About this Item
McCarthy, Cormac. Child of God.
New York: The Ecco Press, 1984.
First Ecco Press edition; first paperback edition; first and only printing. Signed and inscribed by Cormac McCarthy on the title page: ?For Augusta / with much love / Cormac.? The recipient is Augusta Britt.
Octavo trade paperback. 197 pages. Original purple pictorial wrappers, black spine, white rear panel, lettered in orange, white, and black. Near fine, with only light shelf wear to the delicate wrappers; binding square and firm; text clean. A notably fresh copy of a fragile paperback format, with no internal markings beyond the author?s inscription.
Child of God, McCarthy?s third novel, first appeared in hardcover from Random House in 1973. This 1984 Ecco Press issue was the first paperback edition and formed part of Ecco?s ?Neglected Books of the Twentieth Century? series, which helped return several of McCarthy?s early novels to circulation before the broader recognition that followed Blood Meridian and the Border Trilogy. The Ecco paperback of Child of God is among the more elusive McCarthy paperbound editions, especially in collectible condition and especially signed or inscribed.
An extraordinary association copy. Augusta Britt occupies a singular and now widely discussed place in the McCarthy story: she was personally connected to the author for many years, and her relationship with him has become part of the biographical and collecting context through which late McCarthy material is understood. An inscription ?For Augusta / with much love? is therefore not a routine presentation inscription, but a direct artifact of one of the most personal relationships in McCarthy?s life. For a writer famously private, sparing with public appearances, and uncommon in meaningful signed material, the emotional register of this inscription is remarkable. It links the book not merely to McCarthy?s hand, but to his intimate circle, giving the copy the kind of provenance and human resonance that elevates it from signed paperback to major association copy.
The association is especially powerful because Child of God stands at the dark heart of McCarthy?s early Appalachian work: austere, violent, grotesque, and pitilessly exact in its rendering of isolation and human extremity. To find this bleak and difficult novel warmly inscribed ?with much love? to Augusta Britt creates a startling and highly personal counterpoint between text and artifact. In collecting terms, the copy has several layers of desirability: the scarce Ecco first paperback; the vulnerability of the softcover format; McCarthy?s relative scarcity as a signer; the warmth of the inscription; and, above all, the identity of the recipient. A superb and unrepeatable McCarthy association copy.
Seller Inventory # ABE-1782418774909
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