No Country for Old men, Trice limited edition, numbered issue, copy for presentation.
B. E. Trice, New Orleans, 2005.
First limited edition, only printing. Hardcover, 23,2 x 15,4 cm, 310 numbered pages. Numbered issue, one 325 copies in brown half Morocco with marbled paper boards, the spine lettered in gilt, and a single gilt rule on covers. Brown endpapers. In a burgundy cloth slipcase featuring the author’s signature printed in gilt. Without dustjacket, as issued. This copy is unnumbered and marked “Presentation Copy” on a yellow paper slip, that, unlike most of the other copies I have seen, is not included inside the shrink-wrap but taped to the outside.
Signed and numbered by the author on the colophon page.
CONDITION: as new, still in shrink-wraps.
PROVENANCE: purchased from Burnside Rare Books in 2023.
Published in December 2005, in a limited run of 325 copies, priced at $195.
The book’s publication was announced for May 2005, even before the publication of Knopf first trade edition. However, production required more time than anticipated. Afterward, publication was delayed again because of the Hurricane Katrina which hit New Orleans on August 29, 2005. Britton Trice told me that he was “in Santa Fe getting the colophon pages signed by Cormac when hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans. I was not able to return to New Orleans until October of that year”. As a result, the publication had to wait until December.
According to the proof copy of a promotional pamphlet issued by the publisher the number of copies originally planned was 300. This was later increased to 325.
In fact, more than 325 copies of this state were printed. Approximately 24 unnumbered copies were produced, 15 of them for presentation purposes.They were:
- One personalized copy printed for McCarthy’s son, John Francis, stating “John McCarthy’s copy” on the colophon page.
- Eight other personalized copies were issued and given to people involved in the production process.
- Six presentation copies, so marked, were printed and given to Cormac McCarthy.
- Approximately nine additional presentation copies, so marked, were issued for the publisher.
BINDER’S COPY:an unnumbered copy marked “Binder’s Copy” on the colophon page was noted. It is part of the Paul Ford collection and originated from Back of Beyond Books. They acquired it from Rosewell Binding in Arizona, the firm that bound the Trice edition of No Country for Old Men.
COLLECTING TOPICS: I am aware of only two other copies for presentation, in the numbered format, besides mine, that has appeared on the market. One was offered by the dealer Chris Subarton in April 2024, for $2,550. The second is part of the collection of Nathan Cooley. Presentation copies are notably scarcer than the regular numbered copies. Rare Book Hub lists, indeed, 13 regular numbered copies at auction but no presentation copies.
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