Blood Meridian, or The Evening Redness in the West was published by Random House in April 1985. It is the novel that, more than any other, established Cormac McCarthy’s reputation as one of the greatest American novelists of the twentieth century — though this recognition came slowly. On publication, the book sold poorly and received mixed reviews. It took nearly two decades for critics, academics, and readers to catch up with what McCarthy had written.
The Novel
The novel follows “the kid,” an unnamed fourteen-year-old Tennessean who drifts to Texas in the late 1840s and joins the Glanton gang — a historical band of scalp hunters who were paid by Mexican authorities to kill Apaches but who quickly expanded their violence to encompass anyone they encountered. The narrative is drawn from the historical record, particularly Samuel Chamberlain’s memoir My Confession, but McCarthy transforms the material into something closer to an Old Testament vision of human depravity.
The dominant figure is Judge Holden — the Judge — a massive, hairless, eerily learned man who speaks a dozen languages, dances, plays fiddle, draws botanical and archaeological specimens in a notebook, and kills with methodical pleasure. The Judge is one of the most terrifying characters in American literature: a figure of absolute evil who argues that war is the supreme expression of human nature and that “whatever in creation exists without my knowledge exists without my consent.” He may or may not be human. He never ages. He never sleeps.
The prose is McCarthy at his most extreme: archaic, Faulknerian, and relentlessly visual, rendering the Sonoran desert as a landscape of hallucinatory beauty and unspeakable violence. Harold Bloom called Blood Meridian “the authentic American apocalyptic novel” and placed it in the company of Moby-Dick and As I Lay Dying.
Publication History
The first edition was published by Random House, New York, in April 1985. The first printing is identified by:
- The Random House colophon on the title page
- The price of $16.95 on the front flap of the dust jacket
- The complete number line “2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9” on the copyright page (note: the “1” was not included in Random House’s convention at this period — the absence of subsequent printing numbers is the key)
- “First Edition” stated on the copyright page
The dust jacket features a blood-red sky over a desert landscape. The binding is red cloth with gold stamping on the spine.
The book sold approximately 1,500 copies in hardcover on its first publication — a catastrophically low number even by 1985 standards. This means that genuine first editions are genuinely scarce.
Critical Reception
The novel’s initial reception was respectful but not ecstatic. Some reviewers were repelled by the violence; others recognised its ambition without being entirely sure what McCarthy had achieved. Caryn James in the New York Times called it “a series of grotesquely violent scenes” but acknowledged its “brilliant, overwrought prose.”
The critical reassessment began in the 1990s, driven by academic attention (particularly from Harold Bloom, who championed the novel repeatedly) and by the growing recognition of McCarthy as a major American writer following All the Pretty Horses (1992) and its National Book Award. By 2006, when the New York Times surveyed writers and critics for the best American fiction of the previous twenty-five years, Blood Meridian appeared on more ballots than any other novel.
Today it is regarded as one of the great American novels — ranked alongside Moby-Dick, Absalom, Absalom!, and Gravity’s Rainbow for its ambition, its language, and its unflinching engagement with violence as the foundational fact of American history.
Collecting Blood Meridian
Blood Meridian first editions are among the most sought-after and valuable modern American firsts.
First edition, first printing (1985, Random House, New York). Fine copies in the dust jacket bring $5,000–$15,000. The small first printing (approximately 1,500 copies) and the book’s canonical status make this a cornerstone of any collection of modern American fiction.
Signed copies are extremely scarce. McCarthy was famously reclusive and signed very rarely. His death in June 2023 closed the supply permanently. Signed first editions have sold for $20,000–$50,000.
Advance Reading Copies (ARCs) are among the most desirable McCarthy items. Fewer than 200 were likely produced. ARCs have sold for $5,000–$15,000.
UK first edition (Picador, London, 1989). Less sought than the US edition but collectible at $200–$600 for fine copies.
The Ecco Press paperback (1992) brought the novel back into print and introduced it to a wider audience. First Ecco printings are collected at modest prices ($20–$50).
The combination of a tiny first printing, a reclusive author who rarely signed, and a posthumous reputation rivalling Melville’s makes Blood Meridian one of the blue-chip collectibles of modern American literature.