Box 1

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Providing details of publishing history.

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“Thank you very much for the Levertov. It is very handsome…” mentions Kosinki’s book in passing, agrees that Esquire has fallen on hard times, he’s seen a number of reviews, some of them nice ones. Mentions that his editor is Albert Erskine and that Woolmer should contact him about publishing the excerpt.

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Regarding publishing an excerpt of Blood Meridian.

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“What are you doing? Did you ever hear from Albert about the limited signed edition…?”

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Regarding cancelled trip to Vanderbilt and response received from Albert Erskine.

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“Sorry you didnt get down to Nashville, would have enjoyed seeing you…” Discusses Random House, “Albert is semi-retired and probably considered some sort of relic of bygone years by the functional illiterates now in command…” Also, “a short section of the western is to appear – I am told – in the next issue of Triquarterly. The issue being devoted to the literature of the West. I’m branching out.”

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Informing him that Robert Penn Warren considers McCarthy a “most talented writer.” Recommends the film Wise Blood.

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“Thank you for your very nice letter…” Mentions that Robert Penn Warren and he share the same editor at Random House [Erskine]. “Interesting that he [Warren] liked Child of God. Some people think it a most peculiar book, but lately it has been receiving a sort of belated enthusiasm in the form of reviews and theses and such.” Mentions that Wise Blood actors Brad Dourif and Ned Beatty were also both in The Gardner’s Son.

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Sending May 2, 1980 TLS review of Suttree [review included].

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“Thanks for the clipping. You were right, I probably would not have seen it…I’m getting ready to head west for the final push on my novel [Blood Meridian]. Hope to get it done by the end of the year.” Erskine and Random House are very negative about a limited edition. “I don’t have an agent anymore and am in a sort of limbo…” All of his books except for the most recent are out of print; inquires if Woolmer knows of a paperback house that might be interested.

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Received Triquarterly. “The Scalphunters” is powerful, but confused about characters. Comments on the stuffing genitals into victim’s mouths. Mentions reading John Yount.

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“Thanks for your letter, it is always nice to hear from you…The characters in the story [Blood Meridian] are a bunch of American adventurers in Chihuahua in 1849 who have contracted to supply scalps to the government…” Mentions John Yount’s The Trapper’s Last Shot. Also mentions getting “a little windfall from a foundation [MacArthur] so expect to stay in business a while longer.” Might go to Europe.

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Suggests getting together if McCarthy comes out East.

Contents “I’m looking for a book for a friend of mine and thought maybe you could help me…” Forty-Four Years of the Life of a Hunter by Meschach [sic] Browning. “The western proceeds apace – not a blistering pace, I suppose, but it goes.” Describes getting caught in the middle of a gunfight between police and criminals in Knoxville, “A news lady rushed up to me with a microphone and a tape recorder and asked me what was going on. I told her I had no idea, but it certainly seemed like the good old...

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Promising to look for the Browning book. Asks if McCarthy couldn’t use a good agent.

Contents “Thanks for the letter. Yes, the Meschach [sic] Browning book is what I need…” States his literary affairs are “a long and tiresome tale at best…. My agent for several years was Candida Donadio...she expressed her satisfaction at representing me personally and negotiated the contract for the book with which I am now occupied. That was the last I ever heard of her…I wrote and told her I’d like to make official what already existed in fact and we amicably parted…After this I wrote some other...

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Has asked John Malcolm Brinnin [Gertrude Stein and Dylan Thomas biographer] about agents and his is Dorothy Olding of the Harold Ober Associates, Inc. Waiting for “the western” to come out; is buying up copies of Orchard Keeper to hand out to friends.

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“Good to hear from you. Thank you for your inquiries on my behalf…” Planning a trip to New York at beginning of new year. Random House has sold the paperback rights to his early books to the Ecco Press.

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Congratulations on receiving the MacArthur grant. Wall Street Journal clipping about the grant from November 19, 1981 included.

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“Thank you for the letter and the good wishes…The MacArthur people just call you up and ask where to send the checks. It was something of a shock...My creditors seem much gratified…I am still struggling with my mss, but it goes ok…”