A travel through a McCarthy first editions collection

COMPLIMENTARY COPY OF SUTTREE FIRST ENGLISH EDITION: A SCARCE SURVIVAL

Suttree, first English edition, complimentary copy with the publisher’s slip.

Suttre, first English edition, complimentary copy.

Chatto & Windus, London, 1980.

First English edition, first and only printing with “1980” on the title page. Complimentary copy with publisher’s complimentary slip laid in. Hardcover, 21,5 x 14,6 cm., 471 numbered pages. Publisher’s cream paper covered and black cloth boards lettered in gilt on the spine, with gilt initials “CM” on the front panel and the Random House imprint at spine foot. This English “issue” is made from the American sheets indeed, with Chatto & Windus title and copyright pages inserted in. Dust jacket with a photograph by Ronald Gunn on the front panel, with price of “£6.95 net in U.K. only” on the front flap, white back panel with reviews of four recent fiction titles by Chatto & Windus and Hogarth Press.

CONDITION: a near fine, fresh copy in a very good dustjacket.

PROVENANCE: purchased from Captain Ahab’s Rare Books in 2023.

Published April 24, 1980 at £6.95 in a print run of 1,000 copies.


The publisher’s complimentary slip mentions “24 April 1980” as the date of publication. The publication history of this edition can be found here.

COLLECTING TOPICS: given the short print run and the budget troubles which Chatto & Windus, as other English publishers, was experiencing, complimentary copies must have been a very few for an author who had sold poorly in the United Kingdom with all his three previous books. This copy is the only one I have come across. Very scarce.

Suttree, first English edition, the publisher’s complimentary slip.

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