No Country For Old Men Cormac McCarthy

Cormac McCarthy’s No Country for Old Men is a stark meditation on violence, fate, and moral reckoning, played out against the desolate borderlands of Texas and Mexico. At once a relentless thriller and a haunting elegy, it confronts the ties of love, blood, and duty that shape lives—and the brutal forces that unravel them.

The story begins when Llewelyn Moss, while hunting along the Rio Grande, comes upon the aftermath of a massacre: dead men, a cache of heroin, and over two million dollars in cash. Taking the money sets into motion a remorseless pursuit, led by the terrifying Anton Chigurh, a killer who decides life and death with the flip of a coin. As Moss struggles to protect himself and his wife from those who hunt him, Sheriff Bell—aging, weary, and disillusioned—watches the violence escalate and realizes he is powerless against a new breed of brutality that defies the old order.

Published on July 19, 2005, No Country for Old Men is Cormac McCarthy’s ninth novel. Upon its publication, the Washington Post called it, “profoundly disturbing and gorgeously rendered” while the Houston Chronicle hailed McCarthy as “nothing less than our greatest living author… No Country for Old Men is a cause for celebration.” The New York Times Book Review raved, “A narrative that rips along like hell on wheels, in a race with the devil on a stage as big as Texas.” Time magazine praised the novel as “expertly staged” and claimed, “It feels like a genuine diagnosis of the post-millennial malady, a scary illumination of the oncoming darkness.”

In 2007, the Coen brothers adapted the novel into a movie of the same name, which won four Academy Awards, including Best Picture.

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About The Edition

Our edition of No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy is presented in three states. The edition measures 6” x 9” and features ten color illustrations by world-renowned and multi-award-winning watercolor artist Joseph Zbukvic. The text pages are set in Monotype Garamont, and printed letterpress by Scott Vile on his Heidelberg cylinder press in Buxton, Maine on Cougar Natural, Neenah Cotton and mouldmade Arches Text Wove papers. The printing includes three passes through the press on the title page spread, and two passes on the half title, title, and chapter numbers. Interior design and typography by award-winning designer Jason Dewinetz.

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A Note on the Typography

Monotype Garamont, Frederic Goudy’s 1920s revival of Jean Jannon’s 17th-century type, carries within it not the serene balance of classical Garamond, but something more idiosyncratic and uneasy. Though rooted in Renaissance forms, Goudy’s Garamont is unmistakably his own: slopes that lean too far or not enough, proportions that feel just slightly off, and an overall rhythm that resists settling into harmony. It’s this subtle dissonance that makes it a strikingly apt choice for No Country for Old Men, a novel in which moral order unravels and violence intrudes on the ordinary. The typeface’s quiet wrongness mirrors the narrative’s sense of creeping dread—a visual undercurrent of unease that matches McCarthy’s stark prose and the story’s destabilizing meditation on chance, aging, and the end of an era.

The display type is a modified version of Brixton Wood. Its textured, carved appearance reminiscent of vintage woodblock prints, lends No Country for Old Men a weighty, tactile presence that mirrors the novel’s stark, unforgiving narrative. The typeface’s organic irregularities evoke the handmade signage of the American frontier, grounding the story in a mythic yet deteriorating landscape. Its bold width, especially when stretched across a two-page title spread, conveys a sense of inevitability and moral gravity—an imposing visual echo of the violence and fatalism that course through McCarthy’s prose.

The Artist edition is limited to seven-hundred fifty copies with a dust jacket illustrated by Joseph Zbukvic. It is a full cloth binding covered in Halflinnen with a foil blocked cover. Endsheets are Napura Khepera and the edition is housed in a paper covered slipcase with cloth ends. It is printed letterpress on Cougar Natural and is signed by Joseph Zbukvic.

The Numbered edition of two-hundred fifty copies is a full leather binding with the title blind debossed into the leather, across the entire cover using a heated die creating a deep, branded impression that darkens the surface and enhances the natural grain. The effect is raw and elemental, aligning with the stripped-down brutality of the narrative.

We have selected a distinctive vegetable-tanned leather from the renowned Badalassi Carlo Tannery in Tuscany, Italy. Known as “Pueblo,” this leather is hand-finished to achieve a uniquely distressed, almost sand-worn texture that evokes the parched desert landscapes and sun-beaten terrain of Cormac McCarthy’s borderland setting. The surface of the leather bears a subtle rugged grain, its visual irregularities and tonal depth suggesting scars and weathering that echo the characters of the novel.

Endsheet papers are Napura Khepera and head & tail bands are handmade with leather. The edition is housed in a clamshell enclosure covered in Dubletta cloth with velour lined trays. It is printed letterpress on Neenah Cotton paper and is signed by Joseph Zbukvic.

For our Lettered state of No Country for Old Men, we drew inspiration from renowned French bookbinder Jean de Gonet, whose innovative bindings reveal their structural elements—tapes, sewing, and spine linings—as intentional design features, blending functionality with raw visual impact.

In our edition, the spine and part of the boards are covered in a smooth, traditionally tanned goatskin, while the remainder of the panels feature a custom goat nubuck made specifically for this edition and which is brushed in two directions with a metal brush to achieve a distinctive surface texture. The exposed elements along the spine also serve as a quiet tribute to earlier editions of Cormac McCarthy that we have published, carrying forward a visual thread within this body of work.

The design as a whole conveys a sense of rugged functionality rather than polish, echoing the brutal landscape and stripped-down moral architecture of the novel. The asymmetry and expressive textures lend the book a sense of wear and exposure, as though it has endured the same harsh terrain as its characters. Like the story itself, the binding offers no ornament for its own sake—only the stark beauty of materials shaped by force and necessity. This unique binding is handcrafted by master bookbinder Jacek Tylkowski in Komorniki, Poland.

Limited to twenty-six copies, the edition is housed in a quarter leather clamshell enclosure with a rounded spine and European cloth sides. This state is printed letterpress on mouldmade Arches Text Wove paper and is signed by Joseph Zbukvic.

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Matching Numbers & Letters

A Matching Pre-Order email is sent to owners of our previous publication, Ratman’s Notebooks at 9:00 A.M. PT on the day of announcement. If you did not receive the email, contact us here. If your order is not received before the deadline, your designated number or letter will be assigned to the new owner.

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Order Limits

Please be aware of the order limits for our editions. You can read more about this in the Order Limits article on our support site.

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Eight of Ten Watercolor Illustrations by Joseph Zbukvic