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COMPLIMENTARY COPY OF SUTTREE FIRST ENGLISH EDITION: A SCARCE SURVIVAL

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,…

SUTTREE FIRST PAPERBACK EDITION, THE FORGOTTEN SUCCESS

Suttree, first paperback edition. Vintage Contemporaries, New York, 1986. First paperback edition, first printing with “October, 1986” and full number line “10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1” on the copyright page. Softcover, 20 x 13,2 cm, 471 numbered pages. Publisher’s graphic white wrappers designed by Lorraine Louie lettered in green, blue and white, featuring an illustration by Marc Tauss and a praise by The Washington Post on the front cover. The back panel includes praise by…

SUTTREE, ITS TRUE FIRST PRINT RUN, AND AN EXCELLENT COPY INSCRIBED TO A FAN

Suttree, first edition. Random House, New York, 1979. First edition, first and only Random Housed printing with “First Edition” on the copyright page. Hardcover, 21,4 x 14,5 cm., 471 numbered pages. Publisher’s cream paper-covered and black cloth board, with the author’s initials and lettering on spine both in gilt. Original black, yellow, olive green, and orange dustjacket designed by Jack Ribik with a photo of McCarthy by Dan Moore on the back panel.

A Few Words to Start

This is neither a Cormac McCarthy bibliography, as I am not a bibliographer, nor a critical essay, as I am not a scholar. The project started three years ago when I retired. Having more free time, I thought it would be good to catalogue my collection of McCarthy books. However, as I delved into them, I realized that many details about publication, first print runs, different issues, and so on were unknown, not based on strong sources, or even definitely wrong. Moreover, some of the people to whom the books were inscribed were similarly little known and had interesting stories worth telling.

So, I started digging into relevant archives mainly in the United States and England, speaking with McCarthy’s friends, publishers, and scholars, reading critical and biographical essays. What you find on this website is part of this research outcome. It aims just to share with McCarthy lovers, collectors, scholars and book dealers, information which sheds light on some little known aspects of McCarthy’s books history and about people whose lives crossed that of the author of Blood Meridian.

This is obviously a work in progress. In the next weeks, I will add information on all the over 250 items included in my McCarthy collection. Register with your email address to receive notifications about new contents added.

Lastly, English is not my mother tongue, so please be forgiving of any errors you may find in the text. Happy reading.

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“I HAVE DRAWN CHARACTERS WHO WALK BUT DON’T GO ANYWHERE”: AN INTERVIEW WITH MANU LARCENET ABOUT THE ROAD, WHILE THE AMERICAN VERSION IS GOING TO BE PUBLISHED

2024-08-31

An Interview with Manu Larcenet, one of the greatest illustrators in Europe, who is the author of “La Route”, the first graphic novel based on a book by Cormac McCarthy.

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THE RELATIVELY SHORT PRINT RUN OF THE FOLIO SOCIETY’S EDITION OF BLOOD MERIDIAN

Blood Meridian, first Folio edition. The Folio Society Ltd, London, 2022. First Folio edition, first printing with “First printing 2022” on the copyright page. Hardcover, 22,9 x 14,9 cm, 301 numbered pages. Publisher’s red, black and grey paper covered pictorial boards lettered in grey and white, with an illustration by Gerard DuBois who provided also the black and white illustration on the title page and six color illustrations throughout the book. Housed in a plain black paper covered slipcase. The slipcase is wrappered in a protective glassine. Issued without a dustjacket.

Collecting McCarthy, a Brief History

The books by Cormac McCarthy entered the rare books trade and the collecting world very early. As far as we know, McCarthy’s friend Gary Goodman was among the first to trade signed copies of The Orchard Keeper and Outer Dark.

On February, 1971 Goodman, having noted a few copies of The Orchard Keeper offered by second hand bookstores for more than the original price, purchased from Random House forty-five copies of Outer Dark and five copies of The Orchard Keeper (probably from the second printing) at a reduced price. He got them signed by McCarthy and resold them at $ 12.50 each. McCarthy was known to a narrow circle at the time and modern firsts market was just starting. Nominal prices were many hundred times lower than those usual today.

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The graphic novel from The Road published in France and Italy

The first graphic novel based on a Cormac McCarthy’s novel is already available. The Road was adapted by Manu Larcenet and has been published in French as “La Route” on March, 29 both in hardcover by Dargaud and paperback by Points. It was followed on April, 12 by the Italian version published by Coconino Press. The English version is expected to be out in hardcover on September, 17 (Abrams ComicArt).

Laurence Gonzales (photo by John German)

The Cormac McCarthy’s biography becomes two

Not just one, but two McCarthy’s biographies are expected to be published in 2025. Laurence Gonzales, author of best sellers like “Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies and Why” and “Flight 232” and Mccarthy’s friend at Santa Fe Institute, is working on another biography which want to be “about Cormac as a person more than the literary giant he was”.

“Oarsman”, sculpture by David Phelps supposed to be Cornelius Suttree, Knoxville, Northwest Corner of Gay and Church Streets (photo by Wes Morgan)

“The Legacy of Cormac McCarthy”, next Fall in Knoxville

The annual conference about McCarthy will be hold in Knoxville, Tennessee, the city where Cormac grew up, on October 3-5, 2024. The conference place is the Crowne Plaza Hotel in downtown Knoxville and author Ron Rash will be the keynoter. For every information go to https://www.cormacmccarthysociety.com .

“Ghostseer”, the unpublished short poem by McCarthy

Hundreds of McCarthy’s previously owned books found in an El Paso storage

A lucky and careful bookseller from El Paso, Jud Burgess who runs Brave Books there, has found and purchased over 1,500 books previously owned by Cormac McCarthy. They were left in a storage when McCarthy in 2001 moved to Tesuque, 10 miles north of Santa Fe.

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End of Content.

A travel through a McCarthy first editions collection

A Few Words to Start

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BOOK COLLECTION

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