty Images (The Passenger) and Lauren Lee/Stocks (Stella Maris).
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 Road (La Route), “Black and White” first limited edition. Dargaud, Paris, 2024. First limited edition, only printing. Hardcover without a dustjacket as issued, 31 x 25 cm. Publisher’s gray thick cardboard covers, featuring two illustrations by Larcenet, differ from those of the first trade edition.
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.