THE MOST AMAZING EDITION OF MCCARTHY’S BLOOD MERIDIAN

*Blood Meridian, first limited and illustrated edition published by Suntup.*

Blood Meridian, first limited and first illustrated edition, lettered issue

Suntup Editions, Irvine, California, 2022

Limited edition, lettered issue, one of 26 copies lettered A-Z, this being copy L. Hardcover, 23,3 x 16,5 cm., 461 numbered pages. Publisher’s tobacco full leather boards, hand-sewn binding with leather onlays, pigment foils applied by hand to the cover and top edge, lettering in black embossed on the spine. Housed in a two-tone red clamshell enclosure with a rounded spine and covered in leather and European cloth, leather tobacco box with black frame applied on the spine and lettered in black inside. Without dustjacket as issued. Tobacco heavier paper free endpapers. Frontispiece with a glued to the page illustration by Rob Wood who also provided five water color paintings throughout the book. Introduction by Bret Easton Ellis.

Signed by Ellis and Wood on a colophon page at the end of text pages. Publisher’s bookmark laid in as issued.

CONDITION: as new in alike box.

Published January 3, 2022 in a print run of 26 copies at $3,950.

This is the most attractive and the rarest limited issue of Blood Meridian. Actually, it is beautiful in my opinion. It precedes by 23 days the numbered issue, released by Suntup on January, 26, so this is the true first limited edition.

Suntup Editions were founded by Paul Suntup in late 2016. Born in Johannesburg, South Africa, he started selling books and comics. Meanwhile, Suntup developed an interest in special editions and the way they are made, amassing an impressive collection of limited and finely crafted books. Suntup Editions have become very quickly one of the most amazing finely crafted limited editions publishers. In 2018 they published the first limited edition of Stephen King’s “Misery”, signed by the author. The new titles to be published are kept strictly confidential and made public four times a year. The owners of early titles have a right of preemption to buy the new ones.

ADVANCE READING COPIES: 30 advance review copies paperbound in pictorial wrappers were possibly issued. Just six of them do exist do exist though. In an email sent in July 2024, the publisher Paul Suntup explained:

“I do not recall how many copies of the ARC were produced but it could have been 30. Usually it was around 25 or 30. These ARC’s included a frontispiece painting which we ended up not using for the published edition. The artist created a different one on my request which I preferred, and that is what was printed in the book. However, at the time we produced the ARC’s, the rejected illustration ended up in there, so all but 6 copies were destroyed”.

I could locate only two of them: one is still in the publisher’s archive, the other is part of an American private collection. As far as I know, none of these has appeared in the market. Book Hub registers no copies at auction. Rare.

PROVENANCE: Birmingham book dealer First and Fine found this copy on my behalf in 2022.

COLLECTING TOPICS: being the smallest limitation of all McCarthy’s editions, this Blood Meridian lettered issue is very scarce. I could locate four copies, this included. One of the other two was offered in May 2024 for $9,900 by Gemini Books, a dealer from Edmonton, Canada, specialized in limited editions. The third one, the “A” copy, is in an American private collection. Reportedly, the last one sold privately in June 2024, along with a lettered copy of The Road illustrated edition, for the record price of $25,500. Rare Book Hub registers no copies at auction.