In a Narrow Grave: Essays on Texas [Bibliographically Significant "Skycrapers" Copy]

Austin, TX: Encino Press, 1968. First Edition. Hardcover. Near fine/Very good. A rare copy of the first edition of this legendary literary rarity, the first printing of Larry McMurtry's first book of essays. The book is well-known among book collectors as the "skycrapers" printing, because of that typo on line 12 of page 105. This copy has page 105 (specifically the sheet with pages 105 to 108) in BOTH issues, with skyscrapers spelled correctly and incorrectly.

However, this copy does not have the other errors, like "in in" on page 56, line 2; or the line beginning "Mr. Brammer" duplicated in paragraph two of page 134. A year after the publication of this book, Deborah Detering Pannill, a University of Texas at Austin student, wrote a thorough term paper on Encino Press and interviewed the publisher, Bill Wittliff. After the errors in McMurtry's book were discovered, "at first Wittliff thought he could salvage some of those printed but finally they decided to destroy the edition and reprint it."

What Wittliff meant by "salvage" was not clear until this copy came to light. Only part of the edition had been bound when the errors were discovered. This copy proves that Wittliff attempted to salvage the book by reprinting the pages with errors and replacing them in the unbound copies. In the case of this copy, the corrected sheet was laid on top of the incorrect "skycrapers" text, causing pages 105 to 108 to be duplicated.

McMurtry's first collection of essays, covering Texas history, Texas writers, cowboys, and as a coda to The Last Picture Show, sex in Archer City, Texas has been popular with collectors since its first publication. This is (so far) the only known copy with the famous "skycrapers" page in both issues.

Estimates of the number of surviving copies of the "skycrapers" first printing vary, with typical numbers given as 10-20. The book is not that rare. Realistically, the number of copies is probably two or three times that many. Even so, for a book distributed to the public (as opposed to a limited edition destined for collectors), 50 copies is vanishingly small print run in a state as large as Texas. Probably the scarcest of all McMurtry books.

Your cataloguer has published an essay and bibliography of this book on his Substack. First edition (first printing with the "skycrapers" error). A near fine copy in a very good, first issue dust jacket (with "wtih" in paragraph five, line three of the front flap). The jacket has light shelfwear and a crease along the front flap edge. The book is signed by McMurtry on the front free endpaper. A previously unrecorded and perhaps unique variant of the first printing, in above average condition for this book.