SUTTREE - INSCRIBED TO JOHN & LANELLE HOLLEY

McCarthy, Cormac

Published by Random House, New York, 1979

First Printing. Octavo (21.25cm); black cloth and pale yellow paper-covered boards, with titling and author's initials stamped in gilt on spine and front cover; dustjacket; [viii],[3],4-471,[1]pp. Inscribed by the author in a contemporary hand on the front endpaper: "For John + Lanelle / With lots of love / Cormac." Light wear to backstrip, faint forward lean, with light foxing to text edges and upper board edges, and a small scuff to rear cover; Very Good+. Dustjacket is unclipped (priced $12.95), spine-sunned, showing modest shelfwear, several tiny tears and attendant creases, a few diagonal creases to lower flap corners, and mild yellowing on verso; Very Good or better.McCarthy's semi-autobiographical fourth novel set in the early 1950's, following Cornelius Suttree, who has repudiated his life of privilege to spend his life as a fisherman on the Tennessee River. Though now widely considered one of McCarthy's most serious and ambitious works, drawing comparisons to Ulysses, Cannery Row, and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, fewer than 3,000 copies of the first printing were sold at the time of publication prior to being remaindered.The recipients, John Leon Holley (1933-2015) and Lanelle Whitley Holley, were close friends of McCarthy's from Tennessee since the early 1960s. McCarthy had known John Holley since they were in their 20s, and he was there the night he proposed to Lanelle. During their first Christmas as a married couple in 1963, knowing McCarthy would be alone, they drove from North Carolina to Gatlinburg to pick him up. He lived with the Holley's for a time early on in his career, shared many of the same friends with them, and continued to keep in regular touch after he moved away. In addition to rodeoing and living around horses most of his life, John was also a former president of the East Tennessee Quarter Horse Association; at various intervals during the writing of The Border Trilogy, McCarthy would send Holley portions of his writing, relying on him heavily for his expertise on horses and horsemanship, to make sure he got it right. McCarthy's second son, John Francis, was named (in part) after John Holley. According to Lanelle, McCarthy was very much unlike his writing, "which can be so dark. It was amazing that he could conjure that, but he wasn't like that at all. He was just the most wonderful man who had the most wonderful laugh. He was a wonderful friend. Even after John died, if there was ever anything I needed I knew he would be there. It's amazing that we got to be friends with him." An extraordinary association copy, representative of a friendship over six decades. Seller Inventory # 7118

Bibliographic Details

Title: SUTTREE - INSCRIBED TO JOHN & LANELLE HOLLEY
Publisher: Random House, New York
Publication Date: 1979
Signed: Signed by Author(s)
Edition: First Edition.