The Gardener’s Son, first edition
The Ecco Press, Hopewell, NJ, 1996
First edition, first printing with “First Edition” and complete number line from 9 to 1 on the copyright page. Hardcover, 19.7 x 13.8 cm, 93 numbered pages. Publisher’s rust cloth, lettered in silver and rust within a silver box on the spine, and the Ecco Press logo embossed on the front panel. Light gray and bronze first-issue dust jacket by Michael Ian Kaye, lettered in black and white. Price of “$22.00,” “$28.99 Canada,” and code “9609” on the front flap. Foreword by Richard Pierce dated April 29, 1996. (APG 009c; F&P 109a).
Inscribed in black ballpoint pen by McCarthy on the half title page to Matthew McGrail: “For my cousin Matthew / All the best / Cormac McCarthy.”
Laid into the book is a photocopy of a note on La Fonda stationery, which reads: “Dear Matthew yes, of course we are related. My grandfather was William McGrail, of Providence, born 1872. If you know any of your relatives who have any family history let me know. All the best Cormac.”
CONDITION: near fine in a near fine dust jacket, a remarkable copy.
PROVENANCE: purchased from the New York collector Mike Thiel in 2022.
Published on September 13, 1996, at $22, in a print run of 10,375 copies.
This was McCarthy’s first screenplay to be performed. It was broadcast on PBS as part of the Visions series on January 6, 1977.
The Ecco Press records held at the New York Public Library do not include precise information about The Gardener’s Son. The source of the first printing number of copies is Dan Halpern, Ecco Press publisher, via Howard Woolmer.
Priority over the first limited edition couldn’t be established.
RECIPIENT: Cormac McCarthy’s mother was born Christine Gladys McGrail. The McGrails came from Ireland. Gladys’s great-grandfather, Patrick McGrail (1801–1871), emigrated during the Great Hunger. His grandson, William Henry McGrail (1876–1936), Gladys’s father and Cormac’s grandfather, was born in Providence, Rhode Island, and reportedly worked as a house painter. In 1898 he married Ellen Helena O’Keefe (1872–1956), a dressmaker which will become the character of Grandellen in McCarthy’s last novel, Stella Maris. They lived in Providence and had three children: Helen Catherine, John (1902–1953), and Gladys (1907–1997).
I have not found information about Matthew, but he was possibly a distant relative of Cormac McCarthy through Gladys McGrail’s siblings or cousins.
REMAINDERED COPIES with a black marker stripe on the bottom edge noted.
NOTABLE COPIES:
WOOLMER COPY. Crisp, near fine book in a fine, unclipped dust jacket with code 9609. Inscribed on the half title page in black ink: “For Howard / All best from / your friend / Cormac.”
GONZALES COPY. Fine in a fine dust jacket. Inscribed by McCarthy in 2017 to his friend and future biographer, the writer Laurence Gonzales.
COLLECTING TOPICS: Unsigned copies are easy to find, even in fine condition. Signed copies are scarce in themselves and much scarcer than signed copies of The Stonemason. Rare Book Hub lists only two at auction. As of August 2025, Abebooks listed only one copy. Additionally, the risk of forged signatures is high.
Copies inscribed to known individuals are definitely rare. As far as I am aware, this and the two others mentioned above are the only examples I have come across.
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