NMLP P-036546 · True-first precedence · minted 2026-07-19
Blood Meridian
Cormac McCarthy · Random House (New York) · 1985
US Random House, New York, 1985 first printing is the true first. The first UK edition (Picador, London, 1989, jacket by George Sharp) follows four years later — so US precedes UK. Signed or inscribed firsts are genuinely scarce (McCarthy signed sparingly) and are among the most-forged items in modern American book collecting, so provenance matters.
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New Mexico Literacy Project — True-first precedence NMLP P-036546 for "Blood Meridian" by Cormac McCarthy (https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/id/point/p-036546, CC BY 4.0, dataset DOI 10.5281/zenodo.21184548).