Blood Meridian, first paperback edition. The Ecco Press, New York, 1986. First The Ecco Press and first paperback edition, first printing with no mention of subsequent printings on the copyright page. Softcover, 20 x 13.6 cm, 337 numbered pages. Publisher’s glossy red pictorial wrappers, featuring a black spine and red back panel, lettered in dark yellow, orange, and red within a black box on the front cover and in yellow and orange on the spine. Wrapper design by Saksa Art...
The Road, early uncorrected proof, first issue, state A. Knopf, New York, 2006. Early uncorrected proof of the first edition, first issue, state A. Softcover, 28 x 21.8 cm, 231 pages numbered only on the recto, consisting of photocopied, computer generated typescript bound in the publisher’s white cardboard covers lettered in black, with a black tape spine. The front cover lists “9/26/2006” as the date of publication and “S23.00/$30.00 CAN” as the price.
Child of God, first paperback edition. The Ecco Press, New York, 1984. First The Ecco Press and first paperback edition, first and only printing. Softcover, 20.4 x 13.7 cm, 197 numbered pages. Publisher’s purple pictorial wrappers with a black spine and white back panel, lettered in orange, white, and black, designed by Saksa Art & Design, Inc. Summary of the novel and a price of “$ 7.50” on the back panel.
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.
The Road, graphic novel, adapted by Manu Larcenet, uncorrected proof of the first American edition. Abrams ComicArts, New York, 2024. Uncorrected proof of the first American edition, softcover, 26 x 21 cm, 160 unnumbered pages in poor-quality paper, printed in black and white. Publisher’s grey wrappers, lettered in white.
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.