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All the early documents I examined mention October 1986 as tentative date of publication. Despite this, the publisher’s slip laid in a review copy I could examine reads “November, 27”. A delay in the publication therefore seems probable. 

All the Pretty Horses is usually considered the breaking-through McCarthy’s work and it surly is. However, little attention has been given to this edition of Suttree who, reportedly, sold well and quickly, leading to many subsequent printings and making it the most successful edition of a McCarthy work to date. In spite of that, the publication process was tumultuous. In an email dated February 18, 2024, Gary Fisketjon, the creator of the Vintage Contemporaries series and later a prominent McCarthy editor at Knopf, explained:

“The Vintage Contemporary mission was in three parts: to reprint in paperback books that had been published in hardcover the year before; to put back into print various older books that either had fallen out of print or had never appeared in paperback; to introduce new writers whose work belonged alongside all the illustrious above; and to highlight writers whose previous work hadn’t fared well in hardcover but whose new books would get far more attention (and readers) in this brand-new paperback series. Obviously, Suttree fell into the second category because it hadn’t ever been reprinted in paperback. 

Random House controlled Vintage Books at this time, and also had published all of Cormac’s books – very poorly, in my view.  As managing editor of Vintage, I was appalled there wasn’t a single work of contemporary fiction on this otherwise exceptional list. That’s why I started Vintage Contemporaries, because trade paperback was clearly the best format for this work, which was also my primary passion. Since 1978, only two novels by unknown writers had succeeded in hardcover: John Irving’s The World According to Gary and Mary Gordon’s Final Payments. The writers I most admired had sold very poorly indeed. 

Jason Epstein ran both Random House and Vintage Books; he didn’t care for serious fiction at all, and wasn’t a fan of Vintage Contemporaries either. Given how successful the series had been from the start, I was shocked when he said he wouldn’t allow me to include Suttreebecause, he claimed, McCarthy’s books would never sell. Therefore I had to get a ‘production subsidy’”.  

At this point, Robert Coles, the renowned psychiatrist and a key figure in promoting the diffusion of McCarthy’s work, re-entered the scene. He suggested to the Lindhurst Foundation the idea of financing the reprint of Suttree. On March 8, 1984, Deaderick Montague, executive director of the Foundation, wrote to Albert Erskine, stating that they were ready to help. Two months later, Whit Waterbury of Random House, informed Fisketjon about it (AEP). By the end of 1984, the project was underway, and McCarthy mentioned it in a letter to Orin Borsten dated November 19, 1984 (OBP). However, the publication was delayed until 1986, likely to avoid coinciding with the release of Blood Meridian, scheduled for March 1985. On May 2, 1986, Fisketjon sent Erskine the book cover proofs and confirmed that Suttree would be published in October (AEP).        

Fisketjon concludes: 

“Lindhurst provided the $5,000 that Jason required to grant me permission to publish the book, and to this day the copyright page notes:  ‘The author and publisher gratefully acknowledge the assistance of the Lyndhurst Foundation’. We printed 10,000 copies, which required a second printing quite soon, and many more over the years. That initial printing was far and away the most copies any book of Cormac’s had sold. Years later, I waited to send Jason a complimentary Knopf copy from the 19^th printing”.

REVIEW COPIES with publisher’s slip laid in were noted. 

COLLECTING TOPICS: unsigned copies are common and also collector’s copies could be found. Signed or inscribed copies are instead scarce. Rare Book Hub lists only one copy auctioned by RR Auctions in 2014. It sold for $245. It was, obviously, prior to the price boom of the last years. Between June, 2023 and November, 2024 only another copy appeared in the market. It was listed for $ 5,500 by an English book dealer.