Uncorrected proof of the first edition lacking title and copyright page. Softcover, 20.4 x 13.3 cm., 142 numbered pages. Publisher’s black and yellow wrappers lettered in black and yellow.
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"First edition" stated on the copyright page and no mention of subsequent printings. Hardcover, 22 x 15 cm., 291 numbered pages. Publisher’s black paper covered and cloth boards, lettered in gilt on the spine and with “CM” initials in gilt on the front panel. Top text-block edge stained in brick red. White dust-jacket by Chip Kidd.
First edition with "First edition" and no mention of subsequent printings on the copyright page. Hardcover, 21.9 x 15 cm, 425 numbered pages. Publisher’s black paper covered and cloth boards. lettered in gilt on the spine and with “CM” initials in gilt on the front panel. Top edge stained in reddish brown.
A Few Words to Start
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.
FOCUS
2025-07-30
The bag is old, spotted, and battered—but it is Cormac McCarthy’s bag. It bears a metal plaque engraved “C. McCarthy” and contains a well-used passport along with several engineering drawings by the author of Blood Meridian. A true literary treasure.
BOOK COLLECTION
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.
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.
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Until a few days ago, only one set of the short stories written by McCarthy during his college years was known to be in private hands. Now, two other sets, in exceptional condition, have surfaced, thanks to the passion and the book-hunting skills of a collector from Knoxville, Peyton Gupton.
A few days ago, just after Vanity Fair published the article about the love affair between Cormac McCarthy and Augusta Britt, the book dealer and researcher Scott Brown, complained that no photos of them together were provided to support the story. Here are two of them.
Three weeks ago Texas State University’s Wittliff Collections announced that it had expanded its archives dedicated to Cormac McCarthy, adding 36 banker’s boxes filled with his personal journals, photos, letters, and drafts of unpublished novels, coming from the McCarthy’s estate. Now, another key achievement is close to being completed: the university and Anne De Lisle are close to reaching an agreement for the letters that McCarthy wrote to his second wife. There is a strong chance that they will be...
Five letters by Cormac McCarthy to the writer and traveller, Lawrence Millman, dating from 1981 to 1983, are set to be offered for sale by the English book dealer Alexander Wochnik of First and Fine.