MCMURTRY, Larry (1936-2021). In a Narrow Grave. Essays on Texas... Austin, TX: The Encino Press, 1968. 8vo. [xx], [1]-[178] pp. Publisher's plain brown wrapper front and rear flyleaves and wrappers, spine is unwrappered, as issued. FIRST EDITION; UNBOUND SEWN SHEETS OF THE FIRST PRINTING OF MCMURTRY'S FIRST COLLECTION OF ESSAYS, WITH ALL OF THE TEXTUAL ERRORS, INCLUDING THE INFAMOUS "SKYCRAPERS" ERROR ON P. 105. Publisher’s copy, from the collection of Bill Wittliff of the Encino Press. There are a few pages with hand corrections in red ink, in an unknown hand and likely done by the production staff (the changes here do not appear to have been incorporated into later printings of the book). When published, the first printing with all of the errors (all of which are present here) was quickly recalled and pulped by the publisher, with only an estimated 10 to 50 copies surviving out of about 845 copies published.

This collection of essays is considered to be one of the definitive statements on what it means to be a modern Texan. McMurtry, already a published author, tried to have his New York publisher publish this collection, but they refused. McMurtry went to William Witliff at Encino Press, who agreed to publish it. The first printing was rife with nearly 60 errors, including the infamous "skycrapers" error. In 1969, University of Texas at Austin student Deborah Detering Pannill interviewed Witliff for a term paper, stating: "of the 845 copies bound before the error was realized, McMurtry kept 5, the Encino kept 8, and an attempt was made to destroy the rest...," but it was later discovered that more copies survived, with some estimates reaching 50 copies. The actual story behind the errors is a convoluted one, including one in which Witliff's normal typesetter was offended by the sexual language in an essay, "Eros in Archer County," and so Witliff had to use a Mexican typesetter, thus the errors snuck into the final result. Another story states that McMurtry was furious, especially with the farcical "skycrapers" error, but in later memoirs McMurtry remembers his interactions with Witliff fondly, and states that In a Narrow Grave "happened to be the best-designed book I’ll ever have. Bill Wittliff was reaching his peak as a book designer just about then..." According to Scott Brown, what actually happened is that Witliff didn't proofread as carefully as he normally did, and these errors simply got past him.  He had originally intended to remove the pages with errors from the books, replacing them with corrected pages, but later decided to just destroy the first printing and issue a corrected (second) printing. Whatever the reason, the first print of In a Narrow Grave is McMurtry's scarcest published title - this proof copy is even more rare, being one of only two such copies.

Wrappers and text a bit toned, most pages unopened, a few pages opened a bit roughly with some tears or chips, edges untrimmed. Fine.