---

The fact sheet held in the Random House archive, issued probably in the spring of 1973, shows that the estimated first print run should have been 8,000 copies and that the number was corrected to 7,500 later on. Usually, the estimated quantities were substantially confirmed by the actual first print runs (this was the case with Suttree’s first printing, for example).

This was the highest first print run for a McCarthy book until then, and the choice was explained in the Random House fact sheet dated March 8, 1973 [RH, 1156]: “We have sold about 4,000 each of The Orchard Keeper and Outer Dark. We have also sold paperback and foreign rights to both books. The great critical acclaim the author has received for these first two novels should help boost the sales of his third. This novel should have a larger audience also because of its sensational subject matter, and it is easier to read than the previous two.” Reality didn’t match expectations though: the book sold in the first (and only Random House hardcover) printing just 2,415 copies (Knopf’s info in The Crossing early proof).

The reviews of the book were mixed. While Guy Davenport and Robert Cole in The New Yorker were definitely appreciative, and other critics praised at least McCarthy’s style, some reviewers criticized Child of God on moral grounds. This also led to a public, significant controversy between Shelby Foote, the historian who was a longtime McCarthy admirer, and the reviewer of Memphis Press-Scimitar. McCarthy commented jokingly on the book’s reception in a letter to Guy Davenport postmarked January 12, 1974: “I’m delighted you enjoyed the book [Child of God]. My poor sainted mother talked to me on the telephone after reading it and wanted to know what ‘a nice boy like me was doing writing a book like that’ but strangely enough seemed to have enjoyed it also” (Davenport Papers). Almost fifteen years later, in a letter to Edward Abbey dated July 29, 1987, he wrote about the book on a more serious note: “I agreed with your comments on Lester. I don’t know what I think of that book. It was put together out of a couple of actual incidents. I think the dilemma of the writer in the modern world is that he has to be reasonably healthy in order to write stories that have a sort of universality and reasonably seek to want to write at all” (Abbey Papers).

The most famous of the two “actual incidents” that inspired McCarthy is the so-called Lula Lake Murders on Lookout Mountain, outside Chattanooga, Tennessee, where in 1963 a young couple was found in the woods killed and the woman raped (see Luce, Reading the World, and J. R. Sullivan, “The Real-Life Murders That Inspired Cormac McCarthy’s Spookiest Novel,” in Men’s Journal, August 12, 2019). It can be added that curiously, the name of the man suspected of the murders was Blevins, the same as a main character in All the Pretty Horses.

Complimentary copies like this one precede the publication by 20 days. Sixteen of them with a complimentary card by the author laid in were sent at McCarthy’s request on December 13, 1973. Among the recipients were the writer Guy Davenport, the psychiatrist Robert Coles, the director Arthur Penn, the actor Henry Fonda, and Clifford Irving, whom McCarthy had met in Ibiza in the late ’60s and who was then in prison for his famous forged “autobiography” of Howard Hughes (letter by McCarthy to Caroline Harkleroad, publicity associate at Random House, December 1, 1973, and handwritten note on it, RH 1156). Another recipient was Ed McMahon, announcer and second banana of the Tonight Show. McCarthy in the quoted letter says about him: “We went fishing off Bimini together back in the spring and went partying together at Cat Cay (until he fell off the deck and had to be flown to Lauderdale to the hospital). You might try to place a copy in his hands. He does read. (Not like he drinks, of course, but some.)” Another copy with the publisher’s complimentary card signed by Erskine was offered by Type Punch Matrix in Fall 2023 and sold for $1,500. Complimentary copies are by far scarcer than review copies.

Anne McCormick was an editor at Knopf and not at Random House, so this complimentary copy is not one of those mentioned above.

PROVENANCE: purchased from the American collector Chase Crossingham in 2013.

DUSTJACKET: price-clipped dust jackets were noted and are common.

REVIEW COPIES: Around 200 review copies were issued, with publisher’s slip and photo noted. A batch of 175 of them was sent out on November 27, 1973 (Letter by Caroline Harkleroad, publicity associate at Random House, to McCarthy dated November 29, RH 1156). Another small batch of ten with “publisher’s slip” was sent out around December 13, 1973 (Letter by McCarthy to Caroline Harkleroad, December 1, 1973, and handwritten note on it, RH 1156). One of them went to Hy Cohen at Lantz-Donadio Agency because, as McCarthy writes, “he is my man there and very enthusiastic and I am sure he knows more about promoting books than I do.” Many of the review copies precede the first trade edition publication by over two months and precede the complimentary copies by 17 days. At the same time, the complimentary copies are by far scarcer than the review copies.

PRESUMED PUBLISHER’S PRESENTATION COPY: A Child of God first edition copy in a “rare publisher’s presentation binding” was sold for $12,160 by Bonhams on April 10, 2024. It is inscribed to Anne DeLisle, McCarthy’s second wife, and comes from her estate like other books sold in the same auction. It was purchased by a top American McCarthy collector and is part of his collection now.

This is the description provided by Bonhams for the book: “McCarthy, Cormac. 1933-2023. Child of God. New York: Random House, 1973. 8vo. Publisher’s blue morocco presentation binding by Maurin, marbled endpapers, minor soiling to lower spine […] Presentation bindings are normally done in very small numbers for an author or publisher, often just one for the author. We trace no other copies of McCarthy’s works in a publisher’s presentation binding, and given the family provenance, believe that this copy of Child of God is likely unique.”

After I had raised doubts about whether it was authentically issued by the publisher, Darren Sutherland, a reliable rare book specialist at Bonhams and curator of the auction, added the following “saleroom notice” to the description: “The possibility has been raised that the binding could have been made for McCarthy himself, or someone close to him at Random House, for presentation, and not strictly speaking from the publisher.”

The only evidence that it is a copy in a presentation binding issued by the publisher is the existence of a first edition copy of Getting Even by Woody Allen (Random House, 1971) identically bound by Maurin. It was sold by Between the Covers, which described it as such: “Hardcover. First edition. Publisher’s full-blue morocco presentation binding by Maurin […] Publishers traditionally issue a very limited number of books in presentation binding, usually fewer than ten copies, and often just a single copy for the author.”

Scott Brown, a book dealer and researcher who authored a notable essay on McCarthy forgeries, noted in an email to me dated April 9, 2024: “I would say that the Woody Allen book is pretty good evidence of a Random House publisher’s binding house style. The unusual feature is the name of the publisher at the base of the spine. You can look at a lot of Maurin bindings and they don’t have the publisher’s name on the spine. It’s not usually done by custom binders, unless the publisher is the one commissioning the binding”. In spite of that, he added that “a knowledgeable New Yorker told me that Maurin worked out of NYC and Penn, and that Albert Erskine sent Cormac to him and he bound it for his wife”. 

Actually, there are many clues because one can be inclined to think that the binding was not issued by the publisher:

• There is no trace of this format neither in the correspondence between McCarthy and Random House officers nor in the Random House editorial papers. It should be noted that both these sources deal with author’s copies, complimentary copies, review copies etc. 

• This format is not mentioned neither in the correspondences by McCarthy with his editor Albert Erskine nor in that with Howard Woolmer aimed to get information for a projected bibliography of McCarthy.

• As far as we know, there are no examples or even traces of such presentation copies issued for any other McCarthy’s titles published by Random House or Knopf. 

• It appears somewhat weird that a publisher which didn’t believe in McCarthy and where his only supporters were Albert Erskine and Bertha Krantz, would issue a “presentation copy” for a young writer whose first two books had sold far less than Random House had expected.

• Lastly, Howard Woolmer mentions Glenn Fukunaga, a well known binder who has been working in the Southwest for forty years, telling that he had McCarthy among his customers. Glenn, in an email dated April 11, 2024, confirmed that McCarthy used to get his books bound by him in later years.

Another first edition copy of Child of God, gorgeously inscribed to Anne DeLisle, was sold by Bonhams in the same 2024 auction. Unfortunately, it was badly chewed on by McCarthy’s dog. So, it is possible that McCarthy got another copy bound and gifted it to his wife. It is just a speculation though. A deeper study is needed to establish what exactly this book is.

REMAINDERED COPIES with a red Random House logo printed on the bottom text block edge are noted. 

NOTABLE COPIES:    

• DELISLE COPY. Sold at Bonhams on April 10, 2024 for $24,320. Tape to upper joint, teeth marks to upper hinge with paper loss, an only fair copy. First edition. Inscribed to McCarthy’s second wife Anne DeLisle: “To my lovely Annie / With admiration and love / and thanks for your help. You deserved / so much better than / I ever gave you & / you will always be the love of my life. / Cormac.” This warm, poignant inscription for Annie was likely written soon after Cormac moved out west, where he would then spend most of his time. Annie helped type both Child of God, and importantly Suttree, as recalled in the New York Times, and likely the inscription references this. Unfortunately, Annie and Cormac’s beloved Plott Hound Blackie, got to this copy. Cormac was keenly interested in the traditions of Appalachian hunting and trapping, and in getting Blackie, he sought out the breed that is most prized by bear hunters in the southern mountains. The full note from Annie, in pencil to the paste-down explains, “These are the teeth marks of Blackie, our beloved plot hound [sic]. Cormac left him as well as me. Annie.” One of the best inscriptions by McCarthy I have ever seen.  

• WOOLMER COPY. First edition, inscribed in blue ballpoint pen on the title page in an early hand: “For Howard / with Fond Best Wishes / Cormac McCarthy”. A beautiful near fine book with the spine bottom tip bumped, in a beautiful dustjacket which has minor bruise to the bottom spine tip and is a bit out of centered. Held in the Woolmer collection of Cormac McCarthy at the University of Texas, San Marcos.  
• MURRAY COPY. Inscribed to him: “For Philip Murray / Cormac McCarthy”. Auctioned at Fonsie Mealy Auctioneers in Dublin, Ireland, on December 10th, 2019.                                                                                                    
• GONZALES COPY. A near fine copy inscribed to McCarthy’s friend and biographer Laurence Gonzales in a later hand. It is held in the Gonzales collection.

• FOOTE COPY. Shelby Foote’s marginalia throughout. Sold by Bauman Rare Book in 2010 for $3,000.  

COLLECTING TOPICS: Genuine signed or inscribed copies of Child of God are scarce. Rare Book Hub lists six of them at auction since 1996. Five inscribed or signed copies were offered from December, 2023 to August, 2024 on Abe in a range between $6,500 and $8,500. Actually, only the inscribed one and one of the signed copies had a solid provenance. Additionally, a copy with a definitely forged signature sold for around $,3500.