McCarthy, Cormac (1994) ‘The Stonemason’, US signed and inscribed first edition with rock solid provenance

Cormac McCarthy (1994) ‘The Stonemason a Play in Five Acts‘, US first edition, first printing, published by Eco Press. Signed and inscribed by the author on the half-title page: “For Philip Murray from your friend Cormac McCarthy”.

Condition: a fine copy. Top page block slightly dusty.

Provenance: From the Dr Philip Murray collection. Medical Doctor Philip Murray (1940-2019) from Sligo, Ireland was an avid reader of literary fiction and became a passionate collector of first edition books. He only collected what he also enjoyed reading. In 2011 he published his memoirs titled ‘Adventures of a Book Collector’ [Currach Press] where he recalls his collecting career spanning over four decades. In his memoirs he dedicates four pages to Cormac McCarthy (pp 120-24) and one photographic plate which depicts Murray and McCarthy arm in arm in Sligo in 2004. Murray relates that he wrote to Cormac in 1990 before McCarthy hit fame with his Border trilogy. McCarthy agreed to sign and return his books and over the years they maintained correspondence with the highlight being McCarthy’s visit in Sligo in 2004. Murray embarked on a complete author collection of McCarthy. In the summer of 2016 his vast collection of over 2,000 books was sold in Dublin at auction fetching over EUR 275,000. However, it speaks volumes that Murray could not bring himself to part with his McCarthy collection back in 2016 but kept it until he died. Too strong his love for the work of the author.

Cormac McCarthy is a very private author who has granted just a handful of interviews to journalists. His principle is that it is better to write than to talk about writing. As a result genuine signed books are few and far between and provenance is key. We recommend that ‘flat signed’ copies should be avoided by the collector as signed material is rare and many forgers cannot resist the temptation of ‘enhancing a book’s monetary value’. Whilst a ‘flat signed’ copy might be genuine, in our opinion the risk of acquiring a forgery is too great. There were a few hundred copies issued by the publisher with a tipped in signed page. However, this is the only regular trade first edition which is genuinely signed and inscribed which we can find.

‘The Stonemason’ was Cormac’s first play published after his breaktrhough novel ‘All the Pretty Horses’ (1992).