The print run of the poster is unknown. It reproduces an original 7-foot painting by Josyph, McCarthy’s Desk (acrylic on canvas), still in the possession of the artist but currently on loan to McCarthy scholar Rick Wallach.

This copy is one of the few remaining in the artist’s possession and one of the few signed. The artist Raymond Todd, Josyph’s friend, assistant, and publisher, recalls:

“Each of the 18 speakers at the Conference received a copy of the poster, and I believe a few of them asked Peter to sign theirs. Over the years, Peter might have signed a few for close friends within the familiar McCarthy circle, and as far as I know, those people still have their posters on their walls. Rick Wallach might have offered copies through the Society website, but I don’t know that for certain. If he did, they would not have been signed, just leftovers from the conference. I have never seen a signed poster for sale, or even an unsigned copy. In fact, Peter did not realize until recently that he still owned a few. To put it another way: there was never a signed, numbered edition of this poster. Those that were signed were done privately, and a very long time ago. And this poster was never reprinted.”

A few copies were mailed to Cormac McCarthy immediately after the conference.
An unsigned poster appeared on the market in Fall 2023 and sold for $85. Signed copies are scarce.

THE AUTHOR: Peter Josyph is an artist of many talents. His prolific work includes writing, painting, filmmaking, photography, and performance across many subjects. Fascinated early by McCarthy’s novels, he has dedicated numerous works to them, including Adventures in Reading Cormac McCarthy, Cormac McCarthy’s House: Reading Cormac McCarthy without Walls, The Wrong Reader’s Guide to Cormac McCarthy: All the Pretty Horses, and, more recently, Cormac McCarthy’s Last Outlaws and Glanton’s Horse. Josyph also produced a series of paintings titled Cormac McCarthy’s House and co-directed (with Raymond Todd) the documentary Acting McCarthy: The Making of Billy Bob Thornton’s All the Pretty Horses. He is a frequent speaker at McCarthy conferences.

THE CONFERENCE: The year 1993 marked a turning point for McCarthy scholars (and collectors). Until then, McCarthy was read, studied, and appreciated by only a small circle of admirers. Signed books could be obtained for a couple of hundred dollars. The enormous success of All the Pretty Horses changed everything. In 1993 Edwin Arnold and Dianne Luce edited the first collection of essays devoted to McCarthy, Perspectives on Cormac McCarthy, and the magazine Firsts published a lengthy article on collecting McCarthy. That same year, the first McCarthy Conference was held in Louisville. In the wake of the conference, two years later, Rick Wallach, Edwin Arnold, Dianne Luce, and Mart Priola founded the Cormac McCarthy Society, which continues to bring together scholars and fans worldwide.