The Sunset Limited, uncorrected proof
Uncorrected proof of the first edition lacking title and copyright page. Softcover, 20.4 x 13.3 cm., 142 numbered pages. Publisher’s black and yellow wrappers lettered in black and yellow.
CONDITION: a near fine, great copy.
PROVENANCE: purchased from an American collector in 2013.
This proof is lightly taller and larger than the first edition. It lacks the title page and the copyright page as well as the other first edition pages preceding the second half title page.
Although this is the only copy I have come across and the provenance is not rock solid, its legitimacy was confirmed by AnneLu Walther, former vice-president at Vintage, in an email to me on March 18, 2024. She wrote: “Much of the specific information you seek is probably lost in the mists of time by now, unfortunately. I can at least confirm that the Sunset Limited advance reader’s edition in Vintage, for which you sent a photo, is legitimate. I remember it well!”. The number of copies printed and the date of release remain unknown.
COLLECTING TOPICS: Rare Book Hub lists no copies at auction and, as far as I know, no copies were offered on the web. Rare.
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2 Responses
Nice acquisition!
Interesting that THE SUNSET LIMITED began as a novel called THE BLACK, told in the first-person by White.
But calling a play “a novel in dramatic form” has always irked me. One could say that about any play. What does it even mean? It has always struck me as a marketing strategy to work against the fact that readers don’t generally buy plays. “Don’t worry, you McCarthy enthusiasts, it’s really a novel – there just happens to not be any narrative prose, it’s all dialogue, and it gets produced in theatres and acted on stages – BUT IT ISN’T A PLAY!” When I played the part of White it sure didn’t feel like a novel to me. I wrote an entire book about acting White in a play – which of course is what it is.
So, Umberto, my question is: who added that nonsense about a novel in dramatic form?
Hello Peter. Very interesting question. Unfortunately, in the McCarthy work correspondence I recently studied at the University of Texas in San Marcos there is no answer. Perhaps, we have to check the folders related to The Sunset Limited in the same archive. Meanwhile, I’ll ask to LuAnn Walther, former vice-president of Vintage. I’ll let you know.