We are very pleased to publish the author’s preferred text in our fine press edition of The Exorcist. This is the version I would like to be remembered for.” With forty years to think about it, a few little changes were inevitable - plus one new character in a totally new, very spooky scene. First time around I never had the time (meaning the funds) to do a second draft, and this, finally, is it. “This will have a touch of new material in it as part of an all-around polish of the dialogue and prose. On September 27, 2011, The Exorcist was re-released as a 40th Anniversary Edition in hardcover, paperback and audiobook featuring new and revised material. Friedkin’s new introduction chronicles the moments of inspiration that led Blatty to write the novel. Friedkin and Blatty formed a lifelong friendship, with Friedkin often referring to Blatty as “my brother,” and “the most spiritual man I ever met.” To both men, The Exorcist was not a horror story, but one of the great mystery of faith. The film, directed by William Friedkin, who has penned an exclusive introduction for this edition of the novel, would become a wildly successful motion picture, garnering ten Academy Award nominations.

Two years after its publication, The Exorcist, was adapted for the screen by Blatty. To do so, they must face a series of terrifying moments that will test not only their strength, but the very core of their faith. Overwhelmed but determined, they endeavor to rescue Regan from an unspeakable fate. When neither medical professionals nor psychiatrists can come to Regan’s aid, her mother enlists the assistance of two priests.

Inspired by a 1949 article in The Washington Post in which a Catholic priest recounts his experience performing the ritual of exorcism on a young child, William Peter Blatty’s groundbreaking novel details the demonic possession of eleven-year-old Regan MacNeil. Five decades later, the novel retains its power to possess readers with its raw and visceral prose. The book spent fifty-seven weeks on the New York Times bestseller list, seventeen consecutively at #1.

One of the most controversial novels ever written, The Exorcist was first published in June 1971, and would go on to become a cultural phenomenon. In celebration of the 50th anniversary of this iconic masterpiece of horror and paranormal suspense, Suntup Editions is delighted to announce a fine press limited edition of The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty.

The exorcist blatty