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The date of publication is drawn from a letter from Katherine Bourne at Ecco Press to Martha Levin at Random House, dated April 18, 1986, including a check for $500 due upon publication date, and stating that copies of the book had already been sent to Random House (EP, B32, F13). The number of copies printed comes from a handwritten note, probably by Dan Halpern, on a letter from Howard Woolmer to him, dated January 17, 1994 (EP, B32, F12). 

The contract for the paperback edition rights of Blood Meridian was signed between Ecco and Random House on November 24, 1985. It stipulated an advance payment of $1,000 and 7,5 % royalties. An attempt was made to sell the book club edition rights in December, but it failed. Finished copies of the book arrived at Ecco in early March and one was sent to Patricia O’Conner at New & Noteworthy, on March 7. Another copy was received by McCarthy before March, 15. McCarthy liked it, as did Bertha Krantz, describing it as “extremely handsome”. However, in a letter to Jennie McDonald at Ecco Press, datable around March 15, the author of Blood Meridian complained about the acknowledgment to the National Endowment for the Arts printed on the copyright page. He wrote: 

“I know you’ll think me eccentric and a crank but I would never have agreed to any such arrangement if I had known about it. I guess all I can do is to register this with you as a protest or disclaimer. I don’t believe that working people have money expropriated from their envelopes […] to finance the publication of novels. At the very best I’d like not to be a part of it”. (EP, B32, F13).                                                                                                  

REPRINTS: a second printing, stated as such on the copyright page, was published in 1988, in an unknown number of copies.

REMAINDERED COPIES:a remaindered copy of the second printing, marked with a black stripe on the text block edge, has been noted.

WRAPPERS PROOF: a proof copy of the covers is housed in The Ecco Press archive. Others are known to exist: McCarthy received “Blood Meridian jackets” in November 1985 (letter to Jennie [McDonald], datable before December 1, EP, B32 F13) and approved them. A few weeks later, on December 17, 1985, he sent one of them to Howard Woolmer and inscribed it: “For Howard / Guaranteed to be the first / autographed copy /All the best / Cormac”. It is now housed in the Woolmer Collection of Cormac McCarthy, held at The University of Texas, San Marcos.

NOTABLE COPIES: KIDWELL COPY. A near fine copy inscribed by McCarthy to his friend Bill Kidwell, “For Bill from Cormac”, was auctioned at Heritage in April 2013. It was included in a lot of three inscribed paperbacks that sold for $1,625. The book was resold in 2016 to a Czech collector for $850. 

COLLECTING TOPICS: unsigned copies remain relatively easy to find online. As of February 2025, three copies of the first printing and one of the second were available, priced between $190 and $330. However, finding copies in truly collector’s condition is difficult.

Signed or inscribed copies are much scarcer. I am aware of only four that have appeared on the market:

• The Kidwell copy mentioned above.

• A copy sold by collector Karl Monger in 2010 for $400.

• A flat-signed copy auctioned at PBA in 2011, included in a lot of three McCarthy books, which sold for $420.

• A signed copy sold by Captain Ahab’s Rare Books in 2017.

Rare Book Hub lists only two copies at auction: one signed and one inscribed.