Blood Meridian, first English paperback edition.
Picador, London, 1990.
First English paperback edition, first printing with full number line reading “987654321” on the copyright page. Softcover, 19.7 x 13 cm, 337 numbered pages + 4 advertisement pages + 1 page for ordering other Pan books bound at back. Publisher’s glossy white wrapper lettered in black and dark red with an illustration by George Sharp and a blurb by Michael Herr on the front cover. The back cover features six blurb by Richard Burns, The Independent; John Bainville, Irish Times; New York Times Review of Books; Frederick Nolan, The Standard; Blitz; and Mark Sanderson, I-D. The price reads “U.K. £4.99 / $9.95 Canada / $12.99 Australia NZNot for sale in Canada /Australia $14.99 / NZ $18.95 rrp / incl GST”.
CONDITION: a read copy, about very good.
Published in 1990, at £ 4.99, in a print run of 2,000 copies.
Picador published on March 10th, 1989, in hardcover, the first English edition of Blood Meridian. At the same time they put out the first English paperback editions of Child of God and Suttree. On year later they published this first paperback edition of Blood Meridian. The Picador records state that, like Child of God and most probably Suttree, the first printing was 2,000 copies.
The book with the same wrapper design went into at least two later printings. Both of them differs from the first just in that the number “1” doesn’t appear in the numberline on the copyright page. Additionally, the price on the back cover doesn’t mention Canada, Australia and New Zealand but reads just “£5.99”.
COLLECTING TOPICS: first paperback edition copies of Blood meridian, like those of Child of God and Suttree, have become increasingly scarce and sought after. Moreover, finding an unread copy in truly collector’s condition is very, very challenging.
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2 Responses
Are you selling the book?
First paperback British edition of Blood Meridian?
The book, which is in my collection at the moment, has been already sold to an American collector. I am sorry.