The Road, (La Route), graphic novel, adaptation by Manu Larcenet, true first edition Dargaud, Paris, 2024 First edition, first printing with “Imprimé and relié en février 2024” on the copyright page. Hardcover, 31 x 25 cm., 155 numbered pages. Publisher’s grey thick cardboard covers lettered in white. CONDITION: fine.
Outer Dark, first edition, used as advance copy for the first English edition Random House, New York, 1968 First edition, only Random House printing with “First Printing” on the copyright page. Hardcover, 21 x 14,5 cm., 242 numbered pages. Publisher’s grey paper covered and turquoise cloth board, lettered in grey in black box on front cover and in silver, metallic blue and turquoise (in black box) on the spine. Dark grey dustjacket by Muriel Nasser, lettered in white, green and…
Blood Meridian, first limited and first illustrated edition, numbered issue Suntup Editions, Irvine, Ca, 2022. Limited edition, numbered issue, one of 350 copies, this being copy 175. Hardcover, 23 x15,5 cm., 461 numbered pages. Publisher’s handmade binding, butterfly sewing laced into reddish-brown leather covered boards. “Blood Meridian” embossed on the front cover and the same, written from right to left, embossed on the back cover. Housed in a cigar-style box covered in Italian dark red cloth with a black and…
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.
Child of God (Figlio di Dio), first Italian edition Einaudi, Torino, 2000 First Italian edition, only printing with complete numberlines from 0 to 6 and from 2003 to 2006 on a colophon page bound after the text pages which reads: “Stampato … nel mese di luglio 2000”. Hardcover, 22,1 x 14,5 cm., 186 numbered pages. Publisher’s original greenish grey cloth lettered in black on the spine. White dustjacket lettered in black with a photograph by Gerd Kittel on the front panel and the price of “Lire 26000 € 13,43” on the back cover. Translation by Raoul Montanari.
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.