Collecting Cormac McCarthy's first five books
Collecting Cormac McCarthy's First Five Books
Cormac McCarthy is one of the most acclaimed and influential writers of our time. His novels are known for their stark, poetic prose, their unflinching violence, and their exploration of the dark side of human nature.
McCarthy's first five books were published between 1965 and 1985. They are:
The Orchard Keeper (1965)
Outer Dark (1968)
Child of God (1973)
Suttree (1979)
Blood Meridian (1985)
"The Orchard Keeper," Cormac McCarthy's debut novel published in 1965, intertwines the lives of three individuals in rural Tennessee during the 1930s: a young boy named John Wesley Rattner, his mother, and a local moonshiner named Marion Sylder. As their paths converge, their lives become entangled in a web of secrets, violence, and redemption against the backdrop of the changing Appalachian landscape.
First Edition, First Printing of "The Orchard Keeper":
Publisher: Random House
Date: May 5, 1965
Number of Copies Printed: 4,000
Dust Jacket: Priced at $4.95, Original dust jacket with artwork/designed by Muriel Nasser
Rarity: Scarce first printing sought after by collectors due to McCarthy's later fame and the limited initial print run. The second printing was claimed to be 5,000 copies, later printed in 1968. It’s alleged that all of the second printing copies had price-clipped dust jackets, as the price had changed a few years later. The jacket is especially vulnerable due to it’s bright white color and red contrast, which show blemishes and fade quite easily.
Value: $3,000-5,000, est.
"McCarthy is a born narrator, and his writing has, line by line, the stab of actuality. He is here to stay.” - Robert Penn Warren
“His use of words is remarkable, for he lures from them a very special music. His use of nature is uncommon these days…and his constant reference to the land and the things that occur on it is refreshing. But what is best, I think, is his acute observation and his ability to describe things in new ways. The specific gravity of his writing is high indeed…” - James A. Michener
First Edition, First Printing of "Outer Dark":
Publisher: Random House
Date: April, 1968
Number of Copies Printed: 5,000
Dust Jacket: Jacket priced at $4.95, Original dust jacket with artwork/design by Muriel Nasser.
Rarity: The jacket is notoriously fragile due to it’s lack of finish. The jacket unfinished paper presentation shows blemishes easily with its charcoal coloring. Many copies were remaindered or sent to libraries. The remainder stamps are commonly found on the front free end paper. The book did not elicit a second print run.
Value: $2,000-3,000, est.
“The book is a complete orchestration of folk drama, totally absorbing, hauntingly beautiful and unerring in its transcription of reality.” - Savannah Morning News
“This is a novel to be read slowly, to be savored. Its rewards are immense. For McCarthy has, beyond his knowledge of human beings, an awareness of nature that is without parallel in contemporary American writing. By all means get this book. It is superb, a miracle.” - Cleveland Plain Dealer
First Edition, First Printing of "Child of God":
Publisher: Random House
Date: December, 1973
Number of Copies Printed: 4,000
Dust Jacket: $5.95, Original dust jacket with artwork/design by Muriel Nasser.
Rarity: Many of the first printings were remaindered. The dust jacket is notorious for being price-clipped. It’s alleged that once the copies were remaindered, the jacket prices were clipped as well. The book did not elicit a second print run.
Value: $1,500-3,000, est.
"McCarthy charts the terrible decline of Lester Ballard with passion, tenderness, eloquence, and a humor which, at its best, is attuned perfectly to the bitter wryness of the south.” - Times Literary Supplement
“His prose unfailingly beautiful and exact, carries us into a dreamworld of astonishing and violent revelation.” - Tobias Wolfe
Set against the backdrop of 1950s Knoxville, Tennessee, "Suttree" follows the eponymous protagonist, Cornelius Suttree, as he navigates the fringes of society in search of meaning and redemption. Through McCarthy's evocative prose and vivid imagery, readers are transported to a world teeming with eccentric characters, squalid alleys, and the murky depths of the Tennessee River. As Suttree grapples with his own demons and confronts the harsh realities of existence, McCarthy paints a rich tapestry of humanity's triumphs and tragedies, offering profound insights into the human condition.
First Edition, First Printing of "Suttree":
Publisher: Random House
Date: February, 1979
Number of Copies Printed: 5,000
Dust Jacket: $12.95, Original dust jacket with artwork/design by Jack Ribik.
Rarity: Many of the first printing copies were remaindered or sent to libraries. The jacket spine is notoriously faded. The book did not elicit a second print run.
Value: $2,000-3,000, est.
"Suttree contains a humor that is Faulknerian in its gentle wryness, and a freakish imaginative flair reminiscent of Flannery O’Connor.” - Times Literary Supplement
“McCarthy gives us a sense of river life that reads like a doomed Huckleberry Finn.” - The New York Times Book Review
Set against the backdrop of the American West in the mid-19th century, "Blood Meridian" chronicles the brutal and harrowing journey of a nameless protagonist known only as "the Kid" as he joins a ruthless gang of scalp hunters led by the enigmatic and malevolent Judge Holden. McCarthy's prose is as stark and haunting as the unforgiving landscape it describes, weaving a narrative that explores the depths of human depravity and the relentless pursuit of power and violence. As the Kid grapples with the moral ambiguity of his actions and confronts the specter of his own mortality, "Blood Meridian" stands as a searing indictment of the darker aspects of the American frontier.
First Edition, First Printing of "Blood Meridian":
Publisher: Random House
Date: March 11, 1985
Number of Copies Printed: 5,000
Dust Jacket: $17.95, Original dust jacket with artwork/design by Richard Adelson. Jacket painting by Salvador Dali.
Rarity: Many copies were remaindered or sent to libraries. The book did not elicit a second print run. The jacket spine is often discolored and less vibrant.
Value: $3,500-6,000, est.
"A classic American novel of regeneration through violence. McCarthy can only be compared with our greatest writers, Melville and Faulkner, and this is his masterpiece.” - Michael Herr
“Reads like a conflation of the Inferno, the Iliad, and Moby Dick…an extraordinary, breathtaking achievement.” - John Banville
From earliest to most recent, these are the dust jacket flaps and their prices.
