The Crossing, first edition, signed limited issue for Kroch’s and Brentano’s
Knopf, New York, 1994.
First edition, first printing with “First edition” and no mention of further printings on the copyright page. Limited issue bound for Kroch’s & Brentano’s First Edition Circle, with a tipped-in page signed by McCarthy following the first free endpaper. Hardcover, 21.7 x 14.5 cm., 425 numbered pages. Publisher’s grey paper covered boards with black cloth spine, gilt lettering on spine and equal gilt “CM” initials on the front panel. Borzoi books logo embossed on the back board. Text-block top edge stained in brick red. White dust jacket with brown boxes lettered in black and white by Chip Kidd. Photograph by Melanie Acevedo on both front and back panel. Priced “FPT U.S.A $23.00 CANADA $29.95” on front flap which reads “A BOOK-OF-THE-MONTH CLUB MAIN SELECTION”. Photo of McCarthy by Marion Ettlinger, code “6/94” and “Printed in U.S.A.@ 1994 Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.” on back flap (APG 007e).
CONDITION: fine book in a fine dustjacket.
Issued on June 1994, in 492 copies.
Published simultaneously to the first trade edition.
As for the number of copies issued, AGP quotes the bookdealers Beasley Books (“only 483 such copies were bound”) and Beasley Books, (“One of only 492 copies”) However, in his unpublished notes for as bibliography of McCarthy, Howard Woolmer, after having talked to the publisher, states that Kroch’s and Brentano’s asked for getting 500 copies but received only 492 of them.
COLLECTING TOPICS: this issue is uncommon, much scarcer than the signed limited edition issued for friends of the author and publisher.
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2 Responses
Hi Umberto
I have seen a few of these listed for sale with a K&B First Edition Circle bookmark laid in and others lacking the bookmark. I’m wondering if you have any comments on that.
Thank you
Hello Al, I hope you are fine. Yes, I have seen copies with the bookmark laid in. I haven’t mentioned them in the post because I guess that they don’t have a bibliographic relevance. More interesting, in my opinion, are the copies with receipt included, as the date could determine priority of this signed limited edition over the trade edition. My best.