All the Pretty Horses, advance excerpt in Esquire
Hearst Corporation, New York, 1992
Excerpt in Esquire Magazine, Volume 117, No. 3, March 1992. Softcover, 27 × 23 cm, 168 numbered pages. The fifteen-page excerpt appears on pp. 121–136 and includes two color illustrations by Marshall Arisman.
Inscribed in blue ballpoint pen by McCarthy to his friend and collector Philip Murray on page 121: “For Philip Murray / All Best / Cormac McCarthy” (FM lot 740).
CONDITION: Near fine.
PROVENANCE: From the Philip Murray Collection; gift of Alex Wochnik of First and Fine, 2022.
Published in March 1992 at $2.50, in a print run of about 1.1 million copies (including newsstand distribution), with a steady circulation of roughly 800,000.
This advance excerpt preceded the first trade edition by about two months.
Its publication in a magazine like Esquire marked a step up from the difficulties Albert Erskine had faced in placing advance excerpts of McCarthy’s earlier works. The involvement of Sonny Mehta and Amanda Urban is evident here. It represents the first signal of the enormous success that All the Pretty Horses would achieve.
COLLECTING TOPICS: Given Esquire’s circulation, unsigned copies of this issue in collector’s condition are not difficult to find. This is the only signed or inscribed copy I have encountered—decidedly rare.
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