THE GARDENER'S SON

McCarthy, Cormac; Pearce, Richard

ISBN 10: 0880014814 / ISBN 13: 9780880014816

Published by The Ecco Press, (Hopewell, NJ), 1996

About this Item

Signed limited first edition of McCarthy's original 1976 teleplay, directed by documentarian Richard Pearce and broadcast on PBS as part of the VISIONS series to considerable acclaim. Pearce sought out McCarthy as screenwriter on the strength of his early novels, particularly the necrophiliac extravaganza CHILD OF GOD, "the oddest of a wonderfully odd lot" and a book which struck Pearce as "easily the most cinematic" of the three then published. Director and writer were well-matched: "[McCarthy] had never even seen, much less written a screenplay before, and [Pearce] had never directed a fiction film, only documentaries." The finished product starred Brad Dourif, who found McCarthy's company "hilarious," and delighted Tom Allen of the VILLAGE VOICE, who thought the film one of the year's best. 7.5'' x 5''. Original blind-stamped russet cloth with silver-stamped spine. In original tan cloth slipcase. Edition of 350 numbered and signed copies; this copy no. 41. Signed by McCarthy below limitation statement. 93, [1] pages. Slipcase with trace shelfwear. A couple of tiny specks of soil to front board, thin line of discoloration to front and rear pastedown at hinge (production error). Near fine in near fine slipcase.

Seller Inventory # 52681

Bibliographic Details

• Title: THE GARDENER'S SON
• Publisher: The Ecco Press, (Hopewell, NJ)
• Publication Date: 1996
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0880014814
• ISBN 13: 9780880014816
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: First printing.
• Signed: Signed by Author(s)
• Seller catalogs:
  • Lit

About this title

Synopsis

In the Spring of 1975 the film director Richard Pearce approached Cormac McCarthy with the idea of writing a screenplay. Though already a widely acclaimed novelist, the author of such modern classics as The Orchard Keeper and Child of God, McCarthy had never before written a screenplay. Using nothing more than a few photographs in the footnotes to a 1928 biography of a famous pre-Civil War industrialist as inspiration, the author and Pearce together roamed the mill towns of the South researching their subject. One year later McCarthy finished The Gardener's Son,a taut, riveting drama of impotence, rage, and ultimately violence spanning two generations of mill owners and workers, fathers and sons, during the rise and fall of one of America's most bizarre utopian industrial experiments. Produced as a two-hour film and broadcast on PBS in 1976, The Gardener's Son recieved two Emmy Award nominations and was shown at the Berlin and Edinburgh Film Festivals. This is the first appearance of the film script in book form.

Set in Graniteville, South Carolina, The Gardener's Son is the tale of two families: the Greggs, a wealthy family that owns and operates the local cotton mill, and the McEvoys, a family of mill workers beset by misfortune. The action opens as Robert McEvoy, a young mill worker, is having his leg amputated -- the limb mangled in an accident rumored to have been caused by James Gregg, son of the mill's founder. McEvoy, crippled and isolated, grows into a man with a "troubled heart"; consumed by bitterness and anger, he deserts both his job and his family.

Returning two years later at the news of his mother's terminal illness, Robert McEvoy arrives only to confront the grave diggers preparing her final resting place. His father, the mill's gardener, is now working on the factory line, the gardens forgotten. These proceedings stoke the slow burning rage McEvoy carries within him, a fury that ultimately consumes both the McEvoys and the Greggs.

About the Author

Cormac McCarthy is the author of the novels The Crossing, Cities of the Plain, The Orchard Keeper, Outer Dark, Child of God, Suttree, and Blood Meridian and the plays The Stonemason and The Gardener’s Son.

Frank Muller is widely regarded as one of the finest of all audiobook performers.